Fourchon close rigs

you can catch some nice reds and drum at the near shore rigs

I've caught some nice mangroves at some of the close rigs before. This was several year ago and I don't remember what time of year it was. I don't know if they're there year round or not.

Caught a double limit of 5-9 lb mangroves off one rig last weekend in 52 feet of water. Could see clearly the big shed looking thing off coast of Fourchon.

Use cut porgy and chum them up. Keep chumming until you get them to the middle-back of boat. I used 20lb florocarbon and the heaviest bass rod I own. No issues. If you hook em close to the rig you will never get them out

When you go out of Belle Pass to the southeast there's a big yellow structure that is 3 platforms connected by walkways. I'd start there...lots of legs in the water to hold fish.

Got our limit on specs last weekend and decided to go mangrove fishing after. We didn't have croakers but caught our limit off of freelining live shrimp hooked in the middle of the body with a super small weight, cause the current was so bad. We were just east of where you want to fish in the GI blocks in 55' of water. Fish the up current side of the rig and don't be scared to let your bait get pretty far under the platform. We used spinning reels with 80 pound power pro, regular 30 pound mono as a leader and small circle hooks. Good luck.