Dauphin Island Redfish

Since it was a beautiful day, I decided to head over to Dauphin Island in Mobile, Al. to see if the redfish were biting.

I loaded up a surf rod that I had the foresight to bring along with me from Titusville, a 7 foot river rod that I keep tipped with a jig and grub combo, and a couple of bags of cut mullet I had in the freezer from my last trip.

The half hour drive to the jetties went quickly but when I got to the area, there were no parking spaces anywhere.  I made a couple of rounds around the parking area hoping to snag a space, but after the third trip, I gave up.

The fishing pier and all of the jetties had people fishing from them and the beach was as crowded as I have ever seen it, so I opted to fish at the first bridge going onto the island instead.

I pulled into the road adjacent to the small canal, unloaded the rods and bait cooler from the truck, and started walking underneath the bridge to find a spot.

As I walked over to the barrier, a couple of guys who had just finished fishing were loading their fish into the truck.

They had caught several nice redfish in the slot to 25 pound category, and a couple of nice black drum.  When I asked them what they caught the redfish on, they told me they had been using live "bull minnows" and were fishing on the incoming tide just off the bank.

I took a few pics of their catch below, and headed to where they were fishing.

They told me that the bite had slowed down because of the tide change, but since I was already here, I decided to give it a shot anyway.

I baited up with a large chunk of mullet, pitched out the bait to an eddy at a deep hole and waited for a bite.

I was using a three way swivel with a two foot length of 30 pound fluorocarbon leader on a 5/0 Owner hook, and a 3 oz. bank sinker to hold bottom. 

I lost several baits to fish, and two rigs with 3 oz. bank sinkers to the rocks, before I finally hooked into a nice redfish.  

The red grabbed a whole mullet head that I had baited up with and took off like a freight train.  I had 60 pound Power Pro braid on my surf rod and it still put up a great battle before I finally landed it.

I put the red into the cooler for dinner, baited up with another mullet head, and tried for a second fish.

I was fishing on the last part of the outgoing tide, and was lucky I had any bites at all. 

As I waited for something to happen, another fishermen that had been fishing under the bridge was leaving because the bite had stopped. 

He had a couple of black drum and several sheepshead that he caught around the bridge pilings and said that he lost two redfish along the pilings in the same area.

Like almost everyone else I saw fishing today, he was using live shrimp for bait.

I was going to ask him for a pic, but he was on his way out and I didn't want to bother him.

He told me that if you don't fish the tides in this area, you are wasting your time, and after another hour or so without a single bite, I had to agree with him.

I loaded my redfish into the truck and headed for home and a well deserved fish dinner.

Nothing like blackened redfish!

Till next time, Tight Lines.