December Fishing Forecast for New Orleans Gulf-Side Waters

This is Artificial Lure with your Gulf-side New Orleans fishing report. We’ve got a mild December pattern sitting over the city this morning. According to the National Weather Service marine forecast out of New Orleans, winds on Lake Pontchartrain and the nearshore Gulf have been running mostly east around 5–10 knots with one-foot chop or less, building a bit with passing showers later in the day. That light onshore flow has the water pushed up just enough to dirty the banks and get the bait moving. Sunrise around New Orleans is right at about 7 AM, with sunset near 5:05 PM. That first hour of light and the last hour before dark are your money windows today, especially when they line up with the moving tide along the bridges and marsh drains. New Canal Station on Lake Pontchartrain is showing modest tidal swing today, typical winter pattern, but enough rise and fall to matter along the MRGO, Hopedale, Shell Beach, and the outer marsh toward Black Bay, where current in the cuts does more than the posted tide height suggests. Inshore action east of town has stayed solid. Charter outfits like Cajun Outcast Inshore Charters out of Hopedale report steady boxes of redfish, speckled trout, sheepshead, and a few black drum coming off the marsh edges and rock-lined passes. Limits of keeper specks have been coming early on calmer days, with slot reds stacked in skinny ponds when the water’s up and in deeper bayous on falling water. Fish activity today should bump up around the stronger moving-tide windows and again on that late-afternoon low-light bite. Colder nights have the trout holding deeper over shell and along ledges in Lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain, while reds are hugging wind-protected shorelines with any clean pockets of water and bait flickering. Best baits and lures right now: - For speckled trout: *Soft plastics* on 3/8-ounce jigheads in shrimp, opening night, and chartreuse/UV colors, bumped slow near the bottom. A popping cork with a 18–24 inch leader and a shrimp imitation will still do work over shell flats when the wind lets you. - For redfish and drum: Gold spoons, quarter-ounce spinnerbaits with white or glow paddletails, and live or dead shrimp on a Carolina rig around cuts, drains, and broken marsh points. Sheepshead are piling on the same shrimp tight to structure. - For bridge trout on Pontchartrain: Heavier jigheads with Matrix-style shad tails in green hornet or avocado, worked down the pilings, are still the locals’ go-to. Hot spots to aim for today: - **Hopedale / Shell Beach corridor** – Work the bayou mouths dumping into Lake Borgne, as well as the MRGO rocks. Trout early on plastics, then slide shallower for reds as the sun climbs. - **The Rigolets and Highway 11 / Twin Span bridges** – Fish the down-current sides of the bridge pilings for specks and a mixed bag of drum and sheepshead, especially when that tide starts rolling. Fish slow, keep your presentation near the bottom, and don’t be afraid This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.