Mississippi Sound Hits 73°F as Late-Spring Inshore Season Peaks

What's Biting

What's Next

With water locked at 73°F, the Mississippi Sound enters what is historically its most productive inshore window of the year. Speckled trout should be feeding aggressively along grass-and-sand transitions and shell reefs, particularly during the low-light periods bracketing sunrise and sunset. The Waning Gibbous moon — just past full — is pushing moonrise into the overnight and pre-dawn hours, compressing the prime feeding window into the first hour of light. Anglers who can be on structure before 7 a.m. this week are likely to hit the most active bite.

Winds measured at NOAA buoy 42067 are running approximately 23 knots, which will push a manageable chop over the open Sound and may limit comfortable runs to exposed offshore reefs. Watch for any southerly backing or velocity drop over the next 24–48 hours — a layout event after a multi-day wind run often fires trout and redfish activity along protected marsh shorelines as wind-driven bait gets pushed against structure.

Spanish mackerel are classic early-May arrivals in the Sound, typically chasing glass minnow and scaled sardine schools as nearshore water crosses the 70°F threshold. Keep a light spinning rod rigged with a 1/2-oz. silver spoon or small Clarkspoon ready — when mackerel find bait on the surface, fast horizontal retrieves produce near-instant strikes. If the sounder marks dense bait over nearshore reefs in the 8–15 foot range, there are almost certainly predators stacked beneath it at this stage of the season.

Redfish should be actively working grassy shorelines and back bay cuts. The waning moon phase tends to moderate mid-day feeding bursts; offset this by targeting moving water on the outgoing tide along marsh edges. Weedless soft-plastic paddle tails or float rigs with live shrimp near submerged points and channel edges are the most dependable approach. As the week progresses and water inches warmer, expect fish to push shallower on falling tides in the afternoon.

Black drum should be holding on dock pilings, bridge fenders, and exposed oyster bars through the remainder of May. Bottom rigs with fresh-cut crab or peeled shrimp near hard structure remain the standard method — this is a slow, patient bite best worked on a slack or slow-moving tide.

Context

For Mississippi Sound, a water temperature of 73°F in early May is right on seasonal schedule. The Sound typically climbs from the upper 60s in late April into the low-to-mid 70s during the first week of May, and 73°F sits squarely in the band that historically corresponds with the year's best mixed-bag inshore fishing before summer heat pushes surface temperatures into the upper 80s.

Speckled trout are most reliably caught in the 68–78°F range across the northern Gulf Coast, and this window — mid-April through early June — is the primary season before fish scatter into deeper, cooler structure. Redfish, flounder, and Spanish mackerel all share this productive spring period in the Sound, making May one of the few months when a single outing can reasonably target four or more species.

This update cycle includes no direct captain, charter, or tackle shop reports specific to Mississippi Sound, so a precise week-over-week comparison to recent seasons is not possible from available data. The buoy reading is consistent with expectations for this date, and no anomalous cold-water event, significant storm disruption, or other environmental outlier is visible in the data to suggest conditions are running off-schedule. MS DMR permit application activity in Jackson County this period reflects ongoing coastal development but contains no fishing condition advisories relevant to on-water planning.