Fishing Memorial Park

After a week at work without wetting a line,  I decided to do some fishing at Memorial Park where the U.S.S. Alabama has been setting since the end of World War II.

I originally planned to fish the jetties at Dauphin Island for bull redfish, but when I drove down there yesterday,  a barrier was put up to prohibit visitors from parking in the beach area, probably because of fears of the tropical storm.

Anyway, the sea walls and bridges along Battleship Parkway in Mobile, Al. can provide some decent fishing for a variety of species if you can catch the tide at the right time.

I fished the seawall just past the bridge at Memorial Park using freshly purchased shrimp and managed a mixed catch of  Croaker, whiting, catfish, and a small juvenile black drum.

When I got there I rigged a knocker rig on my lightest river rod and managed to catch a small croaker on the first cast using a small piece of peeled shrimp.

I hooked the croaker just behind the dorsal fin and pitched it out on the surf rod I brought along for big redfish.

I was using a Penn Baitrunner reel loaded with 30 pound Cajun Red line and a short length of 40 pound fluorocarbon leader. 

The wind was blowing and there were rain clouds coming in on the horizon from the Pensacola Fl. area but the bite was steady so I pulled out a folding chair, took a seat and proceeded to catch a mess of fish.

Although most of the croaker were pretty small, I kept a few of the larger ones for dinner.

At the end of a couple of hours fishing I had landed, two small whiting, several hard head catfish, a really small black drum that I at first thought was a sheepshead, and at least two dozen croaker.

I'd like to say that I caught a bull redfish on the live croaker, but alas, only a blue crab mangled my bait.

I took a few pics of the area before the clouds moved in and I left for my apartment.

I didn't feel like cleaning the croaker, so I gave them to a guy who was fishing along the wall next to me who wasn't doing so well.

Anyway, although the fish weren't large by any standard, the bite was great and I had a lot of fun catching.

Till next time,

Tight Lines