Thread: Gulf Shores, 8 hours, ~300 lbs of fish.

The family spent the weekend in Gulf Shores, I left and met them half way Friday evening and headed South a bit further. We set up at the condo rental and crashed for the night. Everyone is wide eyed and awake at 4:45am (we beat the alarm!) and couldn't be any more excited to go fishing again. We went out on a private charter this year rather than a party boat, and boy what a difference! Snapper season opened the 1st and we fished on the 2nd.

We headed out at 6:30am and didn't catch a single fish trolling out for an hour and a half. Bummer. We hit our first spot in search of Bee Liners, small Whites, and Triggers. Bee Liners and small Whites were for bait. Triggers were keepers if caught larger enough; we caugh 2 the first stop. We were still a bit on edge for the fish count but we couldn't do anything but wait. Our first mate told us "Time to go fishing now boys." as we reeled in and went for a 15 minute ride. About 20 miles out at this point, we get instructions on how to hook a circle hook into these snappers and was then told to drop it 40 feet down and hold on!

What happened next still gives me goosebumps and smiles.

I hooked into a red that I couldn't have had more fun pulling up from that shallow. It ran hard, and went straight to the bottom. We caught our limit of 12 for the boat in 20 minutes, no lie. We were on a great honey hole that netted us ~180-200 pounds of snapper in 20 minutes. We have never caught that large of a fish, ever. We have so much good meat in the freezer.

Once that was over we went back from the smaller bottom fish like triggers and such hoping for some good white meat off them. Caught a few more but the real treat was throwing out pin fish on a spin reel and having mackerel tear them up on the top of the water. We caught 3 larger mackerel doing this, and 1 Bonita. Bonita is bait for the ship so it was more just for the fun of pulling a "Tuna style fighter" into the boat. 15 pound fish with a rod on your pelvis sure feels like a 50 or 60 pounder!


Anyways...PICTURES!

Here is a picture of my first (and largest) snapper. Best I could tell this was a 5'5" - 6'0" Heavy/Medium rod, and this fish took it to its limits. I will post the others as soon as I get them in my email.

Originally Posted by Bob D

Managed a trip to the gulf as well on the 2d. We loaded up too on the snapper, Bs and Whites. Did not do so well on the triggers though. Man there's some good eats in all of that. Congrats on a great trip out.

Triggers were slow all around from what we heard on the radio. They weren't too sure why, but I believe the moon was decent for the fish...not terribly sure on that though.

Originally Posted by Fisherman_Wantabe

Been one time, too sick to fish. RoflRofl Looks like ya'll had a blast!

I've never understood sea sickness, but I guess I shouldn't need to...I don't get it. I can't drink much beer while on a boat...but I don't get sick (or drunk). My biggest problem is trying not to fall overboard when a larger swell comes through. It's an experience when one side is a foot above the surface and the other is 6 or 7 haha.