Lower Pearl

Planning a trip, y'all still catching fish in the lower Pearl/mud lake area?

I gave the Rigolets area a shot last Sunday. It's really slowed down in the marsh areas. Think winter spots and you may have to fish hard. If the Pearl River is not too fresh, best bet is to fish the bottom of the river with lures, cocohoe minnows, or live shrimp. If the river is fresh, try some manmade canals.

Water still dirty and falling from the last rise, not good. Was out there Dec 11 with no luck. Better off going elsewhere.

Thanks y'all, just put another motor on my ol boat so I'm itching to take it out lol.. I usually do pretty well around there but it's been a few years since I've been. I'll wait til a few fronts come through to go out there and hammer the green trout coming out the cuts in the marsh.

If its been a few years, you may not know how much the hydrology of the region has changed. The Rigolets, Lake Pontchartrain, and Lake Catherine areas are much fresher with MRGO closed in several places. There are still trout to be caught, but its more sporadic action and they tend to be smaller now. There are still some speckled logs, but harder to come by. In fact, without a good east wind every now and then, the salinity gets pretty low.

I've monitored the USGS gauges, and much of the year the salinity is 5 ppt or less.There are more bass, redfish, and drum, but less trout. It seems like the flounder runs don't occur anymore, either, in this area.

Plot of Rigolet's salinity trend in October from 2004-2014. And keep in mind this is usually a 'low river' month when salinities tend to be higher. 2015 also had low salinity.