May 31, 2010 - 18:00 pm - At this time, we are business as usual in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Alabama. Our Gulf Shores charter boats are ready to take you fishing. There are a lot of Alabama charter boats that decided not to fish and are participating in the Vessels of Opportunity program that is being offered by BP in an effort to help local fishermen. At this time, there is no sheen of oil or globs of crude oil on or near the Alabama coastline. The Alabama beaches are still beautiful with white sand. As of today, there was oil sighted just south of Dauphin Island and NOAA decided to close the waters just south of Fort Morgan to fishing. Most of the oil is currently moving westerly toward Louisiana. See todays oil spill map here. Gulf Shores, Alabama is prepared if it does come this way.
The news media indicated that the Gulf was closed to fishing weeks ago. That is WRONG. 75 percent of the Gulf of Mexico is open for fishing. Area waters, further offshore are temporarily closed to fishing for 10 days beyond the date on the fishery closure map. However, most of the fishing we catch on 4, 6 and 8 hour trips is done within the 26 miles of area this is open off of Alabama. At this time, we can still go deep sea fishing south of Orange Beach's Perdido Pass.
The fishing is great right now in spite of the Gulf of Mexico fishery closure that is located way offshore. We are catching Cobia, King Mackerel, Shark, Spanish Mackerel and Red Snapper. At this time, we are catching Red Snappers and plenty of other fish. We are still having some great light tackle action and some great weather.
We are booking fishing charters daily and are experiencing a few phone calls from customers who are concerned about the oil spill. At this time, we encourage you to plan on your Alabama vacation. Charter boats, Condo's and Hotels are waiving the cancellation policy in order to keep you from cancelling your trip. We ask you to remain calm and contact us if you have any questions about the oil spill. We promise to keep you informed if things change for the worse. Pray for the best, prepare for the worst. Either way, we will work with you and make your fishing charter memorable.