Mississippi

Fishing in Mississippi

21 prime state fishing lakes with 4,643 acres of surface waters offering freshwater fishing and 27 miles of open, public beach of Mississippi Gulf Coast providing fantastic saltwater fishing make fishing in Mississippi another life-time experience.

Freshwater Fishing

Northern Region

Elvis Presley Lake: This 332 acre lake situated in Lee County gives abundant fishing of smallmouth, spotted, striped and white bass, crappie, redear, bluegill and catfish. The best bait is t-rigged plastics and minnows. Crappie is caught by anglers with jigs and minnow. Bream are taken with crickets and worms. Catfish are taken with worms and chicken liver.

Lake Monroe: This 99 acre lake located in Monroe County gives good catches of bass, redear, crappie, bluegill and catfish. The best bait for bass is a T-rigged worm or a crankbait. For crappie, minnow is the best choice. For bream, try tight-lining wigglers off the fishing piers, on the banks and shallow cover near deeper water. Try tight-lining liver early and late in day, for catfish.

Oktibbeha County Lake: This is 513 acre lake in Oktibbeha County and gives catches of variety of fishes like largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, striped and white bass, crappie, bluegill, redear and so on. T-rigged plastics and white spinnerbaits give good bass, while tight-lining traditional catfish baits, like nightcrawlers, liver etc. give good catfish. Beetlespins or tight-lining crickets are best for bream.

Tippah County Lake: It is a 145 acre lake located in the Tippah County, and gives all types of bass, longear, channel catfish, blue catfish, walleye, crappie, and so on. It has a great population of catfish. Best baits are tight-lined worms and crickets for breams, texas-rigged plastic worms and crankbaits for bass, minnows and jigs for crappie and worms and livers for catfish.

Central Region

Calling Panther Lake: This 512 acre lake located in Copiah County gives wide variety of bass, crappie, bluegill, walleye, blue catfish, and so on. Best baits for bass is dark colored soft plastics, while that for bream are crickets and redworms, cutbait or cool-cat worms for catfish, and minnow or jig for crappie.

Kemper County Lake: This is a 595 acre lake in Kemper County and gives all types of bass, crappie, blue catfish, bluegill, longear, flathead catfish, and so on. The best baits are shad, worms, lizards and crankbaits for bass. Bluegill breams bite excellent on redworms, redear are fair on redworms too. Catfish are best caught on stinkbait and lives.

Lake Claude Bennett: This is a 71 acre lake located in Jasper County giving a good catch of variety of fishes like bass, channel catfish, walleye, bream, longear, and so on. Best baits are weedless plastics in watermelon seed color for bass, so also are dark colored spinnerbaits in deeper areas. Some huge bream are caught here and crickets work best for them. They make the fishing in Mississippi special!

Lake Rose Barnett: It is a 81 acre lake in Smith County, and gives numerous bass, and bream, and other fishes like bluegill, walleye, channel catfish etc. Best baits are various plastics and small topwater baits for bass, redworms for breams, and tightline livers for catfish.

Lake Tom Bailey: This is a 182 acre lake giving bass, and crappie in good amounts, so also other fishes like crappie, channel catfish, bluegill, etc. Best baits spinnerbaits and plastics for bass, crickets and redworms for bream.

Neshoba County Lake: This is 138 acre lake in Neshoba County giving bass, bream, crappie, channel catfish, longear, walleye, etc. Best baits are worms and topwater baits for bass, crickets without a weight, flies and worms for bream, small jigs, and small green and white spinners for crappie, and liver for catfish.

Simpson County Lake: It is a 76 acre lake in the Simpson County and gives good amount of bass and other fish. Best baits are lizards for bass, crickets and waxworms for bream, and liver for catfish.

Southern Region

Lake Bill Waller: It is a 168 acre lake located in Marion County giving bass, bream, crappie and other fish. Best baits are soft plastics, live shiners, goldfish, and topwater bait like plastic frogs for bass, and worms and cricket for bream.

Saltwater Fishing

The Gulf Coast of Mississippi is 27 miles long and have dozens of public fishing piers to give you variety of species like spotted seatrout, red drum, Spanish mackerel, flounder, jack crevalle, and the most sought after heavy-weight Cobia.

Some of these fishing piers are Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulf Port, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, and so on.

Then there are the Barrier Islands, Ship, Horn, and Petit Bois, stretched from one end of the Mississippi sound to the other. They provide good fishing opportunities. Ship Island is the most easily accessible. The legendary west bar of Horn Island is famous for producing season’s first Cobia or lemonfish each year. Silver or gold casting spoons are good choices for fishing in these waters and anglers are advised to use black steel leaders too. Spotted seatrout or speckled trout too is also a much found and sought after species here.

Cat Island, though is not an official part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, has some wonderful fishing spots like South Bayou, Smuggler’s Cove and Sawmill Bayou, giving excellent trout fishing. A novice angler can chase birds here to find out the locations of the fish. When herring or laughing gulls are seen diving in the waters, there should be the fish around. Chase the gulls and you will have found the fish!

Such exciting is the fishing in Mississippi! So when will you be planning to go for it?