On April 27th I fished a tournament in Orange Beach, Alabama with a few of the Fishin Chix girls, ( Jessie, Carrie, Dale, Trish, and Cindy). I've been one of the tournament captains since the beginning of the Fishin Chix tournaments, and they certainly know how to fish. I started out at 4:30 am, readied the boat and headed to Lulu's Restaurant where the tournament was being held. Lulu's is tourist attraction in Gulf Shores. Jimmy Buffet's sister owns the restaurant, and from time to time, he stops in and sings.They have a great docking facility there, and I arrived before the 6 am starting time. I had five women on the boat that day keeping me busy tying leaders and hooks, and they were eager to start catching fish. I was going to head back to Florida to fish my familiar waters, but didn't want to make the long 40+ mile run back and forth and give up valuable fishing time. I had fished Orange Beach a few times before, and I knew of a few good spots that would hopefully put us on the fish. Unfortunately, my first two spots came up empty, but that's why I always have a plan B, C, and sometimes D. First, I wanted to fish for speckled trout on a few of the flats. We tried throwing topwater plugs to get the specks' attention, but they either they weren't there or they weren't hungry. I decided to head to Perdido Pass and fish a few of the drop-offs near the bridge. Within the first five minutes, we had our first bluefish in the boat. The tide was coming in just right, which made the fishing even better. We caught several bluefish and hooked up a few redfish, but only landed one. Once the bite slowed down, and we ran out of live bait, we decided to try our luck out in the gulf . We were hoping to snag a king or a Spanish to bring back to the scales, but again, no such luck.
Even though the tournament was being held in Alabama, the tournament committee went with Florida rules on all fish caught for the tournament, since a few of the guides were going to head back to Florida to fish. One of my lady anglers,Trish, hooked what looked like a keeper redfish, but when I measured it, the fish was just over the size limit. Would you believe that this fish was 27 1/2 " and it weighed in at a whopping 8.98lbs? This guy was a stud. The first place red was only just over 6 lbs, so we would have had the first place red if he was just a little bit shorter. The next Fishn Chix Tournament is June 14th at Hemmingway's Restaurant on Portafino Boardwalk at Pensacola Beach. I look forward to the tournament and maybe the girls fishing aboard the Mega-Bite will have one of the winning fish.
Fishing Report for the past week
We had a cold front move across the region again, which put the fishing to a halt for a day or two. On the flats, I've been catching a fair amount of trout by free-lining a live shrimp and also using a Berkley Gulp under a popping cork. I had a few night charters and we went Redfishing and the bite was very good. In a 4hr trip, we boated some nice fat reds along with a few tasty trout and one throw back grouper. Just outside the pass and along the beach, the Cobia run is still going strong, but the fishing has been hit or miss for some reason. I'm thinking that it's going to be very good the next two weeks. Moving a little farther offshore for bottom fishing, it's very easy to get your limit of Red Snapper, but if you're looking for Grouper and AJ's, head out to deeper water in depths of 120+. ( Remember to snapper fish after you come back from federal waters, don't snapper fish first, and then head out, as you will be breaking the law ). Snapper season doesn't open up until June 1st in federal waters.
Spring has arrived and the fishing is great, and with summer just around the corner, it will keep getting better.
Here's wishing you tight lines,
Capt. John Rivers
Mega-Bite Inshore Charters
850-341-9816
Mega-Bite Inshore Charters
Thanks to my sponsors:
Mann's Lures, SPRO Fishing Tackle
Gamakatsu Hooks, Pure Fishing - Berkley
ABU Garcia, Shakespeare, Sea Pro Boats
