by Ron The Pirate
Winter on the Mississippi Gulf Coast means that we have at least a few warm and sunny days every week. Experienced Coastal Anglers know how to take advantage of a fine day. Now a perfect time to ease out on a pier to fish. Its not crowded and there are fish to be caught. Its also a good time to walk the banks or fish near the inlets if you can. This time of year fishing from a bank or pier is infinitely preferable to fishing from a boat. You can walk to the car, load up gear, get warm and dry out. Nothing is quite so fun as loading up a boat during a winter rain storm.
Speckled trout are still being caught in the bayous and off piers. The quantity of speckled trout caught still seem to be small from most reports I have received. The sizes of speckled trout over all seems to be improving. The largest speckled trout still appear to be caught off the Biloxiboard walk area. White trout continue to be caught in good numbers, when schools can be located. Redfish are still being taken occasionally in shallow water. Overall its slow fishing for these species right now.
Now for the good news. Sheepshead have been biting like crazy. They can be found roughly in 6 feet of water. Sheepshead ,when you locate them, are hitting all day but the fastest bite last week was when the tide was coming in. The mouth of Graveline Bayou has been filled with huge sheepsheads. Shrimp is the best bait right now and peeling the shrimp before hooking made the action even faster.
Black drums have moved into the bay and bayous in very large numbers. Many times black drums are congregated withsheepsheads. Fishing action with black drums can be fast and furious. Black drums can grow huge and can fight like screaming demons. There just plain fun to sink a hook into. I would suggest taking at least one rod and reel rigged with heavy line. Bottom line is your going to need a lot of shrimp both frozen and live. The worst thing for a coastal angler is to run out of bait while fishing(it happened to me last week and I wasn’t happy).
It’s still winter and coastal anglers are toughing it out. I’m Ron and I’m all about fishing