Fishing A Full Tide

Fishing Dauphin Island can be productive if you hit the tide right but this afternoon the tide was full and the only thing biting were sail cats and hard heads.

I hit Jamison's bait shop to pick up a couple pounds of freshly caught shrimp before heading to Dauphin Island.

The guys at the bait shop said that black drum and redfish were hitting a moving tide at the nearest bridge but be prepared to lose a lot of tackle.

I knew from past trips that about half the time I was trying to fish around the bridge, I was wasting re-tying terminal tackle but I decided to give it a try anyway.

When I got to a spot at the bridge, I pulled out a spinning rod with an Okuma bait runner reel spooled with 12 pound Cajun Red line.

There were a couple of anglers in boats who were fishing the grassy shoreline with live shrimp under floats who seemed to be catching fish, so I baited up with a fresh dead shrimp and flipped out a cast toward the deeper water in the channel.

The last time I fished this area, I caught a ton of small croaker and one nice redfish.  Today was a different story.

As soon as my bait hit the bottom I had a good hit and missed the fish. 

I put on a new bait and cast to the same spot with the same results. 

Finally, after losing a few baits I got the hang of it and landed a small Gaf Topsail catfish.

The sailcat was almost too small to eat the 4/0 Owner hook but I unhooked the little guy and continued fishing.

I spent about an hour at the spot and caught at least a dozen sail cats and hardheads from 6 inches to about a foot and a half before calling it a day and moving on.

While I was fishing, a couple of friendly feral cats came by to watch me fish, so I gave them some shrimp which they seemed to really enjoy.

As I left the area, I gave them a few more to keep them happy.

I drove down to the jetties at Fort Morgan to see if anyone was fishing and to my surprise, nobody was on the rocks.

I stopped to ask an angler who was packing up to go and was told that until the tide turned, it was "pretty much a waste of time and bait" to fish.

I took some pics of the area and the oil rigs offshore before heading back.

On the way, I pulled up to the short fishing pier where some people were sitting with cane poles and shrimp fishing for "white trout".   We call them sand trout in our area.

Anyway, they were catching fish but I was in the market for larger game and since it was late, I decided to head back to Mobile.

Next time I fish the area, I'll check the tide tables.  Something I don't bother with in the wildlife refuge.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.