Week of May 15: Weekend winds hampered the action, but still a chance for snook, pompano, whiting, drum, snapper
Today's (May 15) forecast calls for sunny skies, a high of 82 degrees, NE winds at 12 mph and two to three-foot swells.
It’s Monday, which means it’s time for “Snookman” Wayne Landry’s weekly fishing report.
“Good morning, fishing fanatics! I hope everyone had a great weekend and a Happy Mother's Day was had by all the moms out there. With that, off we go into the wild outdoors and the fishing.
Last week at the inlet was shaping up to be good after Monday's windy start. The water was cleaning up, calming down and warming to more seasonal temperatures: 79 degrees along the coast. As a result, the bait fish were showing up.
Wednesday and Thursday on both sides of the inlet the snook bite on live mojarras was going off nicely with quite a few slot fish being caught in the 29 to 31-inch range on the incoming tides. The south jetty was the hot spot along the wall from the tip of the jetty westward to the catwalk. There were also a lot of small undersized fish being caught as well. The north side was decent as well, but not as busy as the south side; however, there were bigger fish, mostly oversized. I saw a smattering of different species caught around the inlet, but nothing to write home about or pinpoint: a few pompano, whiting and black drum were caught on the north side on fresh cut shrimp, and I saw one small mutton snapper caught, but it was too small to keep. They have to be 19 inches minimum.
Then the big winds came again, and the seas picked up again late Thursday and into Friday and messed it all back up. Dirty, silted water, along with a lot of seaweed, put a stop to just about everything. All I saw being caught all weekend were pesky catfish, stingrays and quite a few blacktip or spinner sharks swimming around on the north side. I saw about eight to 10 at one time leaving the inlet. They looked to be in the five to six-foot range. Sorry for the short report again, but the winds put a damper on the fishing once more. I'm not going to break things down this time as no area showed any signs of being a hot spot after Friday. We’re expecting a nice week, less windy, so we'll see how it plays out. The seas are supposed to be a bit calmer as well. With that, grab your gear, bait and go fishing - or just beach it.” — Snookman.