Grand Isle Cobia & Hopedale’s Early Fall Trout Bite
Welcome to this week’s Louisiana Delta Fishing Report, covering New Orleans, Venice, Hopedale/Delacroix, Grand Isle, Houma, and everywhere in between. Host Andre’ Savoie talks with Capt. Joey Lemoine of Cast on the Other Side Charters about improving fall fishing around Grand Isle, including bigger speckled trout, strong mangrove snapper action, and an unusually good cobia bite close to shore. Andre’ also talks with Capt. Shawn Mitchell of SaltyFrog Fishing Charters about trout and redfish transitioning into early fall patterns around Hopedale, Delacroix, the Biloxi Marsh, and Breton Sound.
Capt. Joey explains why September and October can produce some of the best fishing of the year around Grand Isle as water temperatures begin to cool and fishing pressure drops. Speckled trout are getting larger following the recent full moon, with fish holding along beaches, oyster reefs, artificial reefs, rock piles, and areas with moving current. Joey has been fishing mostly artificial baits, including Marker 54 shrimp and Matrix Shad under Four Horsemen popping corks, while croakers fished on the bottom, freelined, or on Carolina rigs remain a strong live-bait option. Nearshore, mangrove snapper have been both plentiful and good-sized, and cobia have been especially thick around rigs three to 10 miles from shore. Joey says some rigs have been holding multiple cobia at a time, with several fish around the 50-pound mark caught this year.
Capt. Shawn breaks down an early fall transition already underway around Hopedale and the Biloxi Marsh as white shrimp begin moving out of interior ponds and speckled trout follow them toward the inside. After an excellent summer that produced trout in the 24- to 27-inch range, he expects the fishing to continue improving from mid-September through Thanksgiving. Small shrimp imitations such as Mojo Shrimp and Marker 54 Shrimplets under popping corks are his preferred trout presentations, while redfish are concentrating around drains, shorelines, and interior lagoons where shrimp are leaving the marsh. For reds, Shawn recommends a shorter cork leader matched to the water depth with a 1/8-ounce chartreuse jighead and live shrimp. He also discusses a growing tripletail opportunity around crab traps and poles on the northeast side of the Biloxi Marsh, unusually salty water bringing species such as mangrove snapper farther into the marsh, and why the first cold front that drops water temperatures just four or five degrees can be enough to trigger trout and redfish to begin their fall movement.
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