The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet is a great place to target speckled trout in March
They say every dark cloud has a silver lining, and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet Channel (MRGO) is another example of why this idiom exists. The MRGO was basically a $100 million boondoggle, or $1.1 billion in today’s dollars, funded by the federal government in 1956. It was designed to usher ships from the Gulf of Mexico into New Orleans via a shorter path than the Mississippi River provides. It is with a sense of awe that I traverse this channel in a skiff that is hardly big enough to be a lifeboat for the intended heirs of this ambitious project.
The MRGO initially brought high salinity water to the New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain areas and kicked off a grand era of big trout fishing close to urban populations. That high salinity also caused destruction of the marshes through which the channel runs, which then led to the erosion of the banks. Case in point, the original channel banks did not have the rock armoring anglers now cherish. This came later because the channel was growing wider each year.
Like a gift that keeps on giving, the MRGO was sadly partially responsible for letting Gulf water into New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and this resulted in the construction of more fish attracting structures such as the dam at Hopedale, the flood gates at Bayou Dupre and Bayou Bienvenue, and not least of all the $1.3 billion Lake Borgne Storm Surge Barrier, also known as the Great Wall of Chalmette. This entire debacle is surely one of our nation’s most expensive, inadvertent speckled trout habitat construction projects ever.
MRGO as a fishing destination
From an angler’s perspective, the effective length of the MRGO is roughly 48 miles. On the north end it intersects the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) east of New Orleans, and on the other end its jetties peter out in Brenton Sound. I have found it useful to split this 48 miles into three sections which I label northern, central and southern. I chose the boundaries of the sections based in part on the seasonal patterns of speckled trout.
The northern section
The northern section stretches from the ICW down to where the concrete levee wall on the west bank of the MGRO ends, which is 5 miles north of Shell Beach. This region is most notable for the excellent speckled trout fishing starting in late fall and ending in early spring. It is also low in salinity most years and maintains excellent water clarity.
Some of the biggest speckled trout I will catch throughout the year come from the northern region when the water temperature is low. This region has an abundance of spots suitable for speckled trout fishing when the water temperature is typically from 50 degrees to 65 degrees. It is the deep water that makes this section such an attractive cold water habitat for trout and other gamefish. While the maximum channel depth is 40 feet, I have not found trout in depths greater than 25 feet and typically I catch trout in 15 feet depth or shallower.
The water depth is often a differentiator of trout size. For instance, when fishing the channel on winter mornings, it is common to find the largest trout near the shoreline rock armoring and the schooling trout one cast away from the rocks in 12-15 feet of water depth. This is also clearly seen in years when aquatic grass is abundant on the large flat on the east side of the channel and south of the Great Wall. Here 20-inch trout will feed in water depths of 2.5 feet to 5 feet.
High current spots
One feature of the northern section is productive areas with strong currents. Some anglers target this type of habitat which is found around the Guillotine Gate in the Great Wall, around the ICW gate, and around the Bayou Bienvenue and Bayou Dupre flood gates. A smaller high current area, which offers excellent fishing, is a walled pocket on the southeastern side of the ICW gate where an opening in the sheet piling wall allows water to flow into the pocket. Then there is the boss of high current spots where Lake Borgne and the MRGO meet six miles south of the Great Wall. This spot is called the Martello Castle or Tower Dupre. This area can hold enormous amounts of bait and thus attracts large schools of speckled trout and white trout. The hottest action here is typically in early fall.
Anglers who have learned to be successful fishing deep water with less current have a wealth of spots to choose from, which includes the MRGO channel on both sides of the Great Wall, in the ICW west of the Paris Road Bridge, the Air Products slip off of the ICW, and the 12.5 mile stretch of the MRGO’s rock armored western shoreline from the ICW to where the rocks end 5 miles north of Shell Beach.
The northern section also includes some excellent shallow water marsh fishing areas such as the flat across from the Great Wall, which was mentioned above, the eastern shoreline around Bayou Villere, and at Mosquito Bayou.
Last but not least, the entire northern section offers miles of rock shorelines which attract large speckled trout during feeding periods. These big trout are often caught with jerkbaits which makes this type of fishing a favorite of many anglers.
Most anglers access the northern section from three launches off of Paris Road near Chalmette or from the South Shore Bait and Marina on Highway 90 at the Chef Menteur Pass. Flood gate closures can sometimes make the South Shore Marina nearly the only northern access point. Anglers can also access the northern section from the Shell Beach launch.
The central section
The central section has an abundance of marsh habitat that lines the east side of the MRGO. In many spots there are bayous or channels that connect the MRGO to Lake Borgne, and these connections increase the aquatic life on the shoreline of the MRGO making them prime spots for fishing.
The Shell Beach to Lena Lagoon shoreline in good years is full of submerged aquatic grass which draws in the trout, redfish and bass. This section of shoreline and the adjoining bayous and ponds can provide some of the best redfish water anywhere along the MRGO.
A well-loved spot in the central section is the MRGO Dam just south of Hopedale Marina. This feature is called a dam but is technically a submerged earthen sill that is topped with large rock. It was built to reduce the flow of high salinity water into the northern marshes.
The MRGO Dam is loved by anglers because it provides a productive deep water fishing habitat for speckled trout, redfish, black drum and sheepshead on both sides of its exposed rock. I have caught many 20-inch-plus sized trout on the south side of this dam and several on the north side. The north side is easily accessible from Hopedale Marina by any type of boat or kayak. However, since there is no boat passage over the dam, access to the south side requires a 10.5 mile run through the marsh when launching from Hopedale Marina.
Besides the Dam itself, there are rock shorelines connected to the Dam on both the north and south sides where trout and redfish are commonly caught. Anglers looking for other rock shorelines to fish can find them along the east shoreline of the MRGO near Shell Beach, along the Lake Borgne shoreline across from Shell Beach and along the MRGO several miles south of the Dam. There is also a canal called the Trash Canal on the west side of the channel 7.5 miles south of the Dam which has rock shorelines and other hard structure.
The southern section
I consider the start of the southern section to be where the MRGO meets Lake Athanasio and extends southward until the MRGO jetties end in Breton Sound, which is approximately 12 miles.
In my experience, the southern section provides good speckled trout fishing in late spring, early summer and early fall. This part of the MRGO feels more like Gulf fishing than the other sections and the water can get quite salty. Generally the water quality is good in the southern section and in years with high spring Mississippi River flow, it often provides a refuge from the brown river water stain that can disperse across Breton Sound from the river passes.
The southern section has primarily two types of habitat, which are oyster beds and rock jetties. The oyster beds are in the Lake Athanasio area and the jetties start south of the oyster beds.
Many anglers come to the southern section to fish what are locally called the Long Rocks. The Long Rocks begin as rock armoring along the west side of the channel but become a jetty after two miles. The jetty section of the Long Rocks extends another 5 miles and has several productive features such as a navigation opening and a marsh island. Much of the Long Rocks are on a shoreline or jetty that drops sharply down to a 12-foot deep shelf, which runs along the 30-foot deep channel. Trout, redfish, sheepshead and black drum will fill this shelf. Like the MRGO rocks in the northern section, this section provides exciting trout fishing using topwater baits and jerkbaits.
Access to the southern section is from Campos Marina at Shell Beach and the Hopedale Marina. Since the MRGO Dam is blocking the passageway just south of Hopedale, anglers must either run down a canal on the west side of the MRGO, which is called the Spoil Canal, or use Bayou La Loutre and connecting lakes to reach the southern section. It is a 13 mile run on the Spoil Canal to where it meets the MRGO at the Long Rocks.
