Shore Thing Fishing Report, 8/30/2023

August 30, 2023

Being a good fisherman means knowing the signs to watch for - like 200 pelicans diving on a school of baitfish!

- by Sonny Schindler, Shore Thing Fishing Charters

Joe from St. Louis, Missouri with a big bull shark he caught near Cat Island.

We have been doing a little better on the speckled trout this week. With the heat, though, it is still the same plan: Get there early and fish deep. Almost all of our good bites have been in water six to 12 feet deep, and we are usually done by around 9 a.m.
 

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 We had a lot of people on the boats the past few days that have really wanted to tangle with the big fish. Luckily, the big bull reds made a huge showing. The plan we are using for them is to find big schools of pogies, and the easiest way to locate these schools of baitfish is to look for the diving pelicans.
 

Oleskii Petrushanko from Ukraine, now living in McGee, Miss. with a huge bull redfish caught in the Louisiana Marsh south of Waveland.

 
We fished one school of diving pelicans over pogies this week, and there must have been over 200 diving birds. The easiest thing to do is to throw a cast net amongst the splashing pogies, get a couple dozen, get them back out on the big rods, and hang on.
 

Happy crew with another nice redfish caught near Pass Christian with Captain Keith Crawford.

 
I have been using my Okuma Coronado 65s for this. This spinning reel has a bait feeder option which makes life very, very easy. You set the bait feeder on free spool; when a big bull red hits it, you start reeling, and the 8/0 circle hook does its job. Find the bait and find the fish.
 

Evan Nelson from Birmingham, Alabama, with a big speckled trout near Bay St. Louis.

 
We did see some very nice tripletails these last few days. With this hot water, these fish should also stick around for the next several weeks.
 
Typically, after Labor Day, the crowds on the water really thin out. College football, NFL, dove, duck, and deer season take a lot of pressure off the fish. It will still be hot but a lot less crowded out there.
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