Pier & Shore Fishing Outlook 11/27/24

Pier & Shore Fishing Outlook 11/27/24

By David “The Pierpounder” Thornton

It seems our mini-drought period ended during the previous fortnight with a rainy week and storm system that moved through, enhanced with leftover tropical moisture from Tropical Storm Sara. Hopefully, that will be the end of a long and active Atlantic tropical season in which we were fortunately spared the worst. We had just enough weather to stir the Gulf intermittently, but been blessed with periods in between which allowed the seas to settle and the water to clear enough to trigger a good bite for a day or three before the next system blew in. This general fall pattern seems forecast to persist through the current fortnight as well, as we move into December with a series of cold fronts expected. That means we can expect near average air (50s and 70s) and water temperatures (lower 70s to upper 60s) between rainy and breezy periods of a few days each week.
Mackerel numbers are rapidly thinning out as they migrate to Florida for the winter. Meanwhile, more sheepshead are gathering around hard structures in the lower bays and along the immediate coastline. These movements are closely linked to how cool the water gets, and how quickly. During the interim, lingering spanish mackerel may still be within reach of anglers on the Gulf State Park Pier and west jetty at Perdido Pass, primarily from the south end of these structures. Most of this activity occurs during the days when sunlight and tide phase sync up to spur these pelagics to feed. Even a stray king mackerel is not out of the question for pier fishers while water temps remain above 70 degrees.
The nights though, still belong to anglers pursuing bull redfish, along with some sharks and a few black drum mixed in, and even an occasional jack crevalle that may show up in the mix. And even though the outer half of the Fairhope Pier is still closed for railing replacement, anglers along the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay have been catching some bull reds at Pelican Point at the mouth of Weeks Bay. White trout, ground mullet, and croakers have been available there too. But with the water getting cooler this action may be about to move out of range for those shorebound anglers.
Folks fishing Mobile Point near Fort Morgan have still experienced some good times with bull reds lately, mostly at night. But since most of the menhaden have already moved out of Mobile Bay, the action there has dropped off through the past month. The best of this action typically occurs in darkness, after the tide change in the evening to midnight. Similarly, the tide changes may spur feeding frenzies by schools of bull reds at the Gulf State Park Pier during the night or day, even in rainy weather or rough water. There, fishers have also been catching a few red snapper, mostly on weekends while the season is open. Also the size of croakers being caught from the pier is generally getting larger, with more whiting and pompano being landed in the cooler water. A lot of flounder have been caught and at the pier released lately as the season for them remains closed until the end of November. Most are undersized anyway (males?), but the season for flounder will reopen December 1st.
Perdido Pass has also produced some flounder and nice reds of various sizes from the seawall and jetties too. A few speckled trout have been caught at night in the lighted area, and even some sheepshead are showing up during the day. There has still been a bycatch of keeper mangrove snapper along with flounder and periodic catches of spanish mackerel, even from the seawall.
As the water cools, pinfish will become less of a nuisance to anglers pursuing slot redfish, sheepshead, and mangrove snapper with live shrimp there. In the meantime, fiddler crabs are a viable alternative bait which tends to cut down on the bycatch experienced with shrimp. The same goes on at the State Pier and Little Lagoon Pass, once the incidental catch species thin out, and more of the popular and desired species take up residence. Again, water temperature, clarity, and salinity along with the amount of light and current speed are important factors that control feeding activities for these fish.
Some anglers attempt to bypass the live bait issues of availability, bycatch, and cost by using lures to tempt their quarry. Wading inside and outside of Little Lagoon Pass has regained popularity since the water has cooled enough to spur the egress of fish between this important estuary and the Gulf. Soon though, it will be too chilly to fish without waders for any length of time. Speckled trout are the most popular target species inside the pass using MirrOlure MirrOdines and other artificials that mimic menhaden, their primary forage fish. Redfish and flounder are common bycatch with these lures, as are croaker and white trout. Of course every method has its bycatch, and the Lagoon is noted for its ravenously hungry pinfish, croakers and world class Inshore lizardfish. Bluefish, slot reds, and flounder are the most viable target species for anglers wading the Gulf side whenever conditions permit. The same species are available to anglers from the jetties at Perdido Pass too. Bluefish are a mainstay for jetty anglers, especially early and late in the day. Spoons and jigs are traditional producers on bluefish, but diving plugs like X-Rap in the #8 or #10 size catch some of the larger specimens from the jetties and nearby waters. Even the state record speckled trout was caught from the west jetty on a plug back in 1980!
Surf fishing continues to show improvement as the waters cool and more of the nuisance species thin out. Numbers of keeper sized pompano and whiting have increased along most of the beaches recently, especially along Perdido Key and Johnson’s Beach in Florida. Lower morning tides avail anglers easier access to gather ghost shrimp, the prime bait for pompano and whiting. But the mainstay of fresh shrimp tipped with Fishbites or Fishgum on a double drop pompano rig, still produces plenty of pompano for beach anglers. Especially when casting farther from shore outside the beach sandbars on these lower tides. Bycatch is still common with this method too, and the incidental species include bluefish, flounder, redfish, and black drum of various sizes. The so-called puppy drum are very desirable as table-fare even though the flesh of mature black drum is reputed to be riddled with spaghetti worms, a harmless parasite to humans. Still, the general rule of thumb is, black drum with visible silver and black stripes are usually free of the infestation.
Afternoon incoming tides provide easier shoreline access to all these fish for lighter tackled anglers as higher water levels fill in the beach troughs and run-outs between the beach sandbars and points. These soft structures are the by product of last year’s beach dredging projects that interrupted surf fishing from parts of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach for months at a time. It just shows what a year of littoral activity can do to all those straight beach fronts though. It seems these fish and other critters of the surf zone have faired quite well, and the ecosystem remains diverse and healthy through it all. Anglers can expect to see more large black drum finding their pompano rigs along with the occasional bull redfish as the cooler water spreads them out more along the beaches.
A bonus for surf fishers, locals, and winter visitors is when Gulf Shores stops charging at it’s public access parking venues December 1st each year for a few months. Meanwhile anglers and beach walkers utilizing the recently renovated Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge – Mobile Street parking lot will have to wait a little longer for the boardwalk to be completed there.