Mississippi Back Bayou Redfish

By Nick Honachefsky
Dec 2nd 2016

Just as striper fishing in the northeast is on fire, the redfish are also on the chew down on the bayou. Nick Honachefsky shares his recent trip down to Mississippi targeting slot sized redfish.

Myriad redfish haunts exist in the Southeast and Gulf – Florida's Mosquito Lagoon, Houma, Louisiana and other hot redfish locales, but just last week I was grateful to experience another hot spot for some down home Mississippi redfish in the backwater bayous. Red drum fishing isn't as stealth as bonefishing or as intricate as snook fishing, but there are certain tricks of the trade that put you over the edge to land some solid golden bronze redfish to fill the cooler with or to simply get a sick tussle on spinning gear.

Captain Sonny Schindler of Shore Thing charters (www.shorethingcharters.com) out of the Bay St. Louis Mississippi proper showed me the way. "We can get redfish up down and below," says Schindler. "When redfish are feeding on the bottom, we throw 4-inch Electric Chicken Bull Minnow, Bass Assassins, or Fin-S fish lanced on a 3/8 to 3/4-ounce Kalins Leadhead, or Strike King spinnerbaits fixed with gold blades. On top, clack float, popping cork rigs such as the Cajun Thunder rig, with a 30-inch 40-pound leader tied to a 3/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Hook lanced with a live cockahoe minnow (killifish for northern guys) will work." On our trip, Schindler even cast the ridiculous looking, yet provable Savage Gear 3D suicide duck lure.

Plop a soft plastic along the marsh reed banks sightcasting redfish, or to garner an aggressive strike with clack floats if they are biting slow, "Let the leadhead sink to the bottom twitch-jerking it back, or reel in a spinnerbait at a moderate pace." said Schindler. "When thing are slow, pop the clack float to garner a reactive attention strike. They can't resist the commotion."

Delving back into the creek channels and canal waterways, you can also opt to cast and swimming plugs such as the Bomber 16 long A, Rapala XRap Long Cast or a Yo-Yuri Crystal Minnow. Generally a medium or medium heavy power 7-foot spinning rod matched with a Shimano ST4000XGFK Stradic reel, spooled with 30-pound Power Pro braid will tackle any situation. Our days out in the Biloxi marsh banks landed us dozens of reds from 16 to 34 inches, making for an incredible Cajun feast. Keep your drags tight to muscle the redfish off the banks, and buckle down for a solid fight.