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In this week’s Mobile-Tensaw Delta Fishing Report, host Nick Williams checks in with Brenton Grace of Southern Cypress Bait & Tackle and Darren Shirah of Reel Time Outdoors with Darren to see how fishing has responded to the recent tropical system. Around the Causeway, redfish and flounder are still being caught, live shrimp are available, and the fall speckled trout run has yet to develop consistently. Farther north, improving water conditions have Darren looking forward to a productive stretch of crappie and bream fishing.
Brenton explains where to look for flounder and redfish as bait moves into the lower Delta, while Darren breaks down a strong pre-storm panfish bite, how he fishes submerged logs with Beetle Spins and crickets, and why he plans to switch to minnows and a cane pole for crappie. With archery season arriving, Nick and Darren also spend time discussing deer, hogs, and the challenges of hunting the Delta’s deep river swamps.
Conditions Recap
The biggest story this week is how little lasting disruption the Mobile-Tensaw Delta experienced from the recent tropical system. The storm’s winds pushed water out around the Causeway, but Nick says the water coming back in afterward looked remarkably clean and salty. Brenton reports that Southern Cypress Bait & Tackle avoided significant flooding, and shrimpers were back on the water immediately afterward, bringing in good catches of healthy shrimp.
The lower Delta is still between seasons. Bait has been moving up toward the Blakely and Apalachee rivers, and redfish and flounder are present, but their bite can change sharply from one day to the next. Speckled trout have been noticeably slower to arrive than they were at the same time last year. Brenton believes water temperature is a major reason the more dependable fall trout bite has not yet settled in.
Conditions farther upriver are also encouraging. Darren says the river is low and clean, particularly as outgoing tides draw water down. His own fishing slowed for a few days following the storm, but he is beginning to see it improve again. Nick also found water near 67 degrees in a sheltered spring-fed creek while scouting, an indication of how much cooler some of the backwaters have become. Another cool front could help bring both freshwater and inshore species into more recognizable fall patterns.
Causeway Redfish, Flounder, and Speckled Trout Report with Brenton Grace
Brenton Grace of Southern Cypress Bait & Tackle says the Causeway and lower Delta escaped the worst of the storm, leaving anglers with a promising setup for the coming weeks. Redfish and flounder were being caught before the weather arrived and have remained in the area, but neither species has been particularly predictable. A spot may hold fish one day and be nearly empty the next.
Much of the current redfish action has involved smaller fish. Brenton says anglers have been catching plenty of rat reds, often alongside croakers and gafftopsail catfish. He recently caught one small redfish after another from the pier behind the shop, with many measuring around 14 to 15 inches. The action was steady for roughly half an hour before shutting off. There are fish available to catch, but not all of them are keepers.
The flounder report is more encouraging when it comes to size. Brenton has picked up keeper flounder near the shop, even though that location usually does not become consistently productive until farther into the fall or winter. For anglers looking elsewhere, he recommends starting with shallow points and adjacent flats, especially wherever there is bait moving through a small drain or slough.
Brenton explains that flounder often hold near the bottom and wait for food to come to them instead of roaming constantly. A shallow point beside a small slough gives them an opportunity to intercept bait washing out with the current. Anglers should pay attention to those natural ambush spots rather than treating every stretch of shoreline the same.
Speckled trout are the missing piece of the fall pattern. Brenton remembers seeing quality trout coming from the Blakely and Apalachee areas by early October last year, but this season he has not seen a consistent run of trout reported through the shop. He expects the next round of cooler weather to help change that. For now, redfish and flounder offer more realistic targets than trying to force a trout bite that has not fully developed.
Crabbing, Live Shrimp, and Bait Shop Update
Crabbing around the Causeway has been less active recently, at least judging by the number of people Brenton has seen working nets behind the shop. Nick has noticed a similar slowdown at several piers and launches. He has caught a few crabs with his own trap but has not found the kind of steady action he was seeing earlier in the season.
That does not necessarily mean the crabs are gone. Nick continues to see traps being worked around the Blakely River, and Brenton says commercial crabbers have been heading out again following the storm. Neither has a firm report that the crab bite has fully rebounded, so anglers should approach it as a spotty opportunity rather than a sure thing.
One positive update is the supply of live shrimp. Brenton says the storm did not significantly disrupt the local shrimp catch, and the shop has continued receiving good bait. Southern Cypress Bait & Tackle, located on the Causeway when approaching from Spanish Fort, provides bait and access for anglers and posts shrimp availability on its Facebook page. It is worth checking those updates before heading out.
Upper Delta Crappie Fishing with Darren Shirah
Darren Shirah of Reel Time Outdoors with Darren has been spending most of his fishing time targeting crappie and bream in the upper Delta. He says the bite was excellent immediately before the tropical system, slowed afterward, and is now beginning to recover.
On one pre-storm outing, Darren caught around 40 fish while casting a Johnson Beetle Spin. He returned with a bucket of crickets and went through about 100 of them in two hours while catching panfish. Other anglers told him the action was even better as the storm approached. Darren believes the falling atmospheric pressure helped trigger that feeding activity, although he does not track barometric readings or schedule his trips around them. His usual approach is to go fishing and adjust to whatever the fish are doing.
Finding Crappie Around Submerged Logs
His most productive crappie water has been in the interior creeks and branching cuts of the Delta, including the type of creek system found around Mifflin. Darren is not talking about tiny feeder streams as much as the deeper fingers that branch away from a larger creek. He looks for roughly six to eight feet of water with fallen timber extending out from the bank.
Visible laydowns provide an easy place to start, but Darren reminds anglers that submerged logs can hold fish even when the cover cannot be seen from the boat. His method is to begin near the bank and work gradually toward the outer end of a log, fishing different depths until he finds a concentration of crappie. The fish are mixed in size, so catching a few smaller fish does not necessarily mean there are no better ones nearby.
When the bite slowed after the storm, the Beetle Spin was still catching crappie, but the presentation required patience. Darren would let the lure sink to approximately six feet and then retrieve it very slowly. At times, it took 25 or 30 casts to draw a bite. Repeating the same presentation around known cover could produce another fish, but it was much more work than the bite he experienced before the storm.
Switching to Minnows and Vertical Fishing
To improve his chances with those less aggressive fish, Darren plans to switch from casting a Beetle Spin to fishing live minnows vertically around the timber. If he can locate a group of crappie near a log, dropping a minnow into their holding area may be more efficient than making dozens of casts. He also recognizes that crappie can move from day to day, so finding them on one trip does not guarantee they will be in exactly the same place the next morning.
Darren is selective about the crappie he keeps. He mentions that nine-inch fish are legal where he fishes, but personally prefers keeping fish at least 10 inches long because they provide more worthwhile fillets. He releases smaller fish while continuing to search for better ones.
Fall Bluegill, Bream, and Goggle-Eye Fishing
Many of Darren’s bluegill and other bream have been holding around the same logs that produce crappie, but at shallower depths. While crappie are often farther out in six to eight feet of water, he has found bream as shallow as six inches and frequently in three feet of water or less. The important detail is the relationship to hard structure, particularly substantial fallen logs rather than loose brush.
Darren says the cooler fall water is bringing panfish back toward shallow habitat after the difficult summer pattern. During the hottest weather, he struggles to find consistent numbers of quality fish in the places he likes to fish. Now that temperatures are declining, bluegill are returning to cover where they can feed more comfortably.
Live crickets have been especially productive. Darren recently caught bream, goggle-eye, and crappie from the same stretches of timber by presenting bait at different depths. For anglers fishing these backwaters, that is an important reminder not to abandon a productive log after catching one species. Moving a bait up or down in the water column can reveal several kinds of panfish holding on the same piece of cover.
Old-School Cane Pole Fishing for Crappie and Bream
Darren’s plan for vertical crappie fishing is built around the same simple pole he uses for bream. Rather than switching to an entirely different rod and reel, he often keeps his normal bream-pole setup and adjusts the hook if he expects larger crappie. A size 6 hook is his standard choice for bream, while a size 4 can provide a little more holding power when better crappie are mixed in.
He particularly likes gold Eagle Claw hooks, which he feels are a little stiffer than comparable Mustad hooks. That extra stiffness is a personal preference when lifting a good crappie beside the boat, although he admits he loses some fish because he does not always use a landing net.
Nick recently picked up two cane poles from Boutwell Bait & Tackle, one for his child and one for himself. Rigging the poles brought back memories of fishing with old bamboo poles, and both anglers agreed that uncomplicated equipment can make a day on the Delta every bit as enjoyable as using more elaborate tackle.
Fall Bass Fishing Outlook
Although most of Darren’s recent trips have been focused on panfish, he has heard encouraging bass reports from customers fishing around the Delta. Some have been catching quality fish, though he does not have specific locations to pass along. He expects the cooler mornings and approaching cold fronts to help the bass bite become more dependable.
Nick has also been scouting secluded feeder creeks and shallow pockets where cooler, clearer water and submerged cover look promising. He wants to return with an eight-weight fly rod and bass bugs to work the tight quarters, while Darren says he will pick up a worm whenever a bass boils on the surface or reveals itself around a ditch mouth. Neither claims the bass are concentrated in one specific area yet, but both see plenty of potential as the fall pattern settles in.
Deer, Hogs, and Hunting the Mobile-Tensaw Delta
With fall archery season arriving, the conversation turns from fishing to the challenges and rewards of hunting the Delta’s river swamps. Nick and Darren have both been scouting from boats and exploring the backwaters, where deer and hogs frequently share the same difficult terrain. Nick noticed that storm winds had knocked down acorns in some of the places he hunts, potentially changing how deer use those areas as the season progresses.
Darren describes seeing a young buck step out of the palmettos while he was fishing a secluded slough. The deer appeared unfamiliar with a person in a boat and stood watching him before going back to feeding. That encounter leads into a series of stories about deer moving through standing water, crossing sloughs, and using the narrow ridges hidden inside cypress and tupelo swamps.
Both agree that the easiest deer to locate are not necessarily the easiest to hunt. Riverbanks and natural ridges provide higher ground and travel corridors, but some deer spend much of their lives deep in the swamp, even when reaching them requires a long walk through mud and water. Darren recalls an older hunting partner who regularly took deer from remote, flooded stands that Darren initially thought were terrible locations. The experience taught him not to assume that deer avoid the wettest parts of the river bottom.
For hunters willing to explore that country, Darren recommends studying topographical features and identifying subtle ridges and changes in vegetation that may reveal bedding or feeding areas. Nick adds that observations from scouting, trail cameras, and even recovering deer can help reveal how animals travel through the swamps. The shared takeaway is that watching wildlife and learning the Delta can be as rewarding as filling a tag.
Darren shares more of his fishing, hunting, and outdoor adventures through Reel Time Outdoors with Darren, including videos of traditional Delta fishing methods. As fall settles in, he expects to continue chasing crappie and bream while mixing in occasional deer, hog, and squirrel hunting trips.
