Sheepshead Fishing

Orange Beach has long been known as one of the premier areas on the Gulf coast for offshore fishing. Many have forgotten or just don’t know how awesome of an inshore fishing that we have.

In the spring of the year as the water starts to warm up sheepshead, a black and white convict striped fish that can steal a shrimp without the slightest hint to the angler, spawn in the inshore and near shore waters of Alabama. After they spawn, the ravenous fish can be caught around the inlets, jetties and piers on live shrimp and fiddler crabs. For what they may lack in beauty they sure make-up for in their stubborn fight and they are quiet delicious as table fare. This is a fairly easy fish to locate (any structure from a piling to a pile of rocks will hold these fish in the spring).

Sheepshead are a great fish to target with your children as they do not require specialized equipment. The same tackle that you use for bass fishing will work quite nicely. No long offshore runs are required; just a short trip to the Perdido Pass Bridge or the jetties, and let the fun begin.

PS….As a bonus while you are trying to catch a sheepshead, don’t be surprised to find a red fish or a pompano on the end of your line.

Thanks to Capt Brad Johnson with Triple C Charters for taking my wife and daughter inshore fishing. Hope you enjoy the video.

Capt. Randy Boggs

Reel Surprise Charters @ SanRoc Cay Marina

www.sanrocfishing.com

251-981-7173 or 1-800-806-7889

Fishing Getaway

February Fishing Report by Capt. Randy Boggs

The weather may be cool, okay cold, but the fish are still biting.

Good catches of black drum and sheepshead are being reported around the Perdido Pass Bridgerocks and jetties. Live shrimp and fiddler crabs are the preferred bait.

Red fish are being caught in the Perdido Pass or just outside on cut baits. You can also troll for them with planers and spoons; a pink or a green spoon being the color of choice. Look for the birds diving and troll around the diving birds.

Speckled trout are in the deep holes in the rivers and being caught on live shrimp or croakers, if you can get them.

Offshore around the rigs black fins are being caught on diamond jigs at night. Trolling with ballyhoo and dusters or chunking might land you a yellow fin tuna. The cool water temperatures are keeping the dolphin and the wahoo away.

Red snapper are everywhere. These fish are being caught on cut bait or live bait. At this time, the red snapper are only catch and release. It is our understanding that the season, sizes and bag limits will not be announced until May.

Some nice amberjack are showing up on the deep water rocks and rigs. These fish are being caught on live bite or jigging. Good catches of vermillion snapper and trigger fish can be caught in the 125’ to 130’ depths on cut squid .

Capt. Randy Boggs

Reel Surprise Charters @ SanRoc Cay Marina

www.sanrocfishing.com

251-981-7173 or 1-800-806-7889

January Fishing Report from Capt. Randy Boggs

The New Year is off to a great start and the fishing is great too!

The red fish are biting inshore and near shore. Sheepsheads are being caught around the Perdido Pass Bridge and jetties with shrimp. We have several inshore boats available for charter.

Vermillion snapper and trigger fish can be caught in the 120 depths on cut squid. There has also been a big showing of lane snapper.

The report of tuna fishing is good at the offshore rigs.

Be sure to ask for our Brett/Robinson Winter Special that is good through March 15, 2010.

Capt. Randy Boggs

Reel Surprise Charters @ SanRoc Cay Marina

www.reelsurprisecharters.com or www.sanrocfishing.com

251-981-7173 or 1-800-806-7889

November Fishing Report from Capt. Randy Boggs

Inshore there a quiet a few flounder still around. King and Spanish mackerel are still biting trolling inshore.

Red fish have shown up around the bridge and rocks at Perdido Pass and just outside the pass. These fish are being caught trolling with planers with spoons behind them.

Fishing continues to be good offshore in the 100’ plus depths for vermillion snapper which are being caught on cut squid and small pieces of cigar minnow. There has been a huge showing of trigger fish. A lot of the fish are short but there are plenty of keepers mixed in with them.

The grouper and scamp are beginning to bite in the 200’ to 300’ depth range. Live baits seem to be working for the scamp, and smaller pin fish and larger baits for the grouper.

The black fin tuna have shown up at the rigs and are being caught at night on diamond jigs. There have been good reports of yellow fin tuna caught trolling ballyhoo or chunking.

Capt. Randy Boggs

Reel Surprise Charters @ SanRoc Cay Marina

www.reelsurprisecharters.com or www.sanroccay.com

September Fishing Report by Capt. Randy Boggs

Inshore the trout are being caught with shrimp and a popping cork. Red fish are biting cut or live bait around Perdido Pass.

King mackerel are being caught off the Gulf State Pier as well as trolling with planers and spoons in the Gulf.

Flounder fishing is getting better everyday. We are waiting for the first hard north winds to drop the air and water temperatures and hasten the migration of the fish.

Off shore there a lot of red snapper to catch and release. They are on almost any structure and will bite live or cut bait readily. Vermillion snapper are being caught on the rocks and larger wrecks in over 100’ of water on cut squid and small pieces of cigar minnows.

Trigger fish have shown up in large numbers on most all reefs. The fish large enough to keep have generally been found on reefs that hold larger fish as a general rule. Trigger fish readily bite cut squid, minnow pieces, shrimp, and we have discovered they have quiet a taste for the new Berkley Gulp! ® baits.

Quite a few grouper and scamp are being caught in 200’-300’ of water on large live baits or larger size dead bait. Amberjack have showed up this month on the off shore rigs and the larger wrecks. They are being caught jigging or with live bait with a blue runner/hard tail being much preferred.

Black fins have made a big showing around the oil rigs this fall. Good catches are being reported with quite a few fish over the 20 pound mark. The Mobile Big Game Fishing Club’s Labor Day Invitational brought great catches of yellow fin tuna. These fish were being caught in over 1,000 feet of water at most rigs trolling with small ballyhoo and dusters.

Wahoo have made a good showing off shore. Most of these fish have been between 20 and 50 pounds and are biting almost anything you troll.

Dolphin are a very scattered catch with not many reported.

To sum it all up, there are fish in the water, and if you put a put bait on a hook, and put it in the water, you will most likely catch one.

Capt Randy Boggs
Reel Surprise
gonefishn@gulftel.com
Reel Surprise Charters

April Fishing Report from Capt. Randy Boggs

Inshore the Spanish mackerel have shown up on along the area beaches in good numbers. These fish are being caught on planers and spoons. We have seen some great catches of pompano in the last few days. The pompano have been being caught on jigs or sand fleas (aka mole crabs).

Redfish are being caught around the jetties. There are still quite a few sheepsheads around and they are being caught on live shrimp on the near shore wrecks, inlets, jetties and piers.

Offshore the vermillion snapper are biting well in 120’ depths on cut squid. Quite a few trigger fish are also being caught, but a lot of them are just shy of the new 14” fork length regulations. Red snapper are everywhere – catch and release only until June 1st.

We have seen several nice grouper brought in since the season opened April 1st with a 53 Warsaw being the biggest one seen. There are a lot of gag grouper and scamps to go with them.

Yellow fin tuna and black fin tuna are being caught around the rigs. They are being caught jigging, chunking or trolling.

Reel Surprise and Gulf Winds II are running an April special – 6 hrs bottom fishing trip for $75! For reservations, please call 251-981-7173 or 1-800-806-7889.

Capt. Randy Boggs
www.reelsurprisecharters.com

November Fishing Report by Capt. Randy Boggs

The weather might be cooler, but the inshore fishing is “hot”. There have been good catches of red fish reported. These fish are showing up just north of the Perdido Pass Bridge on an incoming tide. Cut bait, live bait or trolling with spoons and Stretch 25s, with pink and green being the better colors, are the baits of choice.

Good catches of flounder are also being reported. The best catches are on jigs or bull minnows.

For catch and release, the public wrecks are a “hot” spot for red snapper. Trigger fish have shown up in abundance and are being caught on cut squid.
Remember, effective August 4, 2008, the size limit for gray trigger fish was increased to 14 inches, fork length.

Spanish and King mackerel are being caught on spoons trolling around the pass or just offshore. A smaller size spoon will produce a lot of Spanish mackerel.

There have been no reports of dolphin or wahoo being caught. Some large yellow fins tuna, over 100 pounds, are being caught trolling around the offshore rigs. Quite a few black fin tuna are being caught jigging with diamond jigs.

Capt. Randy Boggs
www.reelsurprisecharters.com

October Fishing Report by Capt. Randy Boggs

Red snapper are being caught in Florida waters out to 9 miles.Limits are common to 2 fish per person. Vermillion snapper are being caught on most of the larger reefs like the bridge rubble and barges and eve in shallow water 60’ to 70’ deep on cut squid. Trigger fish have shown up in big numbers and are being caught high in the water on cut squid on smaller hooks like 1 to 3 circle hooks.
A lot of red fish have been caught around the pass and in the bays. We have seen some really big catches of flounder on bull minnows, jigs, and Gulp!® baits.There have been black and yellow fin tuna being caught around the offshore rigs by trolling or jigging at night with diamond jigs.
We have seen quite a few wahoo caught in the last couple of weeks since the clear water has moved back in.We have even seen a few dolphins caught which is unusual this late in the season.

Capt. Randy Boggs
www.reelsurprisecharters.com

September Fishing Report by Capt. Randy Boggs

Not all bad things come from hurricanes. With Hurricane Gustav it brought in clean water.

The red snapper are abundant on every reef and oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico including near shore. The natural bottom is holding trigger fish and vermillion snapper. We are seeing some grouper being caught in the 200’ depths.

Well offshore, the tuna fishing has been excellent at the oil rigs. There are reports of a lot of yellow fin tuna being caught in the 60 lb to 100 lb range. Several nice wahoo have been caught to the southwest around the oil rigs

Inshore the red fish bite has been better than ever seen. There have been several reports of over 100 fish being caught and released on a 4-hour trip. The speckled trout are being caught at night around the lights.

This is typical of the fishing in September. Everything is starting to feed anticipating the cooler weather when the bait will migrate out of here. The fishing is expected to get even better throughout the month.

Capt. Randy Boggs
www.reelsurprisecharters.com