Dauphin Island Jetty Fishing

Working out of town frequently allows me the opportunity to sample fishing in a variety of settings and this weekend, I managed to try out Dauphin Island jetty fishing for bull redfish.

From what I was told about the area, March is a good month to target bull redfish off the jetties and the beaches of Dauphin Island, Al.,  so this Saturday and Sunday I decided to try out the area.

The last time I tried fishing this area, I learned the hard way that you need stout tackle.

I was spooled by a bull redfish that was probably in the 30 to 40 pound class which ended my fishing day.

This time I stopped at Bass Pro and picked up a Penn, medium heavy outfit that I spooled with 20 pound Cajun red line, a three way swivel, and 40 pound fluorocarbon leader.

I stopped at the bait shop before the bridge to the island and picked up a couple of large mullet that I cut up for bait.  The lady at the bait shop told me that a guy who came in earlier caught a 33 pound bull redfish on a mullet head, so I decided to use cut baits.

I couldn't wait to try out the new outfit I bought myself for my birthday, so I drove to the end of the the island, found a decent parking space, and proceeded to trudge out on the jetty.

The fishing conditions Saturday afternoon were far from ideal.  There was a brisk wind blowing, and the air temperature was in the high 60s to low 70s.

As I made my way out to the farthermost point on the rocks,  I wondered why there was nobody else fishing the area.  I was later told that the tide was wrong.

Undaunted, I cut up a fresh mullet, baited up my 5/0 Owner hook, and on my first cast, the rod broke about a foot and a half from the tip.

Mad as hell, I quickly reeled in the broken tip, trudged back to the truck, and drove back through the tunnel across the bay to Bass Pro.

When I explained what happened, the guy at the register apologized and replaced my rod without any guff.

It was too late to drive back to Dauphin Island, and there was a wreck before the tunnel that had westbound traffic on I-10 backed up for miles, so I drove back to my apartment resolving to try it again tomorrow.

On Sunday, I started out around 1:30 pm and repeated the drive to the jetties.

The weather was a bit nicer, but the air temperature was still cool and the tide was apparently going out.  Again there were very few people fishing the area.

I baited up with a large chunk of fresh mullet, cast out and began the waiting game.

While I was waiting for a fish to hit, I took some videos of the oil rigs in the Gulf, the boat traffic, and some dude in a kayak that was apparently trying to commit drown himself.

I spotted several porpoises in the area, and a shark that briefly surfaced around the outer edge of the jetty.

It took about 45 minutes before I finally got a hit that almost jerked the rod out of my hands.  Whatever the fish was, it took off like a shot and then dropped the bait.

I reeled in what was left of my mullet head, baited up with a smaller chunk of mullet, and pitched the rig out as far as I could from the jetty rocks.

 I missed two more fish before finally hooking and landing a hard head catfish.

At least I didn't get skunked.

As the sun started to hit the horizon, it started to really get chilly on the rocks, so I decided to try one more bait before calling it a day.

I cut the head off the second mullet and pitched it out one last time.

This time I hooked a nice redfish that I played tug of war with for a bit before losing it on the rocks.   I quickly discovered that landing a fish on the jetties without any help can be a big problem on the wet rocks.

I was cold, disappointed, and hungry, so I decided to head back to the apartment and come back when the tide was more favorable.

 As I left the area, I briefly stopped to see if anyone on the small fishing pier was catching anything.  Other than a few croaker and sand trout, nobody had caught a redfish.  Probably because everybody was using shrimp. 

With the weather change coming, I probably won't get out on the jetties again until my next trip to Mobile, so until then.

Tight Lines.