Get All of Mississippi’s Saltwater Fish Now in August – Inshore, Offshore and In-Between
Day 2: Fish Mississippi’s August Saltwater Trifecta with Captain Robert “Pappy” Kenney
 Captain Robert “Pappy” Kenney also runs snapper trips in combination with speckled trout and redfish trips (See Day 1). “On the way out to fish for snapper, (red snapper season is closed), we generally will stop and catch a good number of speckled trout and then head out to deep water to fish for snapper,” Kenney emphasizes. “Then, we often will catch a few grouper and start heading back into dock. On the way back to Bayou Caddy, we’ll stop at a couple of redfish spots and try to catch our limit of redfish. Before returning to dock, we’ll probably look at anything floating to see if we can pick-up a tripletail. So, although we’re targeting speckled trout, snapper and redfish, we often will have grouper and tripletails in the ice chest as well.” (Be sure to check federal government and Mississippi regulations, as at this writing, grouper season is ending in June.)
 Kenney finds his snapper in a cut in the Chandeleur Islands in August. “There are plenty of snapper right outside the island, but they’re small,” Kenney mentions. “So, we go out to 6-foot-deep water or more and catch larger snapper.” Kenney uses the same bait for snapper that he does for speckled trout. “I prefer to fish with live croakers, but the snapper will take anything I can catch in my cast net,” Kenney reports. Kenney rigs by using an 80-pound-test main line tied to a three-way swivel. On the second eye of the swivel, he’ll attach a piece of lead. The weight of the lead will depend on the current. In heavy current, he’ll use heavier lead than he’ll use in light current. Coming off the three-way swivel, he’ll use 5 to 6 feet of 80-pound-test fluorocarbon attached to a No. 1 or a No. 2 Kahle hook. Then he’ll fish with live bait, depending on what he’s caught in his cast net, but hopefully he’ll have live croakers.
 To catch the grouper, Kenney uses larger live bait. “We usually will catch gag grouper that will weigh 8- to 12-pounds each, and we generally can catch from one to three of these grouper on every trip,” Kenney reveals. “Once we’ve caught our limit of snapper and a few grouper, we then run to the Biloxi Marsh and fish for redfish in the deeper cuts and holes I’ve found in the marsh.” With all this running from shallow to deep water and deep to shallow water, often Kenney and his party will pass-by crab-trap floats, patches of floating grass, an occasional piece of lumber or a dead fish or sea turtle. By staying well away from these surface structures, they may spot tripletails and use live bait, like live shrimp, to cast to them. So, there’s a good chance of catching one or more tripletails on this saltwater fishing expedition.
 Kenney generally takes a maximum of four people on his saltwater inshore, offshore and in-between trips. Kenney provides one of the best run-and-gun trips on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. No longer will you have to choose between inshore, offshore and tripletail fishing. You can do it all in one day in August as well as catch plenty of fish and have lots of fun. With this type of fishing trip, if the speckled trout aren’t biting, you’ll have numerous chances to catch other fish. This trip with Captain Robert “Pappy” Kenney definitely qualifies as a saltwater fishing adventure of a lifetime. To contact Captain Kenney, call 985-290-5764, visit www.oldprocharters.com, or email rkenney@bellsouth.net.
 To learn more about catching fish at Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, order John E. Phillips’ new Kindle eBook, “Fishing Mississippi’s Gulf Coast and Visitor’s Guide,” by going to www.amazon.com/kindle, and typing in the name of the book to purchase. Or, you can get a free Kindle app to use to download the book to your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.
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