Monday fishing.....

[Stinky_Hooker]

Over this past hunting season I have acquired 2 new and very good friends from my local fishing club I am in. They live in North Georgia and hunt in Ga, Auburn AL and a few places spread throughout a little farther South in Al also. Shane and his son (age 17) are about as good as country folks can get. I really enjoy their company and fellowship whenever we get together. These guys have opened up all of the land that they hunt on to me (both owned and leased) only in exchange for me helping work it and the hope that I might help teach them how to saltwater fish. They are new to saltwater fishing, but are fast learners. I just recently helped them buy a boat (16’ Hydra sport CC) so they are interested in learning anything they can about the area around Dauphin Island. Since hunting season I have promised to put them on some fish during their summer vacation down here. I have felt somewhat pressured as they have turned me onto some of the best unpressured hunting Bama has to offer. For those of you that followed along last winter you already know, but for those that don’t, Ill recap. I had several firsts in hunting last year. My first bow kill, my biggest buck killed, and even the MOST kills in a season. My wife even got to kill her first two deer, a doe and a buck because of these fine people. Needless to say I wanted to show them a good time.


They are down this whole week on vacation so my time to fulfill my promise had come. I was really hoping to put them on some offshore species like snapper, kings, and AJs, but snapper fishing this year hasn’t been all it was a year ago. The storms definitely took their toll and even very good offshore fisherman and charter captains that I know aren’t doing as well as in years past. With this in mind I opted to take them on an inshore expedition.


The only drawback to their company is Shane’s accident prone nature. Both that and the way he complicates things can wear on you and is hard to take in anything other than small doses. He overreacts to almost everything under the sun, but I deal with it because we all have our quirks…me excluded of course. You will see proof of this in the story ahead…… ::)




I left my house headed south at about 10:30 PM. I called him on the way and made sure all was well down south. We had our usual 30-45 minute conversation about nothing (because he complicates everything) and I hung up. What took so long on the phone you ask? What “problem” was solved or obstacle overcome? We established in a nutshell that Shane and Jr. just needed to go get in the truck and meet me at the launch. Doesn’t seem that hard does it? Oh but it is my friends, it is…… you will see. ::)

The plan was to meet up with them at the launch around midnight and do some rig fishing till dawn. I knew my plan from dawn on would produce, but wasn’t sure about the night thing. This pattern hasn’t done as well for me as it did last year.

I got to the launch at about 11:30 and slid the Hooker off her perch. I parked and got everything on the boat turned on and ready for their arrival. I cranked the motor to let it start warming up and noticed no “pee” stream. I figured it was clogged so I pulled the cowling and indicator tube and sure enough there was a clump of dried dirt in it. I cleaned that out and cranked her back up…sweet, she is flowing again. I checked the GPS and it was 11:45. Cool, Ill turn on some tunes and lay here on the dock and catch a catnap. I knew I would need the rest both mentally and physically to deal with what lay ahead. I didn’t even bother getting up for 30 minutes because I knew he would be at least 15 minutes late due to a major catastrophe, hospital visit or the like. I got up to check the time…..12:15. I figured he should come sliding in here at any moment…literally, maybe into the water, which is exactly why me and the Hooker were out at the END of the dock. I sat a little while longer…12:30 rolls by…I say “Hmmm, this is going to be good.” I couldn’t wait to hear Jr. tell it too, he does such a good job. I could only imagine what happened….In my boredom I began to ponder upon what it might be……did he jab a knife through his hand again? Was it vehicle trouble? Could it perhaps be his typical flat tire or his very special trademark getting stuck? I got to tell you guys that this nut could get stuck ANYWHERE. He could get stuck in the monster truck Bigfoot on wet grass…I promise you, he could.

Well, finally at about 12:45 they arrived. I walked back down from the boat to help them get their gear. He threw his hands up and said “you will NEVER guess what happened!” *I thought oh, yes I will, tell me. *::) I respond, “what Shane, do tell”. He proceeded to tell the story….

Now before we go any further there is something yall must know. They brought down their “pier cart” to fish the pier on the days they couldn’t boat fish with me or one of our other club members. He and Jr. had fished the pier the previous day and had to unhook it at the beachouse to prevent theft. To a typical person that would mean pulling it out of the back of the truck and coming on over to the boat launch to meet your captain, right? *WRONG. First off it’s not IN the back of the truck…it’s on its own utility trailer. The reason for this is that it is so big and heavy he can’t get it into his long bed truck. The base of the cart is the largest steel yard wagon that Lowes carries with steel sides. It then has tons of add-ons and high performance mods. Some of these mods include a cutting board, filet table, 422 rod holders, its OWN utility trailer, etc…..etc…. :o

Meanwhile, back at the boat launch:

Shane begins to tell me about how he forgot to unhook the pier cart trailer at the beachouse so they had to turn around before they got here earlier. After he gets back to the house he realizes that he had sat his new bait bucket with built in aerator in FRONT of the trailer’s tire yesterday before going inside. So, upon leaving to come to me this night he ran over the bait well and then drug pieces of it down the main road headed this way. 50.00 down the tube.

He then got the trailer undone and cut across the beachouse yard to come on…guess what? STUCK in the sand. He sunk the truck to its axles and had to get a nieghbor to help pull him out. That was no surprise…quite expected to be honest really. We finished up that little story and got the boat loaded with their gear.

I headed out to pull for bait and noticed it was an absolutely gorgeous night. It was bright and clear with a light north breeze blowing. It was definitely one of those nights that keep me heading back into the darkness to fish. 8)

We made about three 10 minute drags and had enough live croakers and shrimp for the night and the following day ahead. I pointed the Hooker in the desired direction and ran to out first location. We hooked up to the rig and started putting out some live baits. Jr. and I hopped up on the rig and fished down in the middle of it. I normally don’t do this, but this is an unmanned rig and many of our club members turned me onto this technique. It works well as long as it’s calm enough to climb onboard.

I immediately got one decent speck and one shortly. That was the end of the fish though, nothing else from this spot. We climbed back off the rig and ran to another rig about a mile away. Nothing there except a bunch of skipjacks (ladyfish) and blues. “Oh well,” I said…”onward!” We hit our final rig before our predawn run to the beach where I KNEW the trout would be. We sat there about 30-45 minutes and Jr. got about 5 decent ground mullet (southern kingfish) on some Berkley GULP strips. I am not sure if you guys have these little fine eating brutes, but I love them! They are fun to catch and have a great white, flakey meat to them. They average less than a pound, but run up to 1.5lbs commonly around here. A mess of them is some of the best eating around. I actually prefer them to specks and reds. They are in the drum family and closely resemble a small redfish. If they got as big as redfish I would probably never fish for snapper again! Here is what they look like:







I glanced at the GPS and knew we had to leave soon. It was coming up on 4am and I wanted to be on the beach before daybreak. I knew the trout bite wouldn’t last long and I didn’t want them to miss any of it. We had about a 45 minute run ahead of us to the new “hurricane cut” that Katrina made in the west end of DI. We made our way though the bay and a couple no wake zones, all the while I pointed and educated my newfound friends as much as possible about their new surroundings. As we approached our destination the sun began to break from behind us. We were right on time. I eased up to the beach and backed the boat in. I got the front and rear anchors set and grabbed my gear. I climbed off the transom into the warm bay water and made my way to the beach. Shane and his son had a couple rods to rig up, but they weren’t far behind. I walked from the bay side across the Gulf side of the busted up barrier island. My presumption is that if another storm like Katrina hits, the “West End” of DI may be gone forever. I have spent many days since I was a young teenager down there. I will be heartbroken to see such a thing, but Mother Nature will have her way. :P

I got to the beach and could see just well enough that I spotted several trout busting bait in the surf. I threw out live bait and sat that rod up in a holder. I then stepped away to throw my soft plastic. As I began my retrieve I took a minute in the predawn darkness to inhale some of the cool salt air. No matter how many sunrises you witness from the beach, they never get old. My daydreaming was awakened by the drag screaming from my Penn 450 spinner. I quickly reeled in my lure and ran over to it. I picked it up and set the hook…FISH ON!...but alas, he pulled loose only seconds later. I set it back up and went back to chunking my soft plastic bait. I had just made a fresh cast about the time Shane and JR. came up from behind me. *It ticked off Mr. Freckles and connected….a nice 2 lb trout put the smack on it and I was bowed up. I drug him onto the beach and Shane hooked up not long after, then Jr. and so on. We spent about the next hour putting 10 or so nice trout on the sand and the bite slowed. At that point we switched over the fresh dead shrimp pieces and started hammering Whiting. These fish are closely related to the Ground Mullet mentioned earlier with a couple differences. They are light and whiter in color and have a black mark on the tip of their upper tail fin. They are also excellent table fair and very strong as well. The school we were on seemed to consist of nice, solid 1lbers with a few in the 3/4lb range mixed in. SWEET!!! Stink is eating good this week!! We fish until we used up what shrimp we had left. We all made our way back across the beach and climbed back onboard our fiberglass horse for the ride home. We were greeted by even calmer conditions than we had on our predawn ride over. The Hooker slid effortlessly along the Mississippi sound north of Dauphin Island back to the launch. We were all quiet and beat from the long night, but we all had the same underlying feeling…satisfaction. No words were spoken as none had to be, we all knew what the others were thinking…..food, and sleep…….then more food from our catch. *8)

As I write this I have just finalized plan with two very good friends of mine to take this weekend on the same type of outing. These two guys are twin brothers that I met at my church and have become two of my closest friends. They haven’t done very much saltwater fishing so I hope I can show them a good time. It will be on Saturday morning and Shane and Jr. will be following the Hooker in their newly acquired boat……wish us luck.


Sorry there arent more pics guys....it was dark most of the trip so all you get is a couple money shots. Ill try to take more this weekend. 8)

my wife and kid left thismorning for a two week hyatis in chicago, so dont be surprised if you see me at the dock waiting on ya'll saturday,lol.
and before ya'll start banging on him about the pics, we all read his other post, his thread could have been worse. "i went fishin with my buds. we fished. it was fun. the sun came up. it was fun."

glad yall had a good time stink. the way things been going round here i needed to read a good fishing story. hell, i was fixin to just make one up, lol

[Blue_Runner]

Where's the action shots? ;D

You are right about the good eating! That's a nice spread of meat there!

[Mac_Attack]

You tell a nice tale. It is nice to share your experience with friends. I have one thing to say though Stink, "One action photo is worth a thousand words!" Keep posting! Billy Mac ;D

[Stinky_Hooker]

Yeah, guys I was the hypocryte for the week without an action shot. ::)


I usually have a couple action and a sunrise picture too. I will this weekend. I just got back from picking me up a new wading belt so I can carry my gear more easily on the beach. Ill take my digicam over this time. I got me a floating stringer and everything....now the sharks can find me with no problems!!! 8)


Not IN the belt of course. ::)

[Mac_Attack]

Stinky I'm looking at a map of Mobile and Mobile Bay where do you launch at? Billy Mac ;D