The 39th Annual Shrimp Festival was in full swing this weekend in Gulf Shores, Alabama, when Frank decided to bring all of his friends together and go deep sea fishing on the Distraction. I have known Frank for many years and when he showed up with his father and best friend from Hungary, I knew this fishing charter was going to be more than awesome.
Frank is getting married tomorrow to Janet and they decided to celebrate and take their wedding party on a saltwater fishing trip from Orange Beach. We had some special live bait on board as well as the usual cigar minnows to make the big ones bite. Everyone was really laid back and was ready for the day.
We left the Orange Beach Marina at 7 a.m. and worked ourselves around through Moron Strait and out through Perdido Pass into the emerald green waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The water is beautiful this time of the year. The lack of rainfall has the salinity of the water pushing over 21 ppm and the fish are biting like crazy.
Lem put the trolling lures out just past the farewell buoy and we began working our way offshore. Monkey boats were going nuts and dozens of them raced by us to go and get the best spots so they could catch their Red Snapper. What all these recreational anglers did not know is, almost every fishing reef offshore holds some nice sized Red Snapper and they are easy to catch. We were not in a hurry. As everyone else raced offshore and fought each other for the best spots, we gently worked our way toward the reef zone that is located some 8 miles south of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores.
The King Mackerel and Spanish Mackerel Bite was not good at first. I guess it was from all the prop wash created by the hundred or so boats that were waking us. After everyone got out of sight, we began catching some real nice Kings and Spanish. We even had one big King jump over 10' in the air with the bait in his mouth. That was real cool but we did not have our camera up and ready. One thing about deep sea fishing in Gulf Shores is that you never know when the big fish is going to strike.
The crew wanted to use our new, light tackle rods and reels to catch their Red Snapper. Charter fishing with light tackle is new to the Gulf of Mexico and is our preferred way of deep sea fishing. We work hard to keep the best gear available for our guests to use. Catching Red Snapper on spinning rods and light line make the adventure a lot more fun.