Artificial Lure here, bringing you the morning scoop on fishing in and around the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, this fine November 18th, 2025. Let’s jump right in, because the bite’s been exciting with the late fall cool-down.

Weather’s crisp and stable today, promising partly cloudy skies with a gentle north breeze. Water temps are trending in the mid-to-upper 60s, and that’s just right for getting everything from specks to reds feeding up before winter. Sunrise was at 6:02 am and you’ll be packing up at sunset around 5:14 pm, so plenty of daylight for a double tide swing.

Looking at the tides for South Pass—a favorite jumping-off point for many—expect a midday high right around 12:17 pm at 1.6 feet, followed by a gradual drop to a low of -0.1 feet at 11:56 pm, according to tides4fishing.com. These moderate swings are prime for moving bait, so expect the best action an hour either side of the peak.

Fish activity is ramping up as these fronts roll through. Louisiana Sportsman reports some solid catches all week: flounder stacking up around Grand Isle (Hudson Millet recently landed a beautiful 3.1-pounder out there), with the sheepshead bite firing up as they gang up on hard structure like pilings and rocks. Out of Fourchon, folks are still marking good numbers of redfish and a few chunky scamp grouper on the deeper edges. Speckled trout stories are circulating—according to FishGame, big Gulf trout are being fooled around oyster reefs, especially on incoming tides.

What’s working? For specks and reds, you just can’t beat plastics right now. That new Live Target Croaker swimbait is tearing them up—especially over grass beds and drains, where it mimics the real deal and swims weedless over structure, per Louisiana Sportsman. Old-schoolers are still having luck with chartreuse and white paddle tails—think Matrix Shad or even a Strike King Thunder Cricket bladed jig. If you’re after big reds on grass flats, try a gold spoon or a bone-colored topwater at first light. For sheepshead, tie on a chunk of fresh shrimp or fiddler crab and bounce around docks and rock jetties for tackle-busting battles.

Recent reports on Spreaker's Gator Grapple podcast have Grand Isle (especially Elmer’s Island) and Fourchon jetties firing for mixed bags—reds, trout, and flounder. On calmer days, the rigs out of Cocodrie are giving up keeper mangrove snapper and the occasional grouper for those running deep and dropping heavier jigs or live mullet.

A couple of hot spots to put on your map today:
- **Empire Rock Jetties:** Consistent for sheepshead and slot reds with live or dead shrimp.
- **Bayou Rigolettes, Venice:** Early topwater action for trout, followed by steady redfish on gold spoons as the tide moves out. Keep an eye on those drains—bait’s pushing in with every high water.

Legal tip of the week: The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries was out early this month, making sure oyster regs are followed around St. Bernard and Terrebonne, so keep permits up to date and stay inside harvest zones.

To recap: trout, reds, and flounder are all in play, but finesse your presentation. Think natural baitfish profiles, change up those retrieves, and don’t sleep on the mid-morning bite as water warms up a hair. Hit those structure points at tide swing, and you’ll fill a box no problem.

Thanks for tuning in to today’s Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishing rundown with Artificial Lure. Be sure to subscribe for more local, boots-on-the-ground reports and tackle tips.

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