Louisiana produces more redfish than any other state, and the reason is simple geography: roughly forty percent of the coastal wetlands in the lower 48 sit inside its boundaries. That marsh is a redfish factory, and in October and November it fishes as well as any inshore water in North America.
Why fall
Four things line up.
Water clears. Summer algae dies off, the first cold fronts knock down the wind, and marsh ponds that were chocolate in August go clear enough to sight-fish.
Bait floods out. Shrimp and small baitfish that spent the summer in the interior marsh get pulled out on falling tides, and redfish stack at the drains and cuts to eat them.
Fish school up. Slot fish gang into groups of dozens, sometimes hundreds. Bull reds gather in the passes and along the beaches to spawn.
Cold fronts push water out. A north wind after a front drops water levels a foot or more, which concentrates fish out of the flooded grass and into ponds and bayous where you can actually reach them.
Delacroix and Hopedale
St. Bernard Parish, roughly forty-five minutes from downtown New Orleans. Delacroix and Hopedale are the two launches, and between them they access an enormous interior marsh of ponds, bayous and lagoons.
This is classic Louisiana redfish country: shallow ponds with grass edges, oyster reefs, drains connecting ponds to bayous, and a road system that gets you within casting distance of good water. On a falling tide, park on a drain and let the marsh feed you.
Delacroix in particular has a well-earned reputation for fall schooling redfish. A calm, clear late-October morning here can produce a hundred fish sighted.
Venice
Plaquemines Parish, at the end of Highway 23, roughly where the Mississippi River runs out of Louisiana. Venice is the closest thing the state has to a fishing town.
The water here is different from the eastern marsh — river influence, deeper cuts, more current, and much bigger fish on average. The Mississippi River passes, the Delta National Wildlife Refuge, and the ponds off the river all hold redfish, and the beaches and passes hold bull reds in fall in numbers that are hard to believe until you see them.
Venice is also the launch point for offshore fishing, which means fuel, ice and accommodation are readily available.
Lafitte and Barataria
Jefferson Parish, thirty minutes south of New Orleans. Lafitte is the launch, and Barataria Bay, Little Lake and the surrounding marsh are the water.
Barataria is more open than Delacroix — bigger bays, more shoreline, more oyster. Fall fishing here centers on the shorelines and points where clean water meets structure, and on the countless drains that empty the interior marsh.
Cocodrie, Dulac and Grand Isle
Cocodrie and Dulac in Terrebonne Parish sit at the bottom of a long marsh system reached through Houma. Big open bays, extensive oyster, and consistent fall fishing.
Grand Isle, Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island, offers beach access, the Caminada Pass, and access to Barataria Bay from the south. It is one of the few places in the state you can catch redfish from the sand.
Calcasieu Lake
Cameron Parish, in the southwest corner near Hackberry and Lake Charles. Known locally as Big Lake, it is a large, relatively open estuary rather than a marsh maze — which makes it a completely different kind of fishing and a good option when the eastern marsh is blown out.
Big Lake is famous for large speckled trout as much as redfish, and fall produces both. Fish the reefs, the shorelines and the ship channel edges.
Tide is the whole game
If you learn one thing about Louisiana redfish, learn this: moving water beats everything.
Louisiana's tides are small — often under a foot and a half — and diurnal, meaning one high and one low per day rather than two. They are also heavily wind-driven. A sustained north wind after a front can push more water out of the marsh than the tide chart predicts, and a hard south wind can pile more in.
A falling tide pulls bait out of the flooded grass into ponds and through drains. Position on the down-current side of a drain and let the fish come to you. This is the highest-percentage setup in the marsh.
A rising tide pushes redfish up into grass to eat fiddler crabs. This is when you get tailing fish — backs and tails out of the water in six inches — and it is the best sight-fishing of the cycle.
Slack water is the slowest fishing of the day. Use it to run and look.
Presentations
Soft plastic on a light jighead. A 3 to 4 inch paddle tail or shrimp imitation on a 1/8 or 1/4 oz head. The most versatile and most-used redfish lure in the state.
Gold weedless spoon. The traditional marsh bait. It fishes over grass without fouling and it flashes in stained water where a plastic disappears.
Popping cork with a shrimp — live or artificial — suspended below. Chug it. It calls fish from well outside their sight range, which matters in the two-thirds of the marsh that is not clear.
Topwater along shorelines and over shallow ponds. Redfish have a downturned mouth and miss frequently — keep the bait moving after a blow-up and they will usually come back.
Fly rod. An 8-weight with crab and shrimp patterns. Louisiana is arguably the best redfish fly destination in the world, particularly for large fish in clear winter and fall water.
Cut mullet on the bottom at a pass or a beach for bull reds. Simple, unglamorous, and by far the most effective way to catch a 40-inch fish.
Bull reds
From September into November, mature redfish over 30 inches school in the passes, along the beaches and around the barrier islands to spawn. Venice, Grand Isle, the Empire and Barataria passes, and the beaches off Chandeleur all hold them.
These fish are the reproductive engine of the entire population, and Louisiana requires the release of redfish over the maximum size. Handle them accordingly: support the belly horizontally, do not hold a 30-pound fish vertically by the jaw, keep it in the water as much as possible, and revive it fully in moving water before letting go. A bull red released badly in warm water frequently dies.
Boats and access
Most of the Louisiana marsh is shallow. A bay boat works in the bigger water around Barataria and Calcasieu; a flats skiff or a mud-motor boat opens up the interior ponds where the best sight fishing is. Kayaks are excellent in Delacroix, Hopedale and Lafitte, and there are launch points designed for them.
Bank access is limited but real: the roads through Delacroix, Hopedale and Cocodrie parallel bayous with pull-offs, and Grand Isle's beach is fishable on foot.
Before you go
Louisiana manages redfish with a slot limit and a daily bag, with a provision for a limited number of oversized fish that has changed in recent years as the fishery has come under review. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries publishes current regulations. Check them before you go — Louisiana's redfish rules have been actively debated and revised, and a limit you remember from a few seasons ago may no longer apply.
Check your regulations before you go. Seasons, size limits, slot limits, bag limits and access rules change and vary by individual water body. Confirm the current rules with the relevant state or provincial fish and wildlife agency. Nothing on this page is a substitute for that.
