Mississippi’s Gulf Coast

Redfish, cobia, tarpon, speckled trout and other species

Editor’s Note: Kenny Bellais, the captain of Fish-On Charters out of Biloxi’s Point Cadet Marina, fishes both inshore and offshore.

Red minnows will be in this month, as well as bull tarpon, redfish, cobia, king mackerel and Spanish mackerel.

Tarpon

We catch a lot of tarpon around the bend in the Gulfport Channel. We have to slow the boat down quite a bit to catch them, and we jump many more tarpon than we bring to the boat.

We use a large spoon, 50-pound-test main line and 18-foot-long 100-pound monofilament leader.

Generally, we start catching tarpon about the middle of July, but they have been late showing up this year. We expect a strong run in late August and September for tarpon that will weigh 50-100 pounds.

You’ll hook many-more tarpon than you’ll land, but they will put on shows in the air for you.

Cobia

We also have a good chance of catching cobia at this time of year, as they make their return trip from the west and head back to south Florida.

We hope to catch two or three cobia, but we usually see more than we catch — although we have caught nine before in one day.

The biggest we know of in this area was caught at the end of July and weighed about 96 pounds.

On this return cobia migration, we fish strictly live bait. Remember, these cobia have come along Mississippi’s coast in the spring of the year, moving toward the mouth of the Mississippi River. During the spring run, they’ve seen numbers of lures.

So, I feel like if you’re not fishing with live bait in September, you’re not really going to catch cobia.

My favorite baits and the ones the cobia like the best are live golden croakers and live pinfish.

We don’t fish any eels or saltwater catfish in September.

Speckled trout

Generally the speckled-trout bite is good in September, but we have good catches of speckled trout all summer long here.

As we move into the fall, the bite should be even better, and the trout should be even bigger — particularly around the beaches in about 5- to 6-foot-deep water.

My favorite place to fish is Cat Island or its outer edges, using a 1/4-ounce white grub about 18-inches below a popping cork.

We’re expecting to catch trout weighing 3 to 4 pounds using two techniques.: We fish down the shoreline, and we also look for the working birds.

We find more and bigger trout on the Gulf of Mexico side of Cat Island than we do on the bay side.

The good news about trout fishing this month is that, since school and football have started, fewer people are fishing.

Both the trout and the redfish seem to be abundant. We generally can catch a limit of trout for every one of our fishermen, and often double-down and catch a limit of slot reds.

Redfish

We expect to catch numbers of bull reds, too, when we’re fishing on the Gulf side of Cat Island in September.

One of the advantages we have is that the schools of redfish are plentiful. You only can keep one bull red per person, so we try to go some places where we also can catch slot reds.

Flounder

We haven’t seen as many flounder as we ordinarily do at this time of the year, but we’re still catching some around the jetties. I believe the flounder will be late this year, but we definitely should see an increase in their numbers by the end of September.

Fish caught while trolling

The fish most of our people are catching on the trolling trips are redfish, tarpon, Spanish mackerel and king mackerel.

Spanish mackerel usually will bite here until the water starts getting cold. We catch the Spanish mackerel using silver or gold trolling Clark Spoons.

If we plan to target king mackerel, we use a feather duster with a bonito strip. Often we mix-up our spread and have baits out for both Spanish and king mackerel at the same time. We’re fortunate that in September we’ll often catch king mackerel weighing 15 to 20 pounds close to shore.

Tripletails

We primarily fish around the buoys in the Pascagoula Channel and the Gulfport Channel. Usually on the way out and the way back to either offshore or inshore fishing, we check the buoys for tripletails.

Mississippi has an 18-inch limit on tripletails, so the fish we catch have to be at least 3 to 5 pounds. But we have caught tripletails up to 20 pounds under these buoys with live shrimp.

At this time of the year, we’re doing a lot of sight-fishing, since cobia and tripletails are two fish you often can see before you cast to them. Come, and join us in September.

To fish with Capt. Kenny Bellais, go to www.fishoncharters.net or call 228-617-4665.