Mendicant Island Tide Charts & Fishing

Season: Year-round, best in cooler months

Baits: Live shrimp under a popping cork, Soft plastics, Topwaters

Drift grass flats in 2–6 feet with a popping cork ahead of the drift. Gator trout hunt alone in skinny water at dawn.

Season: Year-round, best in fall

Baits: Cut mullet, Live shrimp, Gold spoons

Sight-fish tailing reds on shallow flats on a flooding tide. Fall schools push bait against oyster bars and grass edges.

Season: Spring and fall; the fall run to the passes is the event

Baits: Live mud minnows, Finger mullet, Gulp! shrimp on a jig head

Drag a bait slowly along the bottom at channel edges, jetty rocks and the down-current side of structure on an outgoing tide. In the fall, flounder stack in passes and inlets on their way to the Gulf or ocean; fish the drop-offs then.

Season: Winter – early spring

Baits: Fiddler crabs, Shrimp, Barnacles

Fish tight to pilings and rocks — the bite is a subtle tick. Set the hook the instant you feel weight; they steal baits for a living.

Season: Fall through spring; big drum run the passes in late winter

Baits: Blue crab halves, Dead shrimp, Clams

A bottom fish that feeds by feel, so scent beats action: crab or shrimp on a fish-finder rig, left still on a channel edge, jetty or bridge. The late-winter run of 30-plus pound drum through Gulf and Atlantic passes is a shore-fishable event; keep the small ones, release the big breeders.