Several groups of other Alabama Coastal Fishermans Association club members
converged on the Dauphin Island Pier early Saturday morning for some comradrie
and to compete in the Speckled Trout Challenge (aka Battle of Mobile Bay or BoMB)
with the Eastern Shore based Weeks Bay Fishing Club.
My partner Rusty Hook "woke up early and couldn't sleep" so he got there first
soon followed by QTip (who had kept shrimp alive since 9am Friday = great job QTip .
They were soon joined by Team Wholly Mackerel (Siren of-the Sea and Iceman).
It was breaking daylight when I arrived after a 5am baitstop with Team Pot Licker (dad & Jr) hot on my heels.
It was a nice mild morning, with temps around 70, mostly cloudy with a steady SE breeze about 8-10 knots.
The current was pushing in hard but the water was fairly clear with only 1-2 foot waves outside the sandbars.
Not many other folks fishing (for a Saturday morning).
I guess the threat of rain in the forecast kept them away.
Anyway, as I arrived Siren was bowed up to a big fish that turned out to be a 27"-28" redfish
The rest of us set up scattered down the rail to try and locate the specks.
And it didn't take long...
Pot Licker with a nice "Participation Point" trout
QTip with a nice trout
Daniel almost looks happy
Iceman 'iced' this fine speck
Well, it didn't take too long for just about everyone else on the pier to figure out where the specks were
But hey! We came to have a good time
And that we did. All the club members caught specks,
though none made the cut to place in the Top 10 for the Challenge Tournament
Oh well, it was good times, good company and good fishing!
The speck bite fizzled by 10 am and Rusty Hook had to leave on bidnezz
He had caught several nice specks though and was able to make the weighin later
Just a few more specks were caught during the morning as the hand-sized spadefish were an unholy terror on our live shrimp and the specks would not respond to any more artificials offered
(though several had been caught in the early morning on Gotcha plugs
The remaining members still caught a few fish though,
the "Pot Lickers" had a mini pompano competion going on
and Iceman landed a fiesty little spanish.
Pot Licker with a keeper pompano
Pot Licker Jr counters with this 1.45# whiting
Pot Licker with a FINE pompano (3.34#)
Just about all of us got cut off by spanish at one point or another
and there were some small ones caught on Gotchas and several nice ones (up to 5 1/2 pounds) caught on live LYs.
I saw at least a dozen pompano landed (all keepers) including this fine specimen:
I also saw 2 flounder, a couple of sheepshead, a few whiting over a pound, and several black (puppy) drum.
The action was really dead at midday when the current stopped, but the clouds had moved away
and the water was pretty clear to take some shots around the pier for perspective.
The sandbar that was west of the T two weeks ago is now under the pier
The "darker" water is 8'-12' deep.
East side of the T looking north:
West side of the T looking north:
Looking westward from the T:
and looking south from the T:
It's such an amazing sight even the boaters want a closer look
This one almost got "TOO" close:
By the time the tide turned at about 2 pm there were only a handfull of fishers on the whole pier.
But the specks were still there, and still hungry.
I had NO trouble filling my limit, but still no tournament fish
When I ran out of live shrimp, I left them biting (James Moses and his son James Jr were still catching them).
Can't complain though, it'd been a great day shared with some great folks.
But I had to head to the Causeway for the weigh in for some fish & grits and see that our club prevailed
Which it did
Thank You Lord for a wonderful day spent with good friends sharing good fishing fun and food!
My fish were 17" to 19 1/2" and the two biggest were both 2.60 pounds.
The "money shot"
Saturday May 5 DIPier
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- Seasoned Fisher
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Saturday May 5 DIPier
WOOO HOOO the Gulf State Park pier is OPEN!
Gulf State Park Pier 6am Tuesday July 21, 2009
Gulf State Park Pier 6am Tuesday July 21, 2009
- MoJo
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