The Gulf of Mexico Federal Red Snapper season ended at midnight on July 18, 2011, but that has not stopped the Gulf Shores vacationers from going deep sea fishing. The Distraction Charter boat has been extremely busy taking families out deep sea fishing just south of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores.
Distraction Charters specializes in family friendly, "G" rated fishing charters for everyone. The bottom fishing and trolling fishing trips have been extremely popular this summer. The King Mackerels are being caught on 4 hour trolling fishing trips, but the bite has been slower than in recent years. For this reason, some anglers are choosing the 6 hour bottom fishing trip for catch and release mostly. Some anglers want to keep a fish or two for supper, and that is alright too!
The fishing charters depart the Orange Beach Marina at 06:30 am and return to port at 12:30 on Monday through Saturday. Distraction Charters is the only charter boat to be closed on Sunday and they do it religiously each week. The afternoon trips depart at 1:30 pm and are either 4 or 6 hours in length, depending on customer demand.
We are catching and releasing Red Snappers by fishing for them high in the water column or within 30 feet of the surface, so we do not injure their swim bladder. The Cobia have been biting like crazy this year and we don't know if they are here because of the BP Oil Spill or because of all the rain we have had up north this summer, pushing too much fresh water into the esturaries in Mississippi and Louisiana. Either way, the Cobia fishing has been a blessing for all of us here on the Alabama Gulf Coast.