Coastal Fishing Connections Newsletter - 10/1/2018
- Coastal Fishing Connections
- Oct 3, 2018
- 11 min read
The Hunt For Red October
For locals who love to spend time in the outdoors, the dreaded dog days of August and September have now passed. A hint of Fall has been in the air for the last several days and can be experienced first hand if you spend 15-30 minutes outdoors before the sun comes up or a couple hours after it goes down. Avid anglers along the Gulf Coast eagerly await this transition and the fun it brings this time of year.
If your goal is to target redfish, October is one of the best months of the year to do so. We may not have the bounty of speckled trout and redfish that Louisiana does, but Coastal Alabama still has one of the best fisheries in in the nation and one of the most beautiful estuaries in the world. Even if the fish aren't biting particularly well one day, simply cruising the rivers of the Mobile Delta can provide a peaceful calm that will repair and replenish your soul.
It was 3 years ago I first experienced the Fall schooling redfish phenomena. One early morning at Big Mouth in Weeks Bay, it was abundantly obvious that fish had been caught here recently based on the number of boats launching and anglers lining up its concrete wall. The pogies were thicker than molasses providing us with all the bait we needed with one cast of the net. We set out 3 lines, one with a slip cork and a pogie, one with just a free-lined pogie and another Carolina rigged and set out on the bottom.
As darkness turned to daylight, the frequency of ferocious golden predators breaching the top of the water to eat, drastically increased until all you could see was a sea of gold backs. Within a few minutes of deployment our slip cork and free-lined pogies had both been picked up, initiating a fierce battle to land the fish. Looking around us, there were several anglers engaged in combat. Within an hour to two, the battles were over and the fish moved on. That insane rush of adrenaline was unforgettable and I look forward to every year.
It won't take getting on any special phone call lists or secret groups to know when the bite is on down there, just take an early morning cruise by the ramp and see how many people are on the wall and on the water. The redfish will be cruising through there pretty good from now until the end of November.
Having told the story above, my favorite way to target redfish this time of year is with pogies, carolina rigged around dropoffs and creek mouths on a falling tide. Additionally, in the bays, keep your eyes to the skies for birds and you will surely find some redfish schooling. Pogies will limit the number of trash fish you catch and are very hearty when left in their environment to swim freely.
Captain Patric Garmeson shares his favorite ways and baits to maximize your catching success also. "Redfish are not picky this time of year. However, there are a few baits that can bring better success. Live shrimp can always be an option but in my opinion not the best. Not the best, because everything eats shrimp which can and will reduce your time with bait in the water. Bull minnows, pogies, shad, and mullet minnows are all great bait options for redfish this time of year. These finfish can take a few hits from less desirable fish and remain on the hook."
News, Notes and More!
We appreciate our loyal readers but have an announcement to make. We will be moving the blog to once monthly. We plan to post the actual fishing report from each guide on the Coastal Fishing Connections Facebook page. The monthly blog will be topical and continue to feature Coastal Culinary Delights from Melinda Ellis. We will continue to develop the blog based on your feedback.
On Thursday, October 4th, ACFA will hold their monthly meeting at Moe's Original BBQ in downtown Mobile. They have some great speakers lined up to share their tips on being more successful in the Fall.
For information on what's biting, what to use and other tips to catch more fish, check out the guide reports each week. We cover Orange Beach to the Mississippi Sound. Be sure and check out MeMe's kitchen below for a great new recipe. Until next time, Get out there, keep those lines tight and rods bent!
These reports require a collaborative effort from all the contributors, so please click their link and follow their social media accounts. Look for the column header that says weekly drawing, email your answer to coastalfishingconnections@gmail.com to get in the drawing held on Facebook live on Sunday nights @coastalfishingconnections at 8 p.m.
Also, subscribe on our website at www.bentoutfittersfishing.com to receive these reports as they come out. Please leave comments at the bottom of the blog after reading and let us know if you find the information interesting and helpful.
MeMe's Coastal Delights by Melinda Ellis
"Ok...calm down! These are not oyster flavored muffins, but simply a quick and easy way to cook oysters in a muffin pan. You can put these in the oven or on the grill, but I think the best flavor comes from those on the grill. It’s easiest using a disposable pan like the ones pictured.
Oyster Muffins
Ingredients
Oysters (shucked and cleaned)
2 sticks of melted butter
2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp of minced garlic
2 tsps of Mrs Dash or Complete seasoning. (or mix and match seasonings to your liking)
Salt/pepper to taste
If you like a little kick, add a couple shakes of hot sauce.
Juice of a lemon
Parmesan cheese
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees or prep grill.
Mix melted butter, all seasonings, lemon juice and Worcestershire together.
Place 1 oyster (2 if they are small) in each muffin round.
Fill up each round half-way with butter mixture and put in preheated oven or grill.
Cook until 3/4 of the butter mixture is absorbed or evaporated (oysters should be plump looking and edges turned up) and then cover each round with Parmesan cheese and place back in oven or on grill until cheese is melted.
The possibilities are endless with this recipe...you can add all kinds of cheeses, bacon bits, spinach, jalapeños ...you name it and the best part is the quick and easy clean up...just toss the disposable muffin pan!"
Sponsor Spotlight
Congratulations to Jeff Vadakin for winning the $ 25.00 Academy gift card.
Weekly Giveaway
We will postpone any further drawings as we line up sponsors. Thank you to those who have been participating each week and congratulations to all the winners so far. If you know anyone who has a business that would like to be featured in the weekly blog, tell them about us and let us know.
Coastal Alabama Fishing Reports
Mobile Delta
Dippi Outdoors - Dip McMillian
Email: alkeenmcmillan87@gmail.com
Phone: 251-747-9261
Dip says, "The Fall bite is finally here and the crappies are hungry for sure! I fished the lower Tensaw Saturday morning, and the bite was outstanding. Most all my fish were in 3-6 ft of water on structure. Every piece of structure I trolled by had a few crappies on it, including some giants. I couldn't get them to bite a jig at all. They were hitting minnows only. On one of my poles I used a pink jig head tipped with a minnow, and they couldn't resist that combination at all. I ended the trip mid morning and kept 24 slabs.
This morning me and one of my best friends went back on the lower Tensaw. The bite was slow at daylight, but it didn't take long for them to start feeding. There were times this morning, six poles were hard to keep up with. They were in the same depth as yesterday, but there were more bites by far. We ended the trip with 41 keepers.
If you love dem crappies, there is only one man to call around here, Dip McMillian of Dippi Outdoors!
Surfside
Orange Beach - Gulf Shores – Fort Morgan
Bama Beach Bum Fishing - Matthew Isbell
Facebook: @bamabeachbumfishing
Instagram: @bamabeachbum_fishing
Cell: 334-391-5913
Matt continues to bring the heat from the beach as the temps start to fall. Matt tells us this week that, "Whiting fishing is still the best opportunity right now. They have been the most consistent bite the past week. We’ve got a pretty solid East wind the next few days that is causing some pretty strong current this week and restricting your options to maintain fishing close to the beach. The more line you have out in the water the more drag you create on your rig and it tends to pull your weight out of the sand. But this won’t hurt your chances at the whiting and redfish!
There have been some flounder spreading out in the surf. I’ve just started trying to target them a little and we are seeing a couple per trip. It would be worth throwing some jigs like Gulp or live baits on a Carolina rig such as bull minnows or finger mullet. Focus on the deep holes close to the beach and you are likely to find some hanging around."
Matt Isbell of Bama Beach Bum Fishing offers fun-filled family surf fishing experiences while feeling the sand between your toes on the beaches between Fort Morgan and Orange Beach.
The Pier Review
Captain David Collins
Captain Collins says, "This week, the pier in Guf Shores displayed a strong mackerel bite. Many limits of kings and spanish were harvested there this past week. Taking the good with the bad, of course the sharks showed up also. If you wanted to land that mackerel it was a race against the Tax Man.
Whiting are in the shallows also. If you want to catch a whiting, try dead shrimp carolina rigged on a size 2 kahle hook. You will be sure to bring home some groceries.
Y'all get out there and enjoy the cooler temps that are coming!
Keep up with the latest Gulf State Pier information at GSPierfishing.com. or on Alabama Pier Rats.
Offshore Report
The water has been good enough offshore. Just this past week, a friend of mine found the blue water and put together a great box of fish within 60 miles of shore. Michael Smith and his crew aboard his brand new 35 foot Sea Hunter, took his boys and some friends out for a trip to remember.
INSHORE REPORT
Orange Beach / Perdido Key / Gulf Shores - Wolf Bay - ICW
The black drum, redfish and white trout bite has been solid on the ICW using dead shrimp and the speckled trout bite has picked up during tidal movement early in the morning, late in the afternoon and in the evenings around dock lights in Orange Beach.
Mobile Bay - Dauphin Island – Fort Morgan
Irish Wake Fishing - Captain Jay O’Brien
Facebook: @ IrishWake Fishing
Instagram: @Irish Wake Fishing
Website: www.irishwakefishing.com
Phone: 251-272-4285
Captain JayO says, Well we got a little break in the heat this past week, let’s hope that means that Fall is on the way along with that Fall bite! The bite seemed to be better this past week early. The redfish started showing up in good numbers as well.
We also tagged and released some really nice trout this past week.
Live shrimp under slip corks continue to be the ticket in most areas. We have still been concentrating on the wrecks, artificial reefs and rigs from the middle part of the bay all the way to the lower end of the Bay. Along with live shrimp under slip corks we have also been picking up fish on Rappala Skitterwalkers early and Lil Slick lures fished deep on the bottom. Captain JayO is very mobile running trips from Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan. Captain JayO has years of experience fishing our local waters and is sure to provide you and your family with a fun-filled, fish catching experience on the water. Irish Wake Fishing’s motto is Trophies, Groceries and Good Times!
Irish Wake Fishing would also like to thank their sponsors Islamorada Boatworks, Cajun Custom Rods and Smith Optics.
Eastern Shore - Mobile Bay - Dauphin Island
Ugly Fishing - Captain Patric Garmeson
Facebook: @ugly.fishing
Instagram: @ugly_fishing
Website: www.uglyfishing.com
Cell: 251-747-1554
A hint of fall in the water, not in the air. The air temps are not dropping much but we found several signs of fall this past week. Redfish, speckled trout, black drum, white trout, tripletail, Flounder, Mangrove snapper and blue crabs were all caught this week.
Sunday, I had a very eventful day but managed to take my son and one of his friends fishing/crabbing. Our mission was targeting crabs and catch a few fish. Each stop we made only yielded a couple crabs but we made enough moves to round up a total of 19 crabs. While dropping lines for crabs the boys were casting live shrimp. They finally located some 12+” (legal minimum size limit) mangrove snapper. The legal sized mangrove snapper seem to be in the highest supply in the fall each year. If you plan to target mangrove snapper then fish tight to the structure in Mobile river, Theodore canal, and lower Mobile Bay Deep structure.
Monday, I slipped out to scout some Fairhope waters. Redfish was my focus but tried for some speckled trout as well. My goal for the day was to locate as many docks that would produce fish. Well, the result was that i fished 1.9 miles of shoreline and landed several nice redfish in the process.
Tuesday, I had repeat clients on the boat. 90% chance of rain. That part was accurate. It rained and rained again then it finally lifted. We started fishing around 8:30am from Weeks Bay and they landed redfish, speckled trout, flounder and even mangrove snapper. The redfish bite was the highlight of the trip. All redfish were landed on bull minnows and all other fish were landed on live shrimp.
Wednesday, was another scouting day. Launched the boat at mullet point and worked each dock to the north in search of new docks to catch redfish. This provided quite a bit of action. I fished with my friend Josh Boyd and he and I caught reds and puppy drum on bull minnows, mullet minnows and live shrimp. We later ran out into the bay and found some triple tail. One fish stole our bait once and we spooked twice and still managed to land the fish. Really cool when persistence pays off.
Thursday, off day. Hung out with my wife and we caught some redfish at an undisclosed location. ;-)
Friday, I had a husband and wife team from the Tuscaloosa area. I had some plan shifts and changed original departure location on the fly. We ended up leaving Deer River bait and Tackle at 6:15am and we had glass calm conditions to run out into the bay. Our first stop yielded just shy of a two man limit of speckled trout. We had to use three different live bait presentations to get the job done. Our diversity in bait presentation helped to put additional fish in the boat. Live shrimp freelined, slip corked(at various depths) and under a popping cork all worked well. Our next few stops put more speckled trout and a slough of redfish in the boat.
Saturday, we found gulls working a shallow area with shrimp fleeing hungry speckled trout and white trout. Popping corks rigged with vudu, rattle-shrimp, and Betts perfect sinker shrimp provided fantastic action for several hours. Later on in this trip we specifically targeted redfish in the delta. The numbers were slightly down from where I had planned but several were hooked and landed.
The upcoming week I will likely fish from the causeway to the beach and target anything that will bite. Best of luck on your next trip."
Captain Patric Garmeson is very mobile running trips from Dauphin Island to Gulf Shores. Captain Patric has years of experience fishing our local waters and is sure to provide you and your family with a fun-filled, fish catching experience on the water.
Summary
Regardless of the forecasts, the avid anglers and boating enthusiasts will find a way to get their fix. Just a friendly reminder; have all your safety gear up to date, be safe and courteous and but most of all keep those rods bent!
If you are planning a vacation to the area and want to take advantage of great fishing, cruise the bay or islands, there are plenty of options for you. Special thanks to all the contributors for this report. We look forward to keeping you informed each week of what's happening on the water.
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