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August Offers Red Hot Bay Fishing on AL Gulf Coast

By: John Phillips

Monday, August 03, 2009

Editor’s Note: Captain Gary Davis of Tidewater Fishing Service in Foley, Alabama, has fished and guided in Mobile Bay for 35 years. As Davis explains, “This month, the bay’s red-hot around Fort Morgan. August is a very-good month for catching a wide variety of fish in Mobile Bay. Because the water’s so clear, we’ve had an influx of Spanish mackerel and small cobia that will weigh 3-5-pounds each. You can’t keep cobia this size, but they’re fun to catch and release.”

Question: Why is the bay so loaded with cobia, Spanish mackerel and big speckled trout in August?
Davis: This month, the bay is full of baitfish, and the cobia and mackerel will follow the baitfish. We’re catching plenty of flounder this month also. During August, the flounder start moving into the bay and staging to go into the Gulf of Mexico. These aren’t the really-big flounder we see in September and October. These flounder will weigh 2-4 pounds, and you can catch them around the pilings at the gas rigs. The bay also homes numbers of ground mullet and white trout in August, because these fish are following the bait. Too, you’ll see numbers of croakers and pinfish in the bay just out from Fort Morgan, as well as big speckled trout weighing 3- to 6- pounds each. The best way to catch these large speckled trout is to fish live croakers. If you put a live shrimp in the water, more than likely some other species of fish will eat it. But if you bait with live croakers, then when you get a bite, more than likely you’ll have on a speckled trout.

Question: What about the redfish bite?
Davis: The redfish are out in the Gulf of Mexico right now during August. You can catch them just off of Dixey Bar, Sand Island and the old lighthouse. These are the magnum redfish. They’ll weigh 10-30 pounds. The best time to catch the reds is about 1 hour after the tide starts falling out of the bay.

Question: When and where is the best time to catch speckled trout?
Davis: The speckled-trout bite in Mobile Bay in August is usually early in the morning and late in the evening. You can catch good-sized specks around any of the gas rigs in the bay.

Question: Gary, what will you generally catch in an average morning of fishing?
Davis: Seventeen speckled trout was the fewest that I caught all summer long. But in the box with those 17 speckled trout we had 5 flounder, 6 Spanish mackerel and 11 ground mullet. My party that day was 5 youngsters ages 8-12, and those youngsters had bent rods almost all day long.

Question: Do you fish with many young people?
Davis: Yes, I do. Throughout the summer months we have youngsters on the boat just about every day, since Dads and Granddads like to take their children and grandchildren fishing. I provide all the equipment and the bait, and I teach the youngsters how to fish. After the trip’s over, they can take bags of fish with them to either have cooked at a local restaurant or for Momma to cook for them at home.

Fishing should be strong all the way into October here in Mobile bay. We have such fertile waters, such good access to the Gulf and so many artificial reefs, gas rigs and other structures in the bay that we can catch good limits of fish just about every time we go out. If you’re waiting for a good time of year to come to the Alabama Gulf Coast when the fish are in and biting, August is the month to be here.

For more information on fishing Mobile Bay, you can contact Captain Gary Davis of Tidewater Fishing Service at 251-942-6298.