Early Summer Bite: Specks and Reds Stacked on the Inside with Incoming Tide

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your New Orleans fishing report for the waters in and around the Gulf. We’ve got a classic early-summer pattern setting up. Weather this morning along the Southeast Louisiana coast is warm and muggy, low 80s at daybreak, climbing into the high 80s and low 90s by mid‑afternoon with that typical Gulf humidity. Light south to southeast breeze early, around 5–10 knots, picking up a bit as the day goes on. A few pop‑up thunderstorms are likely after lunch, so keep an eye on the sky and your radar. Sunrise over the New Orleans area comes a little after 6 AM, with sunset a bit after 8 PM, giving you a long window to play the tide changes. Tides around the Mississippi River delta and the inside marsh are running a modest range today: a low tide right around daybreak in many spots, and a steady incoming through mid‑morning, peaking late morning to early afternoon, then easing off toward evening. That early incoming water is your best friend for inshore action. Fish activity has been solid the past few days. Local guides out of Hopedale, Shell Beach, and Delacroix have been bringing in good boxes of **speckled trout**, **redfish**, and a mix of **white trout** and **sheepshead**. Talk around the marinas is limits or near‑limits of specks when anglers hit the reefs early and stick with moving water. Slot reds are stacked along grass edges and in the ponds, with a few bigger bulls roaming the outer bays and near passes. Offshore, when weather allows, boats making it out of Venice and Grand Isle have reported steady **red snapper** and **mangrove snapper**, plus a few **cobia** and scattered **mahi** farther out around rigs and rips. Snapper bite has been best on days with lighter current and early‑day runs before the heat really settles in. Best lures and baits right now: For speckled trout: – 3–4 inch soft plastics on 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jigheads, in colors like opening night, glow, and chartreuse. – Popping corks with shrimp‑ or minnow‑style plastics underneath, popped slow over shell reefs and along channel edges. – Live shrimp or croakers under a cork when you can get them, especially once the sun gets higher. For redfish: – Gold spoons slow‑rolled along grasslines and over broken shell. – Weedless paddle‑tail plastics in darker colors like purple/chartreuse or blue moon worked tight to the bank. – Cut mullet, live or dead shrimp on the bottom near drains and points for those less picky, hard‑pulling fish. Offshore: – For snapper and cobia, use cut pogies, squid, or live hardtails and pinfish dropped to structure. – Vertical jigs and bucktail jigs tipped with bait, worked around rigs and wrecks, are producing some bonus fish. A couple of hot spots to keep on your radar: – **Lake Borgne and the MRGO area**: Shell pads, rigs, and the MRGO rocks are holding good numbers of trout early on the incoming tide. Drift and fan‑cast with plastics; when you find them, stick a marker and work that patch. – **Delacroix marsh and outer bays**: Look for clean moving water along points and cuts. Reds are cruising shallow ponds; specks are hanging where the ponds dump into larger bayous. Work those drains when the tide’s pushing bait. If you’re willing to make the haul, rigs out of **Venice** in 100–200 feet have been steady for snapper when seas lay down, especially fishing just off the structure instead of right on top of it to pick off the less pressured fish. That’s the word from the water. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn