mississippi barrier islands; cat island

i live about an hour north of the coast in mississippi. our gulf coast does not exactly have pretty water, but if you go out about 5 to 10 miles, we have the coastal barrier islands. on the southern side of the islands, the water turns bluish-green and has some decent waves at the beaches, similar to pensacola. two of the most visited islands are ship island and cat island. ship island is more of a tourist attraction with an old military fort that you can tour and has a charter boat to carry tourists that don't have their own ride. cat island is usually only visited for fishing and exploring. i'm planning my first trip to the coast with my new (read new to me, but actually 30 year old) boat. the plan is to fish for red fish and speckled trout in one of the coastal bays near the mouth of the rivers that dump into the bay. the water is very calm in the bay and pretty calm between the coast and the barrier islands. i was wondering if any of you guys had any experience with this area. my boat is pretty small (16' tri-hull) and while i'm pretty sure that i would not have any problems making the run out to cat island in the event that the fish aren't biting in the bay, i'd be interested in hearing someone else's experience with taking a smaller boat out in the ocean.
thanks for any input.
wooter

Re: mississippi barrier islands; cat island

just back from my first salt water fishing trip to bay st. louis mississippi. we ended up with 30 keeper trout; speckled and white. we got 5 redfish in the boat but all were under the slot limit size. i ended up not taking my boat and boy am i glad! with hurricane ida just a few hundred miles away in the gulf, the tide was way more rough than usual. i wouldn't have been able to leave the bay in my boat, and it would have been pretty rough inside the protection of the bay too. we fished from a 22' cape horn center console that belongs to a friend of mine. i really look forward to going back when the water is calmer so i can take my own boat. the good thing is, even if the bay is rough, most of the fish are caught inside the mouth of the rivers that feed the bay and any boat that floats would be appropriate for fishing there.

Re: mississippi barrier islands; cat island

The islands you speak of are 12 miles out in the gulf. That 12 miles of gulf water is no different than all the other gulf waters in that the wave action is the same.
I would only take a 16 foot boat to the islands if I was VERY confident that those 12 miles of gulf water was going to be flat for at least 24 hours straight. That water can get too rough for most recreational boats in a matter of a couple hours.
Even then I would be packing supplies in order to spend a night or two on the islands if I had too. I believe it is against the rules to camp on West Ship Island (the one serviced by the ferry).
But you can camp on East Ship and Cat Islands.

You can also go nude sunbathing on the east end of West Ship Island.

Re: mississippi barrier islands; cat island

so you're saying i should bring binoculars and a telephoto lens camera to the east end of west ship island?!?