Early Summer Speckled Trout and Redfish Bite Heating Up Along Southeast Louisiana Coast

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your New Orleans Gulf fishing report. We’re sitting on a classic early-summer pattern along the southeast Louisiana coast. Light south to southeast breeze most of the day, around 5–10 knots, with air temps climbing from the low 70s into the upper 80s. Humidity’s thick, but the sky’s mostly fair with a chance of a quick Gulf shower midafternoon. Marine forecasts out of the New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain area call for 1–2 foot seas nearshore and a light chop in the sounds and bays. Sunrise came just after 6 a.m., with sunset due a little after 8 p.m., giving a long feeding window. The better bite has been tied to the moving water around the morning and late-afternoon tides. Expect a decent incoming tide through midmorning, slowing around midday, then another push toward evening. That moving water along points, drains, and shell is where you want to be. Speckled trout have been the headliners. Reports from local marinas and guides in Hopedale, Shell Beach, and out of Venice say boxes of 15–20 trout are pretty common on good days, with some crews limiting out when they hit the tide just right. Plenty of schoolie fish, with a few solid 18–20 inchers mixed in. Look to interior bays, reefs, and the edges of Lake Borgne, as well as the rigs and wellheads closer to the outside when the wind stays down. Redfish action has been steady in the marsh. Anglers poling in the Delacroix and Pointe à la Hache area are seeing good numbers of slot reds cruising shorelines and marsh pockets, with the occasional overslot bruiser. Drum and sheepshead are still hanging around the rocks and deeper bayous, and a few flounder have been showing on sandy points and cuts. For lures, keep it simple and local. Under a popping cork, 3–4 inch soft plastics in shrimp or glow/chartreuse have been putting a hurting on the trout. Early and late, topwater plugs in bone or chrome/blue have been getting explosive blowups over shell and along current lines. For reds, gold spoons, spinnerbaits with a white or chartreuse grub, and weedless paddle tails pitched tight to grass and pockets are hard to beat. Live bait is still king if you can get it. Live shrimp under a cork or freelined around rigs and reefs are drawing quick bites from trout, reds, and the odd tripletail. Cocahoe minnows and finger mullet are solid backups, especially around bayou mouths and deeper cuts. Cut mullet or crab on the bottom is producing bull reds and drum near passes and jetties. Couple of hot spots to circle for today: – The Hopedale–Shell Beach area: look to the MRGO rocks, Bay Eloi reefs, and lake edges where clean Gulf water is pushing in. Work the tide changes with popping corks and soft plastics or live shrimp. – The eastern New Orleans marsh and Delacroix: target wind-protected ponds and bayous off Oak River and Four Horse Lake for redfish, and mid-depth bayous for mixed trout and drum. Sight-fishing reds on the higher sun later in the morning can be excellent in clear ponds. Keep an eye on the weather radar for pop-up storms, watch that tide, and let the bait and birds tell you where the fish are staging. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a 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