Dragonfly Lures

Aug 26th:

Fished the marina on Keesler AFB last night and caught my first redfish  -- water depth was probably only about 4 feet deep where I was at and the tide was coming in. Used a live shrimp, 4/0 wide gap ultra point Mustad hook, small split shot and a popping cork bobber. Had a few other hits but it was probably just small catfish nipping at the bait. I did talk to a few guys down there fishing and one hooked a 20 - 30lb redfish there a few nights prior on 8lb test line that he fought for a long time and finally broke off as they tried to grab it out of the water. Also talked to some guys that fished behind the Hard Rock Casino and they caught a 25lb drum off a 1/16th oz dressed jig head -- they ended up using their cast net to land it as he also only had 8lb test line on, quite the fight from what I gathered.

Plenty of shrimp to be caught with the cast nets and a lot of mullet around last night -- makes me want to go shark fishing off the pier in Gulfport tonight but I'll play it by ear.

Sept 16th:

Been awhile since I've been out but my schedule and the heat has kept me away. Finally a nice night so I thought I'd throw around a crankbait and see what happens -- not really a crankbait area so nothing did happen.

But -- it was nice enough to use the castnet and catch about 10 shrimp so I used the bobber method and started picking up some small speckled trout and a croaker (I think). I had a lot of bites I didn't catch and a bunch of headless shrimp after a missed bite --- probably resort to using a small treble hook through the horn next time. Pier was very quiet and those I did talk to didn't catch anything -- but the key to catching something done there is definately using fresh live shrimp!

Lot's use dead bait and bait fish and normally just catch the sail catfish -- using the live shrimp and bobber takes it off the bottom and yes the redfish will still take them along with the speckled trout and even some drum -- and what I thought was stripping my bait probably small croakers (again I'm a freshwater guy by birth).

I also saw what looked like a gar (or a northern pike but again that would be freshwater) briefly by my bobber about 3 foot long and thought I was getting ready for one heckuva fight but he never did take the shrimp -- cooler weather hopefully I'll get out more!

Sept 25th:

Haven't been out fishing lately -- had a threat of a tropical storm but really not a whole lot developed on that. THe shrimp are coming in and more numbers of drum are being picked up as well. From my understanding more redfish will start to come in as well. The big bonus right now is the cooler temperatures and not nearly as sweaty as it was so grab a cast net, catch some shrimp and have a good time!

Sept 30th:

Nice cool evening so I tried my luck down at the marina again. Temp was about 80 degrees with a 15mph breeze I'm guessing. Took two casts with a cast net and got some sargeant majors I was told but a guy down there and he had enough live shrimp for the both of us for all night so I took him up on the offer. He also showed me another way to bait live shrimp, a small probably 1/0 circle hook crossways through the tail instead of up through it. The hook was placed way back on the tail too leaving the shrimp really to do what it wanted.

The catch? Got some speckled trout the largest being 13 1/2 inches (14 is legal) and a croaker and I think a white trout -- regardless everything was catch and release, had some really good hits as well but had to get used to fishing with a circle hook on the end of the bobber and was probably a little over zealous at times.

Overall hardly anyone down there, great cool night to fish -- had the wind in my face drying out my eyes but high tide and plenty of hits!

Oct 2

Talked to a guy that fished on Sunday during the day and said the speckled trout were biting -- he also had something that spooled him off down at the marina off Keesler. He was using a large baitfish (in his words) and only had 10lb line on. He followed it down the pier as far as he could and with about two loops left it stopped. He thought great... can start reelin it in as it's getting tired but made another run and spooled him easliy. Has a nice gash in his thumb as he tried to slow the line down with it. More  than likely was a REALLY nice redfish or possibly a shark.. but the consensus is that fish are biting and moving into the back bays!