Pier & Shore Fishing Outlook 10/30/24

Pier & Shore Fishing Outlook 10/30/24

The near perfect weather and great fishing experienced during the previous fortnight were phenomenal, like it were written up in a Chamber of Commerce manual. Mostly clear skies with cool mornings prevailed, and only a few marginally rough days that dingied the water for a while.
Then, the fish went right back to biting even as the water cleared again. And we did not even have any viable tropical weather threats to concern us. Hopefully this trend will continue, but you just never know what Mother Nature may dole out in the future. Because November is still technically hurricane season, even though they are rare in early November. Just keep a watchful eye on the western Caribbean Sea through the middle of the month.
It appears more reinforcing cooler air may be just around the corner again, and that should keep fine fall fishing right on track. That means the water temperature in the Gulf should be cooling through the middle 70s, while shallower inland waters will chill even more, and faster.
This drives menhaden schools out of the estuaries toward the open Gulf where they spend the winter. To get there though, they must run the gauntlet of large red drum, jack crevalle, and sharks waiting near the mouth of the bays and other passes. And waiting for the bull reds to appear are countless anglers eager to do battle with them. These redfish, over the 26 inch minimum total length for Alabama, are the brood-stock of the species. Only one over sized red drum per angler per day may be harvested in Alabama.
Fortunately the consensus for most anglers in the know is to let them all go. Because once they do reach adult size, they can live an additional 15 to 30 years, breeding millions of more descendants for each of those years. Additionally, like many older, larger fish, their flesh is coarse and not as good eating as the more tender slot-sized specimens available inshore or from shore. Therefore, this fishery is primarily catch and release for both reasons.
Even though it it a mile walk from the parking lot and there is more than a mile of beach stretching along Mobile Point near Fort Morgan, the area most productive from shore is often the most crowded. Consequently some anglers feel squeezed out of the action just by the sheer volume of lines in the water.
Good beach etiquette calls for groups of anglers to have the proper tackle and to share tackle between members of their party. Everyone dreams of having a huge and productive beach to themselves, but that is often not the case with the growth and popularity of surf fishing when huge set rigs are placed maybe only ten feet apart. It helps the situation a lot when newcomers are correctly equipped with bait, weight, and tackle so they fit in and not cause issues on the crowded point especially at night.
Use red (non-blinding) lights, have enough weight so your rig doesn’t drift down on other anglers when the tide strength is multiplied by winds pushing it.
If in doubt at all, consult the nearest bait & tackle shop, or better yet, talk to the veteran anglers on the beach. Locals fishing a spot year round are going to know more about that spot and how to fish it than you can ever dream of. They are a good bunch of folks, glad to share what they have learned and make new friends, but they not particularly eager to feel trampled upon.
An almost opposite, though eerily similar scenario presents itself around the Gulf State Park Pier where small, young-of-the-year spanish mackerel (10” to 12” fork length) have been the most common catch lately. Primarily because that is what the majority of anglers have been fishing for.
Like Florida, Alabama has a creel limit of 15 spanish mackerel per angler per day, but unlike Florida, Alabama has no size limit on this species. Using Bubble rigs or other small lures anglers should be able to catch a limit of mackerel in an hour or two most days.
And that is fine if you like bacon strips as my old friend Eldon Foster from Missouri used to call those small fillets. But issues result when folks start trying to cull a limit of larger fish by throwing back their smallest catches. Almost always these fish are critically injured, so the angler is essentially just live chumming the sharks that gather around the pier.
What is the definition of insanity again?
There is nothing wrong with catching your 15 and then trying for something else like redfish, flounder, mangrove snapper, pompano, bluefish, spadefish, the list is almost endless. Or fish for king mackerel or larger spanish with larger live baits or lures that automatically cull out the tiny, yet plentiful micro mackerel. Sure you won’t catch as many most days, but the quality of the fight and the fish is so much more rewarding without near as much waste.
What you don’t want to do is show up at the pier, or beach, or seawall, or jetty and assume you know it all because of questions answered on Facebook, reading an article, or watching a video. Believe me (after 50+ years) it is a lot more complex than that, and there is no replacement for experience. If not your own, how about tapping someone else who has spent countless hours perfecting the fishing you are trying for the first time. It may not be rocket surgery, but fishing is a science and an art.
Active schools of bull reds have also been feeding in the vicinity of the Gulf State Park Pier of late on the abundant shoals of 3 inch long herring (called LYs). When the reds go into a frenzy near the surface, they will strike just about anything that looks remotely edible, living, dead, or artificial. These are all oversized brutes 30 to 40+ inches in length that average about 20 to 25 pounds.
Most are netted, photographed quickly, then released to grow bigger and grow more redfish or the future. 35 years ago we had closed season on oversized red drum as a result of the blackened redfish cooking craze of the 1980s. Sound conservation regulations and practices have brought them back to a place of prominence for Gulf Coast anglers to once again enjoy.
Flounder is another species that has only recently returned in historical numbers that rival the past. This very popular quality eating fish has experienced this resurgence in numbers at least in part due to the strong conservation ethic of anglers utilizing tag and release to gain valuable data about the species. Recent catches of flounder at Perdido Pass, Little Lagoon, and especially around Mobile Bay have been the most consistent in recent years.
Keep in mind that flounder season is already closed in Florida, will be closed in Alabama as of November 1, and remain closed in both states through November.