Artificial Lure comin’ at you live with your boots on the bayou for today’s fishing report out of New Orleans and the wider Gulf of Mexico, Wednesday, September 3, 2025.

Sun popped up this morning at 6:37 , and she’s planning to call it a day around 7:26 tonight, giving y’all almost 13 hours of daylight to wet a line. According to tides4fishing.com, we saw an early high tide at 5:24 AM, low at 8:53 AM, and another big high rolling in at 7:36 tonight—perfect set-up for an afternoon and sunset bite if you’re aiming to fill a cooler after work. The tidal coefficient is high today—up to 84 at noon and 85 at day’s end—so you can expect some heavy water movement and hungry fish on the feed. That’s exactly what we like to see when chasing the September inshore slam.

Weather’s straightforward Gulf late-summer—temps running about 87 with humidity thick as étouffée, winds light outta the southeast, and just enough scattered clouds to keep you from crisping up by noon. The water’s got a steady chop but nothing that’ll keep a Cajun off the water.

The bite’s been steady this week, especially as the mullet run moves right along the passes. According to reports in the local marinas and chatter on the dock in Shell Beach and Hopedale, redfish and specks are turning on strong in the early mornings and then again right before sunset. Yesterday, one charter out of Delacroix iced down a dozen reds, most in the 22- to 28-inch range, plus a healthy mess of speckled trout—biggest pushing 4 pounds, most between 15 and 18 inches. Folks have also seen tripletail hanging around the crab traps and some solid flounders pulled around the marsh cuts and oyster reefs.

Best bets for lures: Gold spoons and chartreuse soft plastics on a jighead (especially Matrix Shad or Gulp! Shrimp), topwater plugs just after sunrise, and popping corks rigged above a live shrimp or glow plastic in the current. If you’re targeting bull reds in the passes, you can’t beat cracked crab or big chunks of cut mullet fished right on the bottom. Trout are stacking around the deeper oyster reefs and swinging points, picking off live shrimp and artificial swimbaits bounced slow.

Hot spots? Put the bow towards Breton Sound and hit Stone Island for redfish cruising flooded grass on the high tide. In the Rigolets—especially at the mouth of Lake Borgne—the trout bite has been lively on moving water, with bonus slot reds mixed in. For a little less pressure, launch out of Hopedale and fish the MRGO rock dam around high tide—lots of mixed bags and zero shortage of action.

One local tip: Old-timers say, “Find the clean water and you’ll find the fish.” That’s especially true after recent rains; chase the edges of those grass lines and drained-out ponds for your best red bites.

On the dock, the talk’s all about big shrimping hauls this week, thanks in part to that new law backing up domestic Gulf shrimp over the imports—shoutout to the Texas Shrimp Association and Louisiana’s own working crews. They’re dropping off big buckets at the dock, so the bait shop is stacked if you prefer live shrimp or want fresh cut for the drum bite in the bridges.

Last note: Tangipahoa river fishers, keep an eye out for some oily debris making its way down the river channel north of Lake Pontchartrain—word is, cleanup crews are working overtime after last week’s industrial spill, so be mindful of water clarity and avoid eating fish from visibly affected areas until more is known, as reported by The Lens.

That’s the scoop for today, folks! Thanks for tuning in to the Artificial Lure fishing report—don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a local update. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn