We had more rain and choppy seas all due to unstable
weather conditions. A few anglers
got seasick.
The Spanish mackerel and little tunny
are
still on the bite at the
"M" reefs in 40 feet of water. The
catch is
that you need to net your own bait
before leaving the bay to do well with Spanish
mackerel. The pilchards are in the passes and
just big
enough to use a castnet on.
If you don't want Spanish
mackerel, you can still find
plenty of action on the "M" reefs
using larger bait (herring) that
you can catch with a gold hook rig on the way
out.
Little tunny, barracuda, jacks and some large
sharks have been feeding as fast as you
can get your bait in the water. Only an
occasional
shark, but we did see a 9' hammer
head!
You need to drift over the reef and free-line
your bait out. Close will not work! I have been
jumping
from "M1" to
"M5" for most of my action.
Permits up to 30 pounds have also been caught
on the "M" reefs. You will need to
use large live shrimp or small crabs for them.
Do not use a
steel leader, a 40-pound mono leader works
better.
Cobia have also been caught but
they do not stick around the reefs very
long. I
have seen some good catches of seatrout come in
from the north end of the bay using
live pigfish and fished on a float.
An occasional pompano,
bluefish, mackerel, snapper, redfish and
flounder has been found in some
of the day's catch. Live shrimp or pilchards
will work.
The fish are in the bay but
you need to work at it.
You can usually find a school of tarpon
rolling on the incoming tide around the New
Pass Bridge fender during mid-morning. It is
very hard to
get them to eat at this time of
day.
However, they are nice to
watch and
cast to.
Enjoy and
Protect
