Offshore fishing should be good through the winter. I would recommend fishing 100 feet and deeper in the cold months. You can still catch amberjack, vermillion snapper, white snapper, triggerfish, scamp and red grouper through the winter. Always try cut squid and whole squid. Live bait is good when you can find it. Watch the weather forecast and find you a nice day between cold fronts. Alabama Gulf Coast EditionJan 1st, 2014
HAPPY NEW YEAR ! With Christmas behind us, we can start planning for the new year and hopefully warmer temps soon which leads to good fishing, wishful thinking I know, but hey it beats dreading winter. With lower air and water temps the trout will still be in the deeper tidal rivers that dump into the Bay and Sound. If you can find live shrimp, by all means get some before you leave the dock, if not the good ole shrimp and minnow imitations will work well fished on a 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jig head. Fish deep from 8 to 12 feet and even deeper in the holes where the water temperatures and salinity are constant; AND remember present the baits SLOW, SLOW , SLOW and keep the jig head in contact with the bottom as much as possible. Alabama Gulf Coast EditionJan 1st, 2014
December brings a definitive chill to the water and air which signals the onset of true winter weather along the beaches of coastal Alabama. The two sides of that coin are the warm, windy and often wet days that precede the periodic cold fronts and the colder, dryer, clearer days that follow the fronts. If there are enough days between the weather systems, we are provided with a day (or two) of pleasantly mild and often sunny weather to pursue the fish which remain in our waters even as they cool well into the lower 60s.Alabama Gulf Coast EditionDec 1st, 2013
Thanksgiving is behind us and cooler days and nights prevail. We had some epic trips in November and things should progress into December before the really cold months of January and February make fishing more difficult. With the colder air and water temperatures, the speckled trout will move into the deeper parts of the rivers that feed into Mobile Bay, Fowl River Bay, Grand Bay, Portersville Bay and others. When its colder the trout will hold up in the deeper holes of these rivers like Fowl River, Dog River, Little River and Bayou La Batre. The deeper holes are often found where the river makes a hard bend; Fish a carolina rig or slip cork rig deep and on the ledges around these holes with a live shrimp or imitation shrimp if you can get them, if not use a VuDu shrimp; I have found that the new VuDu shrimp are one of, if not the best, soft plastic shrimp imitation baits ever made. I love the natural, cajun pepper, gold and brown shrimp varieties. For redfish try the same tactic, although you can use a dead shrimp too fished on the bottom, or smaller finger mullet, mud minnows or Alabama Gulf Coast EditionDec 1st, 2013
November was well above average with a red hot fish bite. The bull redfish are here and here in numbers. Our best trip in November was a charter with two of our boats fishing side by side with one group. We caught and released over 50 bull redfish weighing between 17 and 30 pounds on a 4 hour charter. Some were caught by trolling and some were caught by casting curly tail jigs on light spinning tackle. This fishing for bull redfish should be great in December and through early Spring. We should also continue to catch some big king mackerel along with Spanish mackerel though late fall and early winter. Remember, a 4 hour charter is all you need to target winter redfish.Alabama Gulf Coast EditionDec 1st, 2013
HO-HO-HO, is it really that time already? Where has the months gone by? Seems like just yesterday we discussing fishing the rigs and the wrecks. Well, the cold weather is finally moving in with consistency and the water temps have begun cooling down and the trout and reds are finally showing up in the rivers with some consistency. While the diving birds feeding on fleeing shrimp have not shown up like in the past, the trout and reds have. The deeper rivers are starting to hold hungry trout and reds. Throwing 3/8 oz jigheads bounced off the bottom with a grub is starting to reward anglers. As long as the water temps don't drop anymore, some trout have been caught on the flats under a popping cork with a live shrimp. Rig a popping cork with a 2-3 ft leader and a treble hook for some good nonstop action. The reds have been showing up along the banks of the Blakely and Tensaw rivers. There have been some showing up under some diving pelicans and seagulls in the rivers themselves. So, gear up and go catch some good fishing before jolly ole St. Nick comes to visit. Remember to put some new fishing gear down on Santa's list for that favorite angler. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!Alabama Gulf Coast EditionDec 1st, 2013