Darren Shirah and Josh Gunter on the Fall Delta Bite
59m | Oct 1, 2026This week’s Mobile-Tensaw Delta Fishing Report covers the first real taste of fall in the Delta, with cooler mornings, better boat weather, bluegill, bass, crappie, shrimp, redfish, jack crevalle, and the beginning of the inshore transition. Nick Williams opens the show with an update on getting his jon boat back in shape with a new motor, taking the family out on the water, and looking ahead to the part of the year when fishing, hunting, crabbing, hogs, and cooler weather all start to overlap.
Darren Shirah of Reel Time Outdoors with Darren kicks things off with a mixed Delta report focused on bluegill, bass, crappie, and old-school rough fish tactics. Darren explains that bluegill are beginning to bunch up around points, creek mouths, small drops, and shallow structure as the water cools and days get shorter. The size has not fully turned on yet, but he is starting to see better-quality bream show up, especially in the creeks and in parts of the interior Delta that had been quiet most of the year.
Darren also reports that bass are biting well, though most of his recent fish have been smaller. He has been catching them on June bug worms, purple worms, speed craws, and other simple Delta staples rather than shrimp imitations, partly because there are so many live shrimp in the system right now. He also shares encouraging crappie signs, including fish showing up shallower around structure and hitting beetle spins. The conversation takes a fun turn into buffalo carp, cane poles, dog food chum, gold hooks, carp ribs, mullet fishing, and the old-school ways people used to make use of just about everything they caught.
Then Josh Gunter of Steele Creek Bait & Tackle checks in with an update on the shrimp-driven fall transition. Josh says shrimp are everywhere right now, including places where people might not expect to find them, and that bass, crappie, and inshore fish are all keying in on the same food source. The abundance of bait has made the fishing a little more mobile, with anglers having to move from school to school and focus on active points, cuts, flats, lily pad edges, and other places where shrimp are moving through.
Josh also reports strong salinity, live shrimp availability, hot DOA shrimp colors, jack crevalle showing up in the rivers, and a building sense that the river and Causeway fishing is right on the edge of breaking wide open. The coming rain may slow things briefly, but with so much salt in the system and big tides pushing water around, Josh expects the bite to bounce back quickly. The episode closes with the sense that the Delta is entering one of its best windows of the year, when anglers can leave the ramp with shrimp, artificial lures, or a fly rod and realistically run into bass, bream, crappie, redfish, speckled trout, jacks, and more in the same general system.
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