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Mississippi Sound & the Pascagoula River Marsh
Capt. Barry Brown
February 3, 2008
Pascagoula River - Saltwater Fishing Report
Reds Cruising The Shallows
In February with water temps in the low 50's you would expect to find the reds in deeper water. That is true to some extent as we have been catching some nice reds in 10 to 20 foot holes.
On my last trip we started out on the deeper pattern and landed two reds. But, after an hour more of fishing that pattern with no luck we decided to move onto the flats and give it a try. With the water temperature of 53 degrees at 1:30 p.m. we were not optimistic about fishing in less than two feet of water, but we were wrong.
We trolled along the shallow marsh line keeping the boat about 30 feet from the bank. We were casting a purple cocohoe jig to the grass and bouncing it back with a slow retrieve. Within a few minutes of starting on the shallow pattern we caught a 16 inch red. He wasn't a keeper, but it got our attention as it was a good indication that the fish were there.
We fished another 30 yards down the bank before the next strike, but this one was a good one. He weighed about 8 pounds. A few more feet down the bank I hooked another one in the 7 pound range.
Now we had 4 reds and needed another two for our limit. We trolled maybe another 20 yards down the bank and my partner and I doubled up with stikes within a second of each other. Both of those fish were 7 to 8 pounds like the others.
Since we had our redfish limit we immediately left that area and went looking for speckled trout. The river has been rising from the rain we've had lately and fresh murky water has pushed the salt water fish downstream. Based on that we picked a spot far enough down river to be sure it was salty enough to hold specks.
We started in 15 feet of water and moved shallower gradually until finding some keepers in about 7 to 8 feet. These fish were sluggish and you had to fish very slowly on the bottom to get them to bite. We put 10 specks in the well before calling it a day.
It's looking like an early spring for fishing, so get ready to go get 'em.
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