re: Fishing Chef Menteur

Haven't lived in Louisiana in over 10 years however I grew up on Irish Bayou. In general the bass/trout/red fishing is good in the marshes around the Chef. For the Chef itself I liked to fish near the mouth (either) and would drift along the drop off into the pass. I would move the drifts around until you find fish then either anchor if they are concentrated or just drift the same area if they are scattered. If you have sonar you can follow the channel out into the lake a decent bit.

For live/dead bait drifting I would use a three way swivel with a flouro leader to the hook and some light mono to the sinker so it could break off it gets stuck. Typically I would switch to casting artificial when near the shoreline.