Mansfield Report: May 2026

Greetings from Port Mansfield! Let me start by saying it turned out to be one heck of a late spring bite, especially for big trout. Before I get into that let me set the tone on our current conditions. Water levels have returned to typical late spring tides, significantly expanding our back-bay opportunities. The results have been consistently rewarding and thrilling. Southerly winds also remain on the higher end, but it has not affected us much in the back bays fishing over grass and scattered sand pockets.

 Since history has a way of repeating itself, we should take a little stroll down memory lane, back to the third week of March 2018. “Mississippians” Patrick and Glen came down simply to target trophy trout. This was back when there were way fewer trophy trout guides staking claim to Port Mansfield waters as their wintertime residence.

Although it was just eight years ago, our all-day wade was quiet with no other boats in sight. We had the perfect setup as I have mentioned in previous stories. In short, we were days, if not minutes within the spawn of trophy trout and we stopped smack dab in the middle of them. From plentiful six pounders to Glen’s 10 pounder, it was a trip of a lifetime. It was a day I thought would never repeat itself until the fourth week of March this year. With remarkable things never lasting forever, the big females spawned and almost immediately thereafter tons of small male trout moved in and did what they do and fertilized thousands of eggs.

This year, I chose a similar location and started fishing in what seemed to be an excellent spawning area. My decision was based on years of studying the water and recalling patterns from 2018, as well as other comparable instances during my wade fishing career. My anglers covered the area well, missing a few fish up to seven pounds. Something was not right so I moved our group no more than five hundred yards. When I did luck happened to assist me with my decision to move. We landed right in amongst them. On this particular day they did not eat like I had hoped but my mind was working overtime with what was happening. The female trout were set up to spawn in this zone.

The next day, Stephen Hicks and crew arrived, and I obviously had a plan and a good one at that. I explained to them the layout and what I thought we should do and how to approach the area. We hit the zone and in full transparency we absolutely crushed the big upper-slot redfish until we were forced to check another area many miles away, despite my resistance to do so. We moved to “pretty” water and caught a ton of fish, but not the ones we wanted. The next day it was simple, I dug in on staying in the zone I knew would produce the fish they (and I) wanted. At one point on day two we even had a little group vote on moving because of tons of big redfish were ruling the show and secondly, we were drudging through a somewhat muddy bottom, and the water clarity was not “pretty.” Despite the conversation I convinced us to stay put.

I remember telling the guys, sure we can move to pretty water but if you want a double-digit trout it is going to happen here. As patience was key things unfolded nicely with multiple big trout coming to hand to include a solid 10-pounder that I caught via sight cast and taped slightly beyond the 30-inch mark. Stay tuned for her photo to appear in the near future.

With fish like that it was certainly a trip to remember. We played the right hand with a sprinkle of luck on top, and it was another record trip for us. I only wished someone else had landed that double digit trout, although landing eights and nines is not too bad either.

As far as lures are concerned, you guessed it; Mansfield Knockers dominated with a few good Corky thumps. That beautiful 10-pounder couldn’t resist a good ole KWigglers 4-inch paddle tail.

And, for the record two days later, I went back in to catch another pile of big fish, only to be reminded that history doesn’t always repeat itself as we only caught a ton of small, grunting male trout doing their thing.