# 55052: Subject: Gulf Of Mexico, Dauphin Island, Alabama

Submitted by capt_dalton (ip 4.153.205.21)

• Fished on 5/12/2006

• Report received: 5/14/2006

Water Temperature: 76
Water Clarity: 2 to 3 feet, green
Seas: 1 to 2 early, 3 feet and worse later
Weather: West wind around 10 knots early, west 17 knots or better after 4 pm. Very rough 3 foot whitecaps very close together
Fishing_for: Red Snapper
Boat: Mar-T
captain: Chris Dalton

Report:
I had one of those trips yesterday I can only hope to recreate. To put it short, we crushed 'em.

The day started weird enough. My deckie spent the night on the boat and had everything ready when I got there, for the first time EVER. Then, as we're getting ready to cast off, he decides he doesn't feel good and doesn't want to go. WHAT? Fine, I told him to stay on the dock. The crew said they could take care of themselves. Cool by me, saves me the money of having to pay a deckie, saves them giving him a 15% tip. Win, win situation. I showed them where everything was and we headed out.

I had heard that the fish were actually biting in 60 feet of water, but, with the moon being full and this front dragging through, I told the guys it was probably going to be a hard day of fishing. We'd find some fish, but, getting them to bite might prove difficult without some good live bait. I had a bunch of rubies in my holding pen, but, they were more suited for AJ's. I was also figuring it would be pretty bouncy, the wind was blowing pretty good out of the west. Top all that off with the fact that I haven't found but one of my spots in that shallow water, and I figured we'd end up way offshore to catch any fish.

Well, first stop was a no show, strike another one off of the list of places to fish. I next went to a place I did locate the day after opening. The fishey finder lit up. We pulled 7 good fish off of that spot before a fleet of small center consoles decended on me. I was well of off the spot while a guy pulled right up beside me and just sat there and watched as one of my anglers fought a nice 9 pound snapper to the boat.

These spots aren't publicly advertised, however, they're not exactly private either, but, I was not willing to share it with John Q. Public, so, I headed off to check a couple more spots, with less boat traffic. Spot number three marked some fish, but, not nearly as many as spot number two. However, we again put 7 nice keepers in the boat. My crew had become somewhat spoiled and was throwing back nice keeper fish without measuring them. They said, "If it ain't as big as the ones in the cooler, throw it back".

Well, spot number four was a couple miles towards the sunrise from where we were. As I was rounding up on the numbers, I couldn't find any structure. I was about to write that spot off when the fish finder went totally red and yellow. I still couldn't find the structure, but, the water appeared to be teeming with fish, so, I dropped a waypoint and decided to try there. One of the guys had tossed the ling jig over when I told him how the fish appeared to be everywhere. The big spinning rod bent double and the drag started screaming. After a good fight, the fat snapper broke the leader at boatside. Everyone on the boat saw it but me, but, they were all in awe. I told them to get their lines in the water. The big fish that had came within gaffs reach had brought all of his buddies with him. The fish began hitting the decks in twos and threes for about 15 minutes and we were limited out at 10 o'clock. We we catching fish at 2 second drops, it was really awesome. We didn't have any tournament winners, but, an average of 5 pound fish with four or so over 10 were iced and in the box. The pressure was off.

We went rig hopping and trolled an awesome weedline with nothing to show for our efforts. I tried some beeliner and trigger spots, but, all we got was more snapper. I think we had one throwback trigger. Went about 25 miles out to try for AJ, but, the small AJs could not get the big rubies in their mouths. We had two got bites, but, no hook ups, just skinned up baitfish.

The ride in was pretty sporty, as the west wind had really started to howl. I had to drop the Mar-T down to 6 knots to trudge through the slop at the light house.

I had a great bunch of guys on board whose only desire was to catch some nice red snapper, and we got that done in short order.

I think everyone onboard yesterday was very happy.

If I can find someone with Windows XP and some usable USB ports, I have some dock pictures of the crew and their catch. They were a very fun group that I hope to see again on the Mar-T.

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