Winter Fishing in the Gulf: Trout, Reds, and Bridges Around New Orleans

Name’s Artificial Lure checking in with your Gulf of Mexico / New Orleans fishing report. We’re sliding into that winter pattern now. According to the National Weather Service marine forecast out of New Orleans, light to moderate north to northeast winds are holding across the sounds and outside to about 60 miles, with seas running 1 to 3 feet and a reinforcing cool, dry air mass behind the last front. That north breeze has the water pulling out of the marsh and clearing up just enough in the bays. Tides around New Orleans are on the small side but moving. NOAA’s tide station at New Canal on Lake Pontchartrain shows a nighttime high followed by a late‑morning low with only about a foot of range, so the best bite will be right when that water’s dumping out the ditches and trenasses. Over toward Shell Beach, Tides4Fishing shows a similar pattern: early low, strong mid‑day rise, so plan to fish two hours around those changes. Sunrise along the southeast Louisiana coast is right around 7 a.m., with sunset just after 5 p.m., giving you a tight dawn and dusk window. Solunar tables from FishingReminder put the major morning activity right after first light and then again near dark, so start early and stay late if you can. Fish activity’s been solid for December. Louisiana Sportsman is still talking up winter speckled trout in the Myrtle Grove Canal and across the Barataria system, and that pattern reaches right over to our side: specks stacked on shell and along deeper dead‑end canals once the sun gets up a bit. In Lake Pontchartrain, look for school trout and white trout on the bridges and along the south shore reefs; in the MRGO and Lake Borgne, nicer specks are holding off points with good current. Recent catches out of Shell Beach and Hopedale have been mixed boxes: 20–40 specks per boat when folks stay on the move, plus a half‑dozen keeper reds and the occasional flounder. Down Empire and Buras, crews sliding a little farther into the Gulf have been whacking bull reds and a few black drum on the rigs and rock piles. Nobody’s sinking limits every trip, but steady action if you work. Best offerings right now: - For trout: 3–4 inch soft plastics in glow, opening night, or watermelon on a 1/4‑ounce jighead, either tight‑lined or under a popping cork. A slow, twitch‑pause retrieve is key in this colder water. - For reds: gold spoons, spinnerbaits with a gold blade, or a shrimp imitation under a cork along grass edges and drains on a falling tide. - Live bait: live shrimp are still king when you can find them; otherwise, dead shrimp on a Carolina rig for drum and sheepshead, or cut mullet and crab chunks for bull reds around the jetties and nearshore rigs. Couple of hot spots to circle on your map: - **Lake Borgne / MRGO rocks and Shell Beach area** – Work the rocks and nearby points with plastics under corks for trout, then slide into the marsh pockets behind Shell Beach for reds once the sun’s up. - **Bayou Biloxi and the eastern Rigolet This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.