LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter a long, cold and windy winter, May could not get here fast enough. One of the best times of year to fish the Mississippi Gulf Coast has got to be the month of May. The hard south winds from April have been pushing warm salty into our fishing grounds. Look for the barrier islands (Ship, Cat, etc) to be full of speckled trout, red fish and many other tasty hard fighting critters. Drifting the grass beds early in the morning and late in the afternoon will draw strikes from some of the biggest specks seen all year. If you are in a boat, just be courteous to other fisherman and wade fishermen. Watch for the schools of bait(mullet, pogies, minnows, shrimp), the diving birds will usually give them away. Focus your casts in the areas that have the most bait. Live bait will work well, but simple soft plastic(Matrix Vortex Shad or Savage 3D Shrimp) rigged 18 inches under a Boat Monkey popping cork will work great. Topwater baits like the Zara Spook, Top Dog, and Skitter Walk will get heart pounding strikes all month long.
Our fleet will spending half of their time fishing between Cat Island and the Louisiana Marsh. The bait and warm water will have huge schools of trout from Isle Au Pitre to Comfort Island. Most calm days, you can watch the sea gulls and showering bait to locate your fish. The only trick will be finding the schools with keeper sized trout in them. Some days the 10 to 11 inch trout will be like piranhas. If you are not putting keeper fish in the box, just keep moving till you find them. We will be focusing most of our efforts over shell bottoms in waters to 4 to 8 feet deep. It is hard to beat a Carolina rigged shrimp, mullet or croaker over shells.
Every May the triple tail will be begin showing up. The warmer it gets, the more fish we see. Don’t be surprised to see a cobia under the buoys or floating debris either. Anything floating is worth checking, just throw em a live shrimp and don’t hit them on the head.
The near shore reefs will hold plenty of fish too. Some days you can catch all the trout, reds, and black drum a few hundred yards from the beach. These structures see a lot of boat traffic, so please be kind to other boaters. If you absolutely have to fish close to another boater, approach quietly. Use the wind or your trolling motor to get in place. Just ease your anchor over the side, throwing it in just scares the fish and makes enemies. We normally focus our casts in the breaks and points where the water is moving.
Anytime is a great time to take a kid fishing, but May is at the top of the list. The weather is warm but not too hot. The action is normally very consistent, so no one gets bored, and the weather is usually fantastic. As always, have fun and be safe.