Shore Thing Fishing Report, 5/1/2024

May 1, 2024

Spring has sprung in earnest! The baitfish are moving in, the water condition is improving, and it looks to be a great season on the Coast.
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- by Sonny Schindler, Shore Thing Fishing Charters

Triple reds for a lucky crew fishing with Capt. Keith Crawford down south in the Louisiana Marsh.

The spring weather is definitely upon us, and we are getting the good and the bad that goes with it. It looks like there will be episodes of heavy winds and rains. However, there is a silver lining. The water is steadily cleaning and warming up. Even though we are having to deal with some pretty stout winds, they are almost all from the south and southeast. If it is going to blow, this is the best wind we can get. The southerly winds push in the salty water and counteract any high river water that is occurring.
 

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A perfect sizes “puppy drum” caught in the Louisiana Marsh south of Bay St Louis.

 
On top of all of this, we are still putting some nice boxes of fish together. It seems every week the nearshore fishing just gets better and better. The waters to the west are still dirty from the Pearl River, but there are redfish and black drum to be caught over there. Fishing in Bay St Louis is still productive, with better action on an incoming tide or at the end of the high tide and beginning of the fall.
 
On the calmer days, our boats heading way to the south are still finding speckled trout with baitfish this week in very good numbers. We are starting to see good schools and finger mullet, rain minnows, and bay anchovy. The south winds should bring in big waves of shrimp. The live bait boats are doing all they can to keep up with the demand, but just about everywhere is selling out of live bait as fast as they can catch it.
 

Gary Becker of Diamondhead, Miss., with a nice speckled trout he caught with Capt. Darien Ladner out of Shaggy's Charter Dock in Pass Christian .

 
All signs are pointing toward a good year for flounder. We are not catching massive numbers of them, but we are seeing them steadily most everywhere we fish. This will make a big difference later in the year if they keep pouring in here like this.
 
We did not have a huge year on the big white trout last year. We found several areas where the white trout were holding in deeper holes in the Mississippi Sound and the Louisiana marsh. Hopefully it is a sign of things to come,
 

Rob Owens from Tennessee with a flounder he caught at Cat Island.

 
In regards to the big fish, we saw many bull reds, a few sharks, and several schools of Jack Crevalle around the barrier islands last week. This will only get better in the coming weeks. The big black drum are still hanging around as well if you want to tangle with some of these larger inshore fish.
 
It is also a stellar time to see some absolutely beautiful birds in our area. The ibis, herons, and roseate spoonbills are nesting in the Louisiana marsh. The migratory birds are just passing through the Barrier Islands and headed north. Just another reason to get out there and enjoy this wonderful spring weather.
 

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