Spanish Macs Off The Pier

Haven't been on the water much since I've been back to Mobile, but this afternoon I decided to wet a line and try for some Spanish Macs, "white trout", or redfish off the Dauphin Island jetties.

I left my apartment around noon and the weather was great.  There was no wind and the air temperature was 80 degrees when I crossed the bridge going to the island.

The tide looked like it was low but still moving and although I didn't bother to pick up any live bait, I decided to use DOA Shrimp and some Kastmaster spoons that I had stashed in my center console.

I checked out the beach and as usual for a Sunday afternoon, it was loaded with people enjoying the water. 

There was nobody fishing off the jetties which led me to believe that the bite, if any, was off.

I took a bunch of pics before pulling up to the fishing pier where a lone angler was sitting on one of the benches dunking live shrimp under a Cajun Thunder type float.

I picked up a light rod along with a couple of lures and headed out to talk to the gent.

He told me he was fishing for spotted trout which, according to him, come in close to the rocks during low tide periods.

He also said he hadn't had a bite since he started fishing, so consider the source.

Anyway, although there was a lot of boating activity in the area, I started blind casting a small Kastmaster spoon around the rocks and as far out as I could reach.

These little spoons are heavy enough to get some distance on a cast and have an enticing wiggle on the retrieve if you fish them correctly.

After several dozen casts a school of fish came by and much to my surprise, I hooked up to a Spanish mackerel.

I was going to release the fish but I decided to keep it for dinner instead.

I kept casting the lure around hoping for another mackerel to fill me up but instead picked up a "white trout" that I might have snagged.

I kept that fish just to see what it tasted like and kept on casting.

After wearing out my casting arm, I told my fishing buddy I had enough for one day and headed to the truck with my dinner.

When I got back, I cleaned both fish and had a taste of what a fish dinner should be like.  I didn't have enough to fill me up, so I pan fried some shrimp that I defrosted which did the trick.

Till next time,
Tight Lines

Next time I get out, I will definitely keep more than two fish