On another day with my friend from the UK, Mr. Mike we blasted out to some near shore gas wells off of Fort Morgan, AL. We spent the previous day searching in vain for migrating cobia…with no luck at all. Never saw the first one. At least we were not the only ones. Word one the radio was about the same. That day was picture perfect. Very calm, clear water, light offshore breeze so I guess you could call it too perfect. Fishermen always have an excuse, right? Anyway, that was the day before. On this day we ran the 18 miles on very calm water to rigs. I haven’t made that run in my flats boat in over two years but Mike was wanting a big pull that only offshore species can produce. We had success immediately! The red snapper cooperated right off and Mike landed several on strip retrieves and dead drifts on his 12 weight fly rod. He also struggled to control several more that simply would not stop heading for the bottom until breaking off his leader. I t was great fun to be down there again and we basically had it all to ourselves. When we least expected it four cobia did what they do best and swam right up under the boat and refused to eat a fly. One would have tipped the scales at probably 40lbs (US). They popped back up one more time for a few seconds and then disappeared again.
Time flew by and after lunch we headed back stopping by one last time at a single gas pipe and caught a little cobia, 10lbs on the Boga-Grip. Mike’s first cobia, although awfully small. We were happy to catch him…and let him go! Chalk up another beautiful day on our Gulf of Mexico. We are so lucky to live here!
Mike catching Red Snapper on his fly rod
Administrator, April 26th 2011 |
Tags: Alabama Fishing, Florida, Gulf Coast fishing, Gulf Coast Guides, Gulf of Mexico, Sight casting, Southern Oceans, Southern Waters, Sportfishing
Posted in Gulf Coast fishing, Uncategorized
Our old friend Mike from the U.K. paid us a visit last week for a bit of fly fishing. He hasn’t been here since 2004 and it was great to see and fish with him again. We started out a week of fly fishing last Monday the 11th. Capt. Clif was kind enough to let us try out his his new East Cape Skiff for some super skinny water fishing. We got into some nice redfish right away and proceeded to break off the first to reds we hooked. Now normally a guide would suspect knot failure if tied by the angler but that was not the case this time…and I’ll take the blame. I let Mike fish with his own leader which was already on his rod. The problem was just days before he came to fish with us he was in Mexico bone fishing with…you guessed it the same rod and leader. Yep, the prudent guide would have insisted on a new leader, but no.. lazy me said “it looks good to me Mike”. Well we managed to catch the next one (no surprise) with a new leader. We saw many more reds that day but between refusals to eat the fly, botched casts or bad boat position (my fault) we managed to end the day with only the one red to the boat.
Check back tomorrow for more on our week of fishing, story telling and Malbec drinking. Plus Mike’s take on the drink called Crown and Seven!
Administrator, April 22nd 2011 |
Tags: Alabama Fishing, Florida, Gulf Coast fishing, Gulf Coast Guides, Gulf of Mexico, Redfish, Sight casting, Southern Waters, Sportfishing
Posted in Gulf Coast fishing
Last Sunday brought sunny skies and warmer weather…well enough to warrant a short trip around the bay to do some scouting. Jr. and me put the boat in at Boggy Point to check out some of the nearby flats for redfish action. Well it didn’t take to long for us to run across a school of about fifteen, 12lbers! Of course Capt. Semper Paratus (always ready)… (that’d be me) was not ready! So we watched them swim off to deeper redfish land while I rigged up a little to late. We managed to find another school of three which I hit right on the head and scared off. The highlight of our short 3 hour Sunday ride was spotting a single redfish in one foot of water that was easily 30lbs. This one I cast to perfectly and was quickly refused. Oh well, sometimes it’s just not about catching. Come on Spring time!!!
Administrator, January 19th 2011 |
Tags: Alabama Fishing, Florida, Gulf Coast fishing, Gulf Coast Guides, Gulf of Mexico, Redfish, Sight casting, Southern Waters
Posted in Gulf Coast fishing
This could be our first hard cold front of the year which is pretty overdue. I remember the old redfish tourney we used to have in Orange Beach. We’d fish most of October and we typically had many cold days of fishing.
It’s gonna blow a gale out of the north tonight and probably all day tomorrow. Probably by Saturday it will lay down enough to fish. The big question is will the water be cleared up enough by then. If so look for the redfish to be fired up and gobbling red minnows by the bucket full! We’ll keep a close eye on the beach and let everyone know when it gets good…..then look for us to be out there!
Administrator, November 5th 2010 |
Posted in Uncategorized
The day after Halloween started out beautiful and got better as the morning went on. It started out with a short drive to drop Jr. off at school then a cup of coffee with a friend. On the way back to the house to do some Monday morning work I got a text from Capt. Clif. “Runnin down the beach on the outside…meet me on the North shore of Johnson’s beach in 20 min…” Well I didn’t think about it to long and headed his way. We met up and took off on his new “Lostmen, East Cape Skiff“. We started out fishing in Big Lagoon, a estuary of Pensacola Bay, Fl. It didn’t take long before we spotted a couple of nice speckled trout following a small school of bait. I got a cast on one of them but didn’t get a take. Trout in skinny water are, 1 tough to see and 2 VERY skittish. A few hundred feet more and I blew a shot at a redfish, pulling the jig right out of his mouth.
After working that shoreline for about an hour we saw and had shots at, at least 8 more redfish. After an hour or so we scooted across the lagoon to the other side and spotted a couple more redfish but not near as many on the other shore. Well before you new it it was 1pm and it was time for me to run. Capt Clif dropped me off back on the beach and we parted ways.
A text a little later from Clif read, ” Fished a little longer after dropping you off….saw a pompano in super skinny water as well as several more reds.” All in all a pretty good morning!
Drop us an email to book a trip…. rick@southern-waters.com
Small Alabama Redfish
Administrator, November 2nd 2010 |
Tags: Alabama Fishing, Gulf Coast fishing, Gulf Coast Guides, Gulf of Mexico, Redfish, Sight casting, Southern Waters, Sportfishing
Posted in Uncategorized
Our great and old friend Bibb called after we had pretty much decided that yesterday was a blowout weather wise. The sun peeked out and we decided to make a go of it leaving the dock at the crack of noon… We were glad we did! After catching about fifteen of these huge redfish we called it a day and ambled back to his dock…
A last minute trip
Administrator, October 26th 2010 |
Tags: Alabama Fishing, Gulf Coast fishing, Gulf Coast Guides, Redfish
Posted in Uncategorized
The wind is finally coming around to the northwest. The tide is out, and there is a pretty good swell at the FloraBama vacant lot. Not perfect by any means but ridable. The Romar Pier is crappy and Perdido Pass is worse. It should still be decent in the morning for longboards, if you can bear the cold (57) water. A few tough teenagers are out there as we speak. At least the sun will be out tomorrow, which makes a big difference to me!
Administrator, January 18th 2010 |
Posted in Uncategorized
Here in Orange Beach the wind is still pushing hard out of the southeast. The water is high and the surf is well overhead but sloppy as you would expect. The forecast is for the wind to go west by tomorrow afternoon then north west Sunday night. If so Monday morning and pretty much all day Monday should be offshore and big. Check back as it could switch earlier making Sunday afternoon rideable. We live at the beach so we’ll know right away. The water temp is 57 degrees. Wet suit required and unless your tough, booties and gloves too. Hit up your favorite shop, Blonde Johns, Waterboyz, or Innerlight for your neoprene!
Check out our board specials going on now, super cheap prices on hand crafted FCD Surfboards (Patagonia).
Administrator, January 17th 2010 |
Tags: Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Southern Waters, surf report, Surfing
Posted in Gulf Coast Surfing, Surfing
"Fish On" aboard the Dreamin On
Here is the first of our reports from our Southern Waters Ambassador, Capt. Randy Hodgekiss and the “Dreamin On” crew.
Well, the New Year’s here and we’ve received news that the Dreamin On will arrive in Papeete on the 17th or 18th of January. She is riding aboard the ship “Super Servant 3″ which was delayed for 10 days in Panama for unscheduled maintenance. Our crew has got our flights set so that we arrive before her. When the Dreamin On arrives in Tahiti we’ll go through the process of clearing customs and immigration. The next step is a through washing. Its been 5 weeks since she has had a bath or seen any wax. After a day or two we’ll get her refueled and be off on our journey. We’re all anxious to see Tahiti. After growing up watching movies of the Kon Tiki (That shows my age!) this trip will complete a desire of mine to see the South Pacific since I was a young bilge rat. Stay tuned for more reports.
Capt. Randy
Administrator, January 11th 2010 |
Tags: Big Game Fishing, Coral Sea, Garlington Sportfishermen, New Years, South Pacific, Southern Waters, Sportfishing
Posted in Big Game Fishing, Marlin Fishing, Southern Hemisphere, The Tropics
2 for $30 Sale
Believe it or not on the coldest day this year we’re putting all of our long sleeve t-shirts on sale, right when you need them the most. The days are getting longer and we’ve gotta get crackin on our new Spring line of shirts and boardshorts…..which means the winter stuff has gotta go! Check out our sale goin on now. All long sleeve tees are $16.99, or better yet two for $30 bucks! You can’t beat that deal anywhere. Important! to get the two for thirty bucks deal you’ve gotta enter this code at checkout, 2for30. We still have plenty of sizes but they’re goin fast. Check it out now! www.southern-waters.com
Administrator, January 9th 2010 |
Posted in Uncategorized
