Playalinda Beach Pompano

Playalinda Beach Pompano usually gear up during December and continue until late February and this year is no exception.

Although I haven't seen Harry Potter since last December, he just happened to be at lot #10 when I trudged up the walkway to the beach.

I put out my Okuma surf rod with 30 pound PowerPro braid and a 3 oz pyramid sinker just past the first breakers and set up my second "river" rod a bit closer to the surf before walking over to talk to Harry about the fishing.

He remembered me from last year when we were fishing the same area for bluefish in the surf, and we shot the "bull" a little bit before getting down to talking about the fishing conditions today.

Harry had a nice 18" Pompano in his bucket and caught a nice whiting as I was walking up to him.

He said that last week, the Pompano bite was on fire but as suddenly as it began, it came to a dead halt.

I told him that I had the same report from the owner of the bait shop and a couple of other fishermen who hit the beach regularly.

Today, I was hoping to hit the beach on the incoming tide, but as it turned out, I was late again.  The tide was on it's way out and the surf was unusually calm when I staked out my rods.

I told him I was using cut clam and frozen sand fleas for bait and he offered me some of his stash of live sand fleas that he caught all his fish on today.

I gratefully accepted his offering and baited up with some live ones on my rigs.

All up and down the beach there were fishermen with rods staked out but nobody seemed to be catching anything much.

The surf fisherman next to me caught a small Sea Robin and later on an undersized pompano, but all the time I was on the beach, I never had a bite.

It was a beautiful day so I didn't really care about getting skunked, but I was hoping for something.

Harry's friend from up north showed up and as luck would have it caught a nice pompano almost as soon as he cast out.  He is pictured above in the short video.

I spent time talking to anglers and basically killing time until the bite picked up, but it never did.

After about two hours without even a nibble, I couldn't take it any longer and packed up my meager gear to head for the house and some dinner.

As I Harry waved goodbye, I heard him say he planned to be out again tomorrow.

Being Christmas Day, I'm not sure I'll make it, but I certainly hope the action gets better than it was today.

On the way out of the beach, I drove past Eddy Creek to see if any progress was made to the small fishing pier.   I was surprised to see that they have almost totally replaced the pier.

As I drove out of Eddy Creek I couldn't help but think about what everyone said; that even if you never went fishing before in your life, you couldn't help but catch at least a couple of pompano.
.
My timing really sucks.

Till next time,
Tight Lines

Haulover Canal Doldrums

Haulover Canal fishing is usually good to excellent this time of the year, so I decided to drive over and see if anybody was catching and just not fishing.

I considered bringing Elmo and Odie along for the ride, but I decided against it at the last minute if I decided to hit Playalinda Beach instead.

I stopped at the bait shop and after getting the skinny on the fishing conditions, I decided to hit the beach first to see if the surf fishing was any good.

After picking up a bag each of frozen sand fleas, shrimp, and finger mullet, the beach was my first stop.

It was late in the afternoon and more traffic was coming out than in.  When I finally got to the toll both, I asked about the tide and Pompano fishing.

The attendant said that the fishing for Pompano was great the last two weeks but today the bite stopped at about 10:30am.  High tide was at about the same time so I decided not to fish the beach at all and turned around and fish Haulover Canal instead.

I drove into Bairs Cove boat launch road and parked at the first open spot, which just happened to be at the bridge.

Several people were fishing around the area, but nobody seemed to be catching any fish.   The water in the canal was dead calm with no visible current, and there were several boats fishing the pilings under and around the bridge.

I pitched out a river rod with an Okuma bait runner reel loaded with 30 pound PowerPro line and a sliding sinker rig as terminal tackle.  I baited up with a quarter of a blue crab and sat down to wait.

A "fantasy yacht " silently cruised through the canal along with several smaller boats, but not one person fishing in my sight caught any fish during the time I stayed at the spot.

After losing and having to re-tie three rigs to the Coquina outcroppings, I decided to call it a day for that spot..

I drove towards the boat launch and pulled into a spot that was away from any possible boat trailer traffic.

I always carry a topwater rod with my favorite Chug Bug bait, and since the sun was slowly going down, I thought I might pick up some topwater action with speckled sea trout.

I walked down to a cove and after fan casting the Chug Bug a dozen or more times, I was rewarded with a nice sea trout that looked like it was just under the slot.

I released the fish and after a few more casts picked up a couple more before moving on to another area.  All the fish were just under the slot, but at least I didn't get skunked.

I drove towards the "Boy Scout" encampment to make my last stop and pulled into a spot at the point.

The Chug Bug was ready so I started fan casting from the shallow point out into deeper water.

It took only a few casts before a small sea trout nailed the bait.  I released the fish and continued casting the area.  Several casts later, I caught another small trout that was a clone to the first.

 

 I heard a school of Black Drum "drumming" along the deeper channel but I didn't feel like dunking a bait for them.  Instead, I continued fishing the top water bait to see if I could pick up a winter gator trout.

I probably should have dropped a shrimp into the area, because I never got another fish before the sun finally set.

As the gnats started eating me alive, I loaded up my rod and headed to the house for some dinner.

Hopefully I'll be able to hit the beach tomorrow and pick up a couple of Pomps for dinner.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Odie vs Turtle

The morning, with fishing rod in hand, it was Odie vs Turtle on the front porch of our house.

A soft shell turtle visited us sometime during the night and was discovered by Karen at the screened entrance to our pool.

The poor guy was upside down and at first we thought it was dead until I turned it over and it showed it's true colors.

I was going to put it in our pond but I didn't want to take the chance of having one of our Koi killed so I decided to release it in Fox Lake, a bit up the road from our house.

On the front porch, Odie decided to investigate so I took a short video of his antics.

I often see these guys when I fish the marsh canals, but this is the first time one ever visited us.

I have no idea why the thing was upside down on it's back when Karen found it, but she thought a racoon might have tried to get at it.  Who knows.

Anyway, I plan to hit either the beach or Haulover Canal this afternoon to see about catching either a Pompano or redfish.

Till next time,
Tight Lines, bent rods, and Merry Christmas.

Dauphin Island Jetty Fishing In December

Dauphin Island jetty fishing in December is supposed to be good for bull redfish, so I decided to hit the rocks Sunday afternoon to see if the reports were as purported.

I started late and didn't bother checking the tide until I has halfway there.  As luck would have it, the tide was slack and just beginning to run out into the Gulf.

I planned to fish the pier at the parking lot near the boat launch, but when I got there, I was disappointed to see that the pier was closed to fishing.

Apparently the hurricane did it's work on the wooden pier and caused just enough damage to make it unsafe for fishermen.

I drove past the pier to the parking area for the beach and easily found a space.  Winter time in the Gulf makes for easy parking!

It was quickly becoming evident that the fishing was going to be slow.  No one was fishing off of any of the jetties.

Since I made the 15 mile drive to the rocks, I decided to at least wet a line give it a try anyway.  

I brought a 9' rod that was loaded with 20 pound Cajun Red line and about 4 feet of 30 pound fluorocarbon  leader.   I had a 4 oz. barrel sinker above the swivel and a 4/0 Owner hook snelled to the business end.

I brought along a couple large frozen mullet for bait and was going to buy some fresh mullet at the local bait shop, but when I learned that the tide was against me, I opted for using frozen mullet instead.

I trudged to the end of the longest jetty, cut of a chunk of mullet steak, tossed it as far as I could into the deepest area, and started taking pics of the surroundings.

There was a lot of boating activity and more beach goers than I expected but I was the only one fishing from the rocks.

I kept losing baits so I down sized my offering and started catching smaller fish.

As the tide started to go out, I managed to catch 6 whiting, three croaker, and one small sail cat.

The last croaker I landed was only about 5 inches long so I hooked it in the lip and tossed it out in hopes of catching a big redfish.

I's like to report that I landed a bull red but I didn't.   I spent the next 45 minutes or so drowning the croaker without another bite and because the sun was going down and the temperature was dropping, I decided to pack it in and head back to Tillman's Corner.

Although I didn't slay the local fishery, it was good to get out and enjoy the winter afternoon at Dauphin Island.

I hope you enjoy the pics and short video.

Till next time, Tight Lines.