Deep Sea Fishing in Gulf Shore Alabama

My husband is one adventurous soul. We spent a week in Gulf Shores, Alabama. It is a small seashore retreat in the north-central region of the Gulf of Mexico. This town offers year-round fishing, swimming, boating, golf and camping. With easy access to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico it beckoned my angler of a husband to attempt to go deep sea fishing. My husband decided that he wanted to go and he so grqaciously decided that I would have to go along.

He informed me that fishing was plentiful in the Gulf of Mexico, I could troll for mackerel, bottom fish for snapper or redfish. Like I knew what that was. So there I was with a fishing rod that some captian gave me to board a boat that I didn't want to get on. Ray informed me that there were offshore charter boat rentals available at local marinas. We went to Gulf Shores Yacht Club and Homeport Marina, it offered various rentals from a few hours to an overnight excursion. I readily took the few hours. The boat that we were on was with another couple was 22 ft long. The captain and the mate told me, because I was sitting right next to the life preservers, that I did not have to worry they were there to help even a novice like me.

They showed me how to handle the equipment, different baiting techniques and told me that if necessary they would reel in the fish for me. They took us out to one of the five public artificial reefs available, Hugh Swingle General Area around a half hour from shore. The captain explained that there hundreds of public artificial reefs and Red Snapper World Championship concrete reef modules available but this one was his favorite. The captain explained that deep sea fishing was available all year long. Winter and spring we could go trolling for bull redfish, grouper and bluefish. Late spring to early summer we could try bottom fishing for cobia or mackerel. Summer and fall we could fish for red snapper, triggerfish, white snapper, or Red Grouper.

The mate explained to me about bottom fishing, you will release your line and sinker in the water so that the bait is approximately two feet from the bottom. He showed my husband how to use a good rod and reel with at least a 50 lb test, sinker, leader and hook. Then he explained about trolling, that was when the boat is slowly moving forward while long strips of baits are attached to a double hooked trolling line and dragged behind the boat. The troll line consists of a rudder at the front that prevents lines from twisting, free swinging blades on the line, and a leader 12 to 18 inches from the lure and bait. Anyway, I was learning a lot more than I ever intended. I was just extremely glad that we brought along my Coors light. The mate helped me bait this line and then told me that I would be trolling. I just nodded my head as if I understood what he was talking about. I was sitting there for around a half hour when the line went taunt. I could not believe that I had actually caught something. I am five foot nothing and this thing was tugging away at me, so naturally I let out a shriek and my husband shot up from his deck chair to see what was the matter. I had caught a fish, not any fish this big red snapper.

It took both Ray and the deck hand to reel that sucker in. They wanted to give it to me and I just quietly denied that opportunity. We gave it to the skipper and he did whatever fishermen do. I could not wait to get back to shore. I smelled like the sea, I had salt in my hair, my face was sunburned and I wanted a stiffer drink than the Coors I had been drinking. We got back to shore around sunset, I thanked the captain and the mate and made my way to our bed and breakfast. I took the opportunity to take a shower, kick off my shoes and watch the sunset from our balcony. For Ray the fishing was the highlight of his day, for me it was the Cosmo that I was sipping away at. One more thing off of that bucket list....