Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your south Louisiana Gulf report.
We’re sitting on a classic early‑December pattern: cool mornings, mild afternoons, light north to northeast breeze with highs in the low 60s along the coast, according to the National Weather Service out of New Orleans. Skies are mostly clear behind the last front, so water’s greening up in the marsh drains and bayou mouths.
Tides are running low mid‑day and pushing back in late, which is perfect for working inside marsh and lower bays. Tide-Forecast’s Gulf region chart shows a negative low late morning and a solid evening high, so play the moving water windows, especially a couple hours around that falling tide.
Sunrise is right around 6:40 a.m. along the southeast coast, with sunset near 5:15 p.m., so your prime bite is daybreak to about 9 a.m., then again late afternoon into dark when that tide turns and the solunar majors line up.
Recent inshore catches, as reported by Louisiana Sportsman and local marinas, have been strong:
- Solid boxes of **speckled trout** in the Grand Isle–Barataria system, many boats seeing 20–50 keeper trout when the tide and birds line up.
- **Redfish** steady in the ponds and along bayou drains; plenty of slot fish with a few bulls still hanging near deeper passes.
- **Flounder** numbers picking up around current‑swept cuts and shell banks in the lower marsh.
Best plastics right now:
- 3–4 inch paddle tails in **opening night**, **shrimp**, and **chartreuse** on 1/8–1/4 oz jigheads.
- Shrimp imitations like the new Vudu Mambo Shrimp, which Louisiana Sportsman has been bragging on for winter trout and reds.
For bait, the locals are leaning on:
- **Live shrimp** under a popping cork over shell and channel edges.
- **Cocahoe minnows** and finger mullet free‑lined for redfish in the drains.
- **Cut mullet** or crab on the bottom if you slide closer to the passes chasing bulls.
Color rule of thumb: lighter, natural colors on these clearer, post‑front days; darker or glow/chartreuse early, late, or when the water dirties up, a pattern that Salt Strong’s inshore lure experiments back up.
Couple of hot spots to hit:
- **Grand Isle / Caminada Pass**: Work the backside of the island, oyster reefs, and cuts off Bay Caminada for trout at daylight. Later, slide into the marsh pockets and drains for reds on gold spoons, shrimp under a cork, or a root beer/chartreuse paddle tail bounced along the edge.
- **Barataria Bay / Lafitte marsh**: Launch out of Lafitte and run the interior canals and ponds. Target points where small drains dump into deeper bayous on a falling tide. Reds have been stacked there; throw live shrimp under a cork, or a gold spoon and watch your rod load up.
If you’re farther west, the Calcasieu and Mermentau systems are also giving up good trout along ship channel edges and weirs on soft plastics, with reds on the flats when the sun warms the shallow water.
That’s your Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana run‑down for today.
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