Live Bait Guide — Gulf Coast

Most fishing trips on the Gulf Coast are decided before you ever make your first cast. The angler who shows up with a livewell full of fresh shrimp is not working harder than everyone else. They just know where to look and when to go.

The foundation is a cast net. A quality cast net with a 3/8-inch mesh is the right tool for shrimp on the Gulf Coast. The 8-foot radius size covers enough water to be efficient without being so heavy you wear yourself out after ten throws. Mono mesh sinks faster than nylon and holds its shape better in current. Worth the extra few dollars.

Throwing a cast net is a skill that takes an afternoon to learn and a season to get right. Hold the horn in your dominant hand, drape the lead line over your forearm and across your mouth, spread the net with your non-dominant hand, and throw with a rotation from your hips, not just your arm. The net should open into a full circle before it hits the water. If it collapses into a clump, the rotation is off. Most people overthink it. You can practice the throw on grass before you ever hit the water. A dozen throws in a drainage ditch or a shallow flat will get you there.

Shrimp move with the tide. The best time to collect live shrimp is the two hours around a falling tide when bait gets pushed out of the grass and into the cuts. Look for nervous water near marsh edges. The surface will dimple and flash when shrimp are concentrated. Boat ramps are reliable at night because the lights pull baitfish and shrimp in from a wide area. Any spot where current pinches through a narrow opening will stack bait on the outgoing tide.

Water temperature matters more than most people think. Shrimp become catchable with a cast net when water temps climb above 65 degrees. Below that, they go deep and slow. Peak collection season on the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts runs from late April through November, with July and August producing the most shrimp in the shallows.

The rabbit pellet trick is one of those things that sounds too simple to work until you try it. Before you throw your cast net, toss around 5 handfuls of rabbit feed pellets into the water upside of where you plan to cast. The plain brown kind from any feed store works fine. The pellets dissolve slowly and release a grain smell that draws shrimp and small baitfish into a tight area. Give it 15 to 30 minutes before you throw so the pellets have time to do their job. Locals have used this method for years. It does not work in heavy current where the pellets scatter before they can concentrate anything, but in a calm backwater or along a slow marsh edge, it will noticeably improve your haul.

Catching mullet is a different ballgame. You are not drawing them in, you are intercepting them. Mullet travel in schools and follow predictable paths along grass edges and along the shore's edge. Watch for them rolling on the surface and get ahead of the school. Throw the net where they are going, not where they are. Cut mullet works on flounder and redfish when live shrimp are not available, but a lively finger mullet on a kahle hook is tough to beat for large fish.

Keeping bait alive once you have it is the other half of the equation. Gulf Coast summers will kill a bucket of shrimp in under an hour without insulation. We learned that the hard way. We spent a morning collecting shrimp, lost most of them to the heat by midday, and had to make a second run before the afternoon bite. A quality insulated bait cooler with a rechargeable aerator is worth every penny. If you are running a simple bucket, change the water often. Shrimp foul it fast and stressed bait catches fewer fish. Keep them out of direct sun and avoid big temperature swings when moving bait from the collection spot to the livewell.

The most consistent shrimp spots along the Mississippi Gulf Coast are the back edges of the barrier islands on a falling tide, the marsh drains feeding into Back Bay Biloxi, and the grass flats east of the Biloxi bridge at night. In Louisiana, the marsh cuts around Grand Isle and the flats of Delacroix produce well from May through October. Any area that holds redfish and speckled trout will also hold shrimp. The fish are there for the same reason you are.

Live bait is an edge, not a guarantee. But on the Gulf Coast, fishing live shrimp on the bottom near structure is about as close to a sure thing as inshore fishing gets.