Shore Thing Fishing Report, 11/20/2024

November 20, 2024

Strong winds and rough seas have kept the boats in port - but when windows of opportunity appear, the fishing is outstanding!

- by Sonny Schindler, Shore Thing Fishing Charters

Cutlassfish, aka “ribbon fish,” have invaded Bay St. Louis. Harmless, beautiful, and terrifying all in one!

Our boats have not been out much the last several days. We had only a few gaps of fishable weather between the high winds and rains. Long story short: weather bad, fishing good. What we need is a stable pattern where we have one or two days of a front coming down and four or five days of decent weather. One can only dream.

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Mr. Steve Creel with a nice flounder he caught in Bay St. Louis.

 
In the meantime, on calmer days, we have been heading south to the Louisiana marsh. The fish are still feeding well in the fall pattern. The majority of our time is spent drifting over oyster reefs in 3 to 5 feet of water. We give each stop about five minutes. You will know when you have drifted over the right reef. We are still seeing a few of those gargantuan sheepshead mixed in with the speckled trout.
 

Phil and Joyce Benson with a perfect-sized redfish they caught near Waveland.

 
Even though they have been a little hard to come by, if you can get your hands on some live shrimp, I would strongly recommend bringing them. They definitely help find the fish. Once you get them rolling, you can switch over to a soft plastic. I have been using the matrix plastic shrimps and they have been working very well underneath a boat monkey popping cork.
 
The only good thing about the wind this time of year is that it mostly has a northern hint to it. This allows us to fish near shore in the Bay and over near Lake Borgne. There is still good fishing to be had there.
 

A very happy young fella with a big trout he caught in the Louisiana marsh on a live shrimp.

 
Even though we did not see many flounder this past week, there should be a good wave of them coming through. However, the redfish and the white trout have been the best thing going in close. Even though they are not edible, the wave of ribbon fish (cutlassfish) that we are seeing has been somewhat scary and entertaining. They are both beautiful and terrifying. These almost snake like creatures usually push in when the salinity is very high, as it is right now.
 
We are letting the weatherman call the shots right now. Please be careful and do your best to get out there on the days between the fronts. The fish are definitely there; we just need more of those pretty calm days to go get them.
 

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