June 17, 2026
Gulf of Mexico Summer Bite: Trout, Reds, and Moving Water Around New Orleans
This is Artificial Lure with your Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans fishing report.
Light south breeze this morning, muggy and warm along the Orleans and St. Bernard marsh. National Weather Service marine forecast is calling for 5–10 knot south to southeast winds, seas 1–2 feet nearshore, building a bit in the afternoon with scattered showers and summertime thunderstorms popping up after lunch. Keep an eye on the sky and your radar.
Tides around Shell Beach and Hopedale are on a decent moving cycle, with an early morning incoming, then a falling tide late morning through early afternoon. NOAA tide tables show about a foot of range today, enough current to stack bait on points, passes, and drains. That moving water is what’s turning the bite on.
Sunrise is right around 6 a.m. local, with sunset close to 8 p.m., so you’ve got a long light window, but the best action has been early and late. Midday has been slow and sticky unless you tuck into deeper passes or chase birds over shrimp schools.
In the last couple days, local marinas and guide docks from Shell Beach to Delacroix have been reporting solid boxes of **speckled trout**, mixed **white trout**, plenty of redfish, and a few mangrove snapper out near the rigs in the outer sounds. Most inshore boats are bringing in 20–40 trout when they hit the tide right, plus 3–8 slot reds, with an occasional bull on cut bait. Some decent sheepshead are still hanging around rock piles and pilings for anyone soaking shrimp.
For **trout**, the go‑to setup has been:
- Live shrimp under a popping cork, 2–3 feet of leader, over shell or on the edges of bays and passes.
- Soft plastics like Matrix Shad, Down South, or Vudu-style paddletails in chartreuse, opening night, and glow, on 1/8–1/4 oz jigheads, bounced through the water column on the falling tide.
- Topwaters at first light around cleaner shorelines and current lines; Speckled Trout have been crushing bone and chrome walkers when there’s a little chop.
For **redfish**, focus on:
- Gold spoons and weedless paddle tails in dirty water along grass lines and broken marsh.
- Live or dead shrimp, or chunks of mullet and pogie, on a Carolina rig in deeper cuts and bayou mouths.
- In clearer ponds, sight‑fishing with natural-colored soft plastics or small spinnerbaits has been producing upper-slot fish.
Best baits right now are live shrimp, cocahoes, and finger mullet, but if bait’s hard to find, a bag of good plastics and a couple topwaters will still get you bit.
A couple of **hot spots** to circle on your map:
- **Hopedale / MRGO Rocks / Bayou La Loutre**: Trout have been stacked on the upcurrent sides of the rocks and on points where bayous dump into outer bays. Fish the moving water with shrimp under a cork and plastics on the drop-offs. Redfish are cruising the broken marsh just inside.
- **Lake Borgne edges into Biloxi Marsh**: Work the north and east shorelines and any shell-bottom points. Watch for birds working shrimp schools; when they dip, slide in quietly and throw plastics or small spoons for fast trout and white trout action.
If you’re heading a bit farther, the rigs and wellheads outside of Breton Sound and Black Bay have been giving up nicer trout plus some snapper and tripletail around the structure for those soaking live bait or jigging.
Stay hydrated, respect those pop-up storms, and remember: moving water, good bait, and clean edges are your three best friends this week.
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
