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This week’s Louisiana Delta Fishing Report features host Andre’ Savoie with two late-summer reports that show how salty water, abundant bait, and the first signs of fall movement are shaping the fishery across southeast and southwest Louisiana. The episode starts with Capt. Danny Hunter of New Orleans Best Charters, who is catching speckled trout in the Biloxi Marsh while adding tripletail and redfish opportunities to the ride home toward Slidell.
Andre’ then talks with Jerry Cottrell of JBF Kayak Charters about targeting trophy speckled trout from a kayak. At the time of the interview, Jerry was sitting in second place in his CCA Louisiana STAR trout division with a 6.16-pound fish and was preparing for a final push before the tournament ended.
The common theme is that anglers should pay close attention to salinity, bait, water temperature, depth, and migration routes. Danny is finding productive late-summer fishing around oyster reefs and shorelines, while Jerry is concentrating on passes and major bayous that act like highways for trout beginning their seasonal move.
Conditions Recap
Late-summer heat is still a major factor, but the water across much of coastal Louisiana remains unusually salty. Danny says the salty conditions are obvious around Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, where dolphins and jack crevalle have been showing up and shrimp are exceptionally abundant. The lack of major tropical systems has also helped keep the broader pattern relatively stable.
In the Biloxi Marsh, trout are still holding around oyster reefs in the saltier outside water. Danny expects September to begin changing that pattern as sharks become more aggressive around hooked trout, eventually pushing him toward other dependable fall options such as sheepshead around bridges.
Jerry is also seeing the early stages of a fall transition. He noted a roughly five-degree drop in water temperature after a recent weather change and believes another small temperature decline could accelerate the trout migration. For kayak anglers, passes, deep bayous, and other corridors with direct access to the Gulf are becoming increasingly important.
Lake Pontchartrain and Biloxi Marsh Fishing Report: Capt. Danny Hunter
Capt. Danny Hunter fishes from the Slidell area and regularly crosses Lake Borgne to reach the Biloxi Marsh. Although many anglers are ready for the summer heat to end, Danny considers June through September one of his favorite stretches of the year because of the consistent trout fishing available around the marsh’s oyster reefs.
The basic trout pattern remains straightforward. Danny is fishing open-water oyster reefs with popping corks and artificial baits, and he says even a slight breeze can make the heat much more manageable once anglers are away from land. His artificial bait of choice in this fishery is Marker 54 artificial lures. The saltier water surrounding the outside marsh is where he expects trout to spend much of the late summer as they go through their spawning period.
The catches have been strong enough that tripletail are functioning as a bonus rather than replacing the primary trout trip. Danny described recent days with excellent trout numbers, followed by a slower ride home spent scanning crab traps, floating debris, and other surface structure for tripletail.
Tripletail Becoming a Late-Summer Bonus Fish
Tripletail have become an increasingly popular target around the Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne region. Danny says the area is not known for the giant tripletail associated with Venice, and many of the fish he sees are undersized, but persistent searching can produce quality keepers. Louisiana tripletail must be at least 18 inches to keep, and the larger fish provide a hard fight once hooked.
The local technique is primarily sight fishing. Instead of fishing deep around rigs and wellheads as anglers often do farther south around Venice, Danny spends time riding and visually checking crab-trap floats and anything else on the surface. The fish can sit only inches below the surface and are often easy to identify once an angler learns what to look for.
The larger fish rarely make the landing process simple. Danny says keeper tripletail may jump, pull drag, dive beneath the boat, or wrap around the trolling motor and other tackle. The bite itself may look simple because the fish is visible, but getting a quality tripletail into the net can become chaotic quickly.
Pre-dawn travel is also part of Danny’s routine when he wants to reach the trout grounds early. He recently added a SIONYX low-light vision camera to help with visibility during dark runs. The equipment is designed for low-light viewing rather than traditional infrared night vision, and Danny uses it as another tool while navigating before daylight.
Biloxi Marsh Trout and Redfish
Speckled trout remain the main attraction for Danny. He continues to focus on oyster reefs in the Biloxi Marsh, particularly when conditions allow him to make the run across Lake Borgne safely. The productive combination is salty water, reef structure, bait, and enough breeze to move water without making the crossing uncomfortable.
When strong west winds make the trout run impractical, redfish become his backup plan. West winds pull water out of the ponds and can force redfish toward the shorelines of Lake Borgne and other areas that retain more depth. Danny says the amount of shrimp in the lake has been remarkable this year, with large shrimp frequently jumping and creating obvious signs of feeding activity.
That concentration of bait can make the redfish pattern much easier to identify. Instead of simply searching every drain, Danny is looking for the places where shrimp and other forage are actively being pushed or gathered. When low water and abundant bait line up along the right shoreline, the feeding activity can be obvious.
September Transition Toward Sheepshead
Danny expects the trout pattern to continue into September, but he also knows what usually brings his Biloxi Marsh trout season to an end. Sharks tend to become increasingly troublesome around the trout grounds as September progresses. Once too many hooked trout are being lost to sharks, he would rather change the plan than continue feeding fish to them.
That is when the bridges around the Lake Pontchartrain area become more attractive. Danny says sheepshead normally begin showing up in greater numbers during this period, and the fish can be substantially larger than many anglers expect. Five- to 10-pound sheepshead around bridge structure can provide strong drag-pulling action and excellent table fare.
For clients, sheepshead also eliminate one of the species’ biggest complaints: cleaning them. Danny handles the cleaning after a charter, allowing customers to enjoy the fight and take home the fillets without dealing with the fish’s heavy bones and tough structure themselves.
Kayak Fishing Report: Jerry Cottrell
Jerry Cottrell of JBF Kayak Charters has spent much of the summer focused almost entirely on trophy speckled trout. His immediate motivation has been the CCA Louisiana STAR Tournament, and at the time this episode was recorded he was in second place in his trout division with a 6.16-pound fish.
Jerry has approached the tournament with an intense schedule, often fishing three days a week and mixing daytime and overnight trips. He described leaving work and launching around 2 a.m., then fishing into the late morning before resting and doing it again when conditions allowed.
The 6.16-pound trout came on topwater early in the morning on the western side of the state. Jerry knew he was fishing an area capable of producing a large trout and had a quality fish explode on the lure. During the fight, another predator struck the hooked trout. Jerry believes it was probably a jack rather than a shark, and he was able to land the complete fish and capture part of the encounter on video.
How a Kayak Angler Targets Bigger Speckled Trout
Jerry’s approach to finding trophy trout differs from the run-and-gun strategy available to anglers in fast bay boats. He studies many of the same variables, including structure, current, water temperature, depth, and access to the Gulf, but he breaks productive water into much smaller pieces.
A boat angler may pull into an area, make a few casts, and run to the next location. Jerry may consider a section of water the size of a driveway or parking lot to be an individual spot. If the structure, current, temperature, and surrounding conditions look right, he is willing to stay there for a long time.
That patience is especially important when hunting bigger trout. Jerry is not necessarily looking for constant bites. He may sit in a high-confidence area and get only one bite in an hour, but he is willing to make that trade when the fish he is targeting are significantly larger than the schooling 12-inch trout found elsewhere.
Topwater has been an important part of his trophy-trout approach, particularly during the early morning. He did not identify a specific topwater brand in this episode, but his tournament fish reinforces the value of a surface presentation when anglers know they are working through water that consistently holds larger trout.
Fall Trout Migration: Fish the Highways and Interstates
Jerry describes major bayous, passes, and channels as the “highways and interstates” of the marsh. Places such as Bayou Lafourche and the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet provide deep-water access and natural routes that trout can follow during spring and fall migrations.
As summer begins transitioning toward fall, he wants to be close to those corridors. Anglers do not necessarily need to fish in the deepest water, but access to deeper water and a direct connection toward the Gulf are becoming increasingly important. That same principle applies to kayak anglers on the eastern side of the state, where Jerry says fishing has been challenging but still productive for anglers willing to stay near the right depth changes and migration routes.
The current salinity pattern is helping. Jerry says dry conditions have allowed salty water to remain farther inland than it would during a wetter summer. Earlier in the year he was catching fish in areas that would normally lose their trout sooner. He has since worked closer to the coast as the natural seasonal migration continued, but he believes the transition back toward fall water is already beginning.
Redfish From a Kayak
Although Jerry has been consumed with trophy trout fishing, redfish remain one of the most natural targets for kayak anglers. Shallow ponds, narrow drains, and areas with limited boat access are ideal places to take advantage of a kayak’s small footprint and shallow draft.
Recently, many of Jerry’s redfish have been incidental catches because he is fishing close to the coast for trout. That has put him around a large number of bull reds. For an angler specifically hunting trout, a bull red can consume time and tackle, but Jerry says the experience changes completely when he brings someone who has never fought one from a kayak.
A 40-plus-inch bull red can pull a kayak, spin the angler around, and turn a normal fishing trip into an unforgettable experience. That is part of what Jerry enjoys about introducing people to kayak fishing through JBF Kayak Charters. He can provide the equipment and take newcomers into ponds, ditches, and other areas that conventional boats may never reach.
Kayak Tournament Season Returns
The end of the hottest part of summer also means kayak tournament season is beginning to pick back up. Jerry discussed an upcoming saltwater kayak event scheduled for late September in the Big Lake estuary between Lake Charles and Cameron.
The event uses a slam format requiring a trout, redfish, and flounder, with the combined weight determining the standings. Later events move back toward the eastern side of Louisiana, including the Highway 1 corridor and Highway 23.
Those highway descriptions are especially important for kayak anglers because roads often define access. A powerboat angler may plan around launches and long runs, while a kayak angler may only need a safe roadside access point and enough water to float into a productive pond, ditch, or bayou.
Looking Ahead
For anglers fishing from Slidell toward the Biloxi Marsh, the trout bite should remain productive as long as salty water, reef structure, and favorable crossing conditions continue to line up. Tripletail remain a worthwhile bonus target on the run home, so anglers should keep an eye on crab-trap floats and other surface structure after daylight.
Strong west winds can make Lake Borgne difficult to cross, but those same winds may create a productive redfish pattern by draining ponds and concentrating fish and shrimp along deeper shorelines. As September progresses and sharks become more disruptive around the trout grounds, sheepshead around bridge structure should become an increasingly reliable alternative.
For kayak anglers, the early fall transition means focusing on passes, major bayous, deep-water access, and other migration corridors. Jerry’s tournament approach is also a reminder that bigger trout do not always require constant movement. When structure, current, temperature, and depth all look right, slowing down and thoroughly fishing a small area can be more productive than covering miles of water.
