Five great summer fishing trips to Mississippi’s Gulf Coast

Get beyond specks, reds, and open up a new world of fish that can be tasty, hard-fishing and both.

Summer on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast offers a lot of action for fishermen, a variety that far exceeds the listings on most seafood restaurants’ menus.

That statement covers just the fish you’d consider edible: speckled trout and reds, snapper and grouper, cobia and triggerfish, mackerel and tripletail.

Plus, there are my favorites: mullet and flounder.

There’s so much more, if you’re open to catch-and-release.

Boy, there’s so much more.

“Until you have spent a day parked behind a moored, working shrimp boats, picking through the night’s catch, you don’t know just how much fun you can have fishing,” said Michael Ray of Biloxi. “You might catch one or two fish you’d want to eat, but you’ll catch so many other fish in between that you won’t have time to fret about it.

“Or even care.”

Sounds like your kind of action? Does to me, and that makes it a perfect way to start our look at five fishing trips the summer offers. Let’s get going.

Take lots of line

Ray starts his search for his shrimp boats at the break of day, and his boat is full of bass-type gear, cut bait and spools, spools and spools of line.

“Thousands of yards,” he said. “You’ll need it.”

He often launches in the dark, before 5 a.m., to be across Mississippi Sound, to the barrier islands, well before daylight.

King mackerel will hit lures and spoons trolled around oil rigs and deeper wrecks.
King mackerel will hit lures and spoons trolled around oil rigs and deeper wrecks.

“Shrimpers most often will stop, anchor and start picking through their catch at daylight,” Ray said. “They trawl all night while it’s cool and then sort the catch as soon as the sun is up before it gets hot. They’re not stupid. When the heat arrives, they want to be inside the air-conditioned cabins sleeping so they can be ready to run nets again at night.”

The by-catch of shrimping — stuff tossed over by the shrimpers — starts a chain-reaction feeding frenzy that attracts sportfish, especially bonito, aka false albacore, and jack crevalle.

“Oddly enough, that’s the two species we target,” Ray said. “We release every one of them, unless we need one or two for cutting bait — maybe to take home and prepare for our next trip. Bonito average between 8 and 14 pounds but can get to 20 or 25, and (they) are like tiny rockets. Jack crevalle are bigger, upwards to 35 and 40 pounds. They’re just brutes and are the reason why you need a lot of line. A big one will spool you on his first run and never look back.

“I had an old friend who’s no longer with us, who had his boat rigged just for this type of fishing. He was an old-timer who introduced me to this kind of fishing. At the front of his cockpit, right behind his small cuddy cabin, he had this homemade rack that worked like a vertical paper-towel dispenser. It held two 3,000-yard bulk spools of 12- or 14-pound mono, and when he’d get spooled, he was ready again in a couple of minutes. He taught me to use a different color backing line, of heavier poundage, and to tie a very weak knot about 30 yards off the spool. When he saw the backing start going out the rod, he’d tighten up and force a break at the weak knot. That way, he would be able to tie quickly to the backing, reel on a new spool of line and be back casting in two minutes.”

That was decades ago, long before the advent of modern braided line available in lighter classes.

“A lot of people switched to braid, but it’s tough on light equipment when you have a 30- or 40-pound fish,” Ray said. “We still use mono and take the bulk spools, and we’ve switched from baitcasting reels to high-volume spinning reels. The lighter the tackle you can use, the more fun you will have.”

Bonita, aka false albacore, are sleek but inedible members of the tuna family that can put up quite a reel-screaming fight on light- to medium-action tackle.
Bonita, aka false albacore, are sleek but inedible members of the tuna family that can put up quite a reel-screaming fight on light- to medium-action tackle.

In recent years, a few guides have started offering shrimp-boat trips, including some catering to fly-fishing. A feeding frenzy on the surface creates a perfect fly-fishing opportunity.

Ray said on a normal weekday morning, he can find three to five working shrimp boats anchored either inside the barrier islands or on the south side.

“You move around until you find the right one holding the most fish and hit it until the action slows,” he said. “Then, you move to the next one. Some of the shrimpers don’t like you being close, but we offer them some cold sodas or beer or maybe a sandwich, and that generally works. Some of them will also trade you for chum for bait, and if you want, you can buy shrimp from them, which helps offset the fact that 90 to 95 percent of what you catch you can’t eat.”

Besides jacks, bonitos and sharks, you might hook a stray red, a cobia (if deep water, like a channel, is nearby) or a tripletail, which are very rare.

“That’s just a bonus to the fun you’ll have with the trash fish,” Ray said. “And trust me, you’ll be having a ball.”

Flounder: Flat-out tasty

Of course, there’s a lot to be said for edible fish, too, and for a lot of folks, that means flounder.

“Best there is,” said Mollie Jenkins, 80, of Gulfport, who goes to the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo over every July 4 holiday to see all the fish in the viewing bins. “You can keep the tuna, the trout and the reds, but I’d fight you over a flounder. I’d probably fight your over red snapper, too, but I don’t like the water enough to go out that far.”

Flounder will hang around riprap banks, around places where they can lay on the bottom, waiting for current to bring a meal past their noses.
Flounder will hang around riprap banks, around places where they can lay on the bottom, waiting for current to bring a meal past their noses.

Jenkins does all her fishing from piers and bridges and off the beaches from her nephew’s small fishing boat. She catches a lot of delectable species, including a few flatfish, puppy (black) drum, reds and ground mullet. But when the moon goes full, she gets wet.

“We like to go gigging for flounder,” Jenkins said. “The full moons in the summer, July through September, that’s when we go two or three nights in a row from about 10 (p.m.) until 2 (a.m.).”

Robert Earl McDaniel, who runs the Whip-a-Snapa offshore charterboat, is another flounder fanatic. He makes a living chasing snapper and cobia, but he keeps peace at home catching flounder.

“Wife’s favorite, no doubt,” he said. “If she hears me passing up a flounder bite, I’m in the doghouse. Whenever I get the chance, I will check a few of my flounder holes around my charters, like when I’m needing bait and go fishing for white trout or croakers for snapper or cobia bait. I’ve got a few places that are pretty dependable for flounder, and they are very close by and easy to get to.”

Casinos and the many riprap banks that have been built on the Gulf side as breakwaters for marinas have created some of McDaniel’s hottest spots.

“Shrimp, fished about 2 feet below a cork, is all you need,” he said. “I like to look for any little breaks in the rocks where current comes through. That’s where flounder will lay, waiting for the current to bring them a meal. I make a stop or two and usually get what I need to make Mama happy.”

The snapper tradition

Historically, Mississippi’s Gulf Coast charterboat industry was based on red snapper, but those days — quite controversially — are gone and are likely never to return. Only a few captains are still devoted to them, McDaniel being one of them.

The first segment of Mississippi’s red snapper season closes July 8, then the second segment runs July 28-Sept. 2.
The first segment of Mississippi’s red snapper season closes July 8, then the second segment runs July 28-Sept. 2.

“They have cut our seasons and cut our limits, but there’s still a mystique about catching red snapper that keeps customers coming back year after year, even if it’s only for two fish per person,” he said. “With that limit, you want to catch the biggest you can find, and that’s what I try to do. If I find the right oil rig or wreck holding fish, we can limit out pretty quickly.

“That’s why I keep track of where the mangrove (gray) snapper are holding. They are just as good to eat, they just aren’t as big as the reds. They are generally caught higher in the water column, too, and on less bulky rods and reels. The limit is 10 per person, so that can help fill a box after we’ve hit the red snapper.”

Mangrove snapper also offers more days of opportunity for anglers. Mississippi’s 2019 red snapper season is in two parts, with a break in July. The season opened in May and will close on July 8, reopen on July 28, and continue through Labor Day or until the gulf-wide quota is reached.

“We can still catch gray snapper during that time,” McDaniel said. “There is no season on them.”

Cobia, tripletail: Seek cover

We can combine these two species, since both are related to structure and/or cover, and either can often be found while actually searching for the other — especially if the structure being searched is a channel marker

“If your path across the Mississippi Sound takes you past the Gulfport shipping channel, I highly suggest you make a pass close to all the red and green markers,” said Capt. Sonny Schindler of Shore Thing Charters. “The water in the channel is deep enough to hold cobia, and the water adjacent to it is shallower and can hold tripletail.

“Either way, on a hot, summer day, you can check those channel markers on the fly, which keeps you cooler. It’s something we often do on our way in from speck and red trips. Just a bonus opportunity.”

When it pays off, either in a cobia or a tripletail, it means fun action and delicious eating.

Fishermen need to be ready for both, which means a heavy rod for cobia and something a little smaller for tripletail. The cobia rod usually has a live baitfish (white trout, clipped hardhead catfish, etc.) while the tripletail rod has a live shrimp — the bigger the better.

“But I’ve got a buddy who uses a fly rod and has caught both on the same day on the same rod and fly,” Schindler said.

A key is having a fine eye for spotting fish, since you are often doing it on the run. Look for shadows on the shady side of the marker poles. A cobia’s brown back and a tripletail’s black body appear as shadows.

“Turn around and approach from downcurrent, and get the bait to them,” Schindler said. “Cobia are curious and aren’t easily spooked. If they think they can get a meal, they won’t leave. On a tripletail, be more stealthy.”

Cobia can be found hanging out below channel markers and cast to by anglers.
Cobia can be found hanging out below channel markers and cast to by anglers.

Both can also be spotted swimming under a sea turtle, so, as Schindler says, “always check them out. Same with any kind of floating debris.”

Shore Thing and other coastal charter services have incorporated tripletail chasing into their normal daily speckled trout and red charters.

“What makes them so attractive is that in the summer, on those really hot still days, that’s when they are easiest to catch around crab-trap buoys,” Schindler said. “Crabbers set their traps in long, straight lines so they are easier to run. That gives us a course to run and look for tripletail on our way in from trout and red trips in the marsh. It’s a great bonus to pick up a tripletail or two on the way in.”

Cobia fishermen, by the same token, never pass up an oil rig or old wreck to check for a cruising brownback.

“You’d be foolish not to check,” McDaniel said. “I still think the best way to catch a summer cobia is to chum next to an oil rig, but playing hit and run on the way by any structure is a great idea.”

Holy Mackerel

King mackerel are a fun fish to catch, with reel-screaming action that can challenge any angler.

“I still love catching kings, and I try it as often as I can in the summer,” said John Travis of Ocean Springs. “When I go snapper fishing in the summer, I always keep a couple of trolling rigs on the deck and make a few laps around a rig trying to hook a king.

“As for shear excitement, I don’t know if there’s a fish out there that can match it on light to medium-light tackle. I know a lot of people don’t like eating kings, but they don’t realize that smoked king mackerel makes better smoked fish dip than more expensive tuna. We use it for that, and we use it for fish cakes, too.”

Kings are often caught trolling in the same waters south of the barrier islands that produce reds and Spanish mackerel, but most of them are caught on oil rigs and deeper wrecks.

“We troll live baits and we troll big spoons and other lures,” Travis said. “On a good day, we’ll have 10 to 12 hookups and catch maybe one or two. On a great day, we’ll catch more than we want to clean, so we let them go.

“Kings are just a great way to add to any Gulf fishing trip in the summer. It’s getting tough now with tighter limits and tighter seasons, so anything we can do, like adding a king to a day of snapper or cobia fishing, is gravy.”

Obviously, Mississippi will always be a state where speckled trout and redfish will rule the coastal action, and they also get the lion’s share of attention in the media.

Just don’t forget about all the other action; you’ll be glad you didn’t.

About Bobby Cleveland 1343 Articles
Bobby Cleveland has covered sports in Mississippi for over 40 years. A native of Hattiesburg and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Cleveland lives on Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson with his wife Pam.