Mahi-Mahi Birthday in Gulf Shores

Yesterday was my Dad's 56th birthday. He's old, but actually pretty young. Anyhow to celebrate his birthday we headed offshore. My mom and Brook came along with us so we had 6 of us out. There was a storm covering up the oil rig we wanted to hit, so we just stayed a few miles East and hit some different rigs.

We pulled up to a shallow water rig in just 45' of water in hopes to find some mangrove snappers, spadefish, maybe a cobia or even a big redfish... To our surprise, even this shallow water rig was covered up with red snappers! The season just closed for red snappers on monday so we had to let them go. Jared caught this beast that I had to take a picture of:


We were able to fish just above the red snappers and catch a cooler full of spadefish and mangroves which was a blast! Here are some pics of these fish back at the dock... I like taking fresh pics out in the boat, but everyone was focused on fishing.... You want to talk about a fish that fights hard, spadefish are BEASTS!!



So once we filled the cooler up we headed out to deeper to find some more fish! Our hope was to find some chicken dolphins (mahi-mahi) that had been reported in the area.... When we got to our next spot, it was covered with dolphins, but not the dolphins we were after... Real dolphins, like flipper were all over us, to the point where we couldnt even fish. Justin has a video that I will post here in a day or two, its pretty cool...

So we trolled around looking for some kings, spanish mackeral, and chicken dolphins. We caught two nice spanish and a king.



Then we decided to head in to cook up a birthday feast.... Well, about 8 miles from shore and this is where God blessed us with the best birthday present on the planet for Dad... He put a 40'x40' patch of floating seaweed right in our pathway home...


You may wonder what's so special about some sargasso seaweed, but the nice pretty water had a school of mahi-mahi loaded up under this thing!! We pulled up to it and dad casted a white curly tail grup near that thing and BAM he was hooked up! Immediately we all started grabbing rods and flinging bait of all sorts....

We were ALL HOOKED UP at the same time and filling the second fish cooler with acrobatic leaping and extra tasty mahi mahi's!!!


We were using cut cigar minnows, live pilchards, and curly grubs... Mom was throwing in pieces of cigar minnows to keep the school close as we drifted away from the weeds. Doing this kept the school of fish in a feeding frenzy and close to the boat! Also we made sure to keep at least one dolphin in the water at all times as well as this helps keep em fired up too!! Usually we had 2 or 3 on at the same time...

So we estimated there were about 20-25 mahi mahi swimming around this weed patch and we managed to catch 16 of them!!! These fish on light tackle are a whole nother level of fun... most saltwater fish we had been catching pulled really hard, but these fish swam really fast and at times jumped 5-6' into the air!!

Anyhow about 45 mins later and we were back on the path towards home... Truly an amazing experience and perhaps the best birthday my dad has ever had!


So we fished pretty much the whole day, BUT the day before we didnt do any fishing... just playing on the beach with the kids... We had fun doing the usual burrying people and making sand castles and riding waves...

Light Tackle Red Snapper Fishing

Monday was the last day of red snapper season, so we decided to take our little bay boat offshore for some light tackle snapper fishing at the oil rigs about 10 miles straight south of the little lagoon pass.

Earlier this spring we bought a used 2008 21' extra wide center console carolina skiff dlv 218 bay series boat with a 8' cobia lookout tower.


It took us about 30 minutes to get out to the oil rig and we were pretty excited to see the graph light up as we approached! We had cast netted a bunch of pilchards and had a pile of frozen cigar minnows and some fresh dead shrimp as well..... It took all of 30 seconds to cast out a 1/4 oz jig head baited with a live pilchard to get slammed by a red snapper!!


The rig was in 65' of water, but we were catching the fish just 10-30' down! You want to talk about having fun with light tackle, here you go!! We were free lining and also jigging baits with 14 lb test and 7' ugly sticks.... Besides the oil rig in the background, there was no other debris in the water to get snagged on so we could just battle these fish in open water and actually get them in without breaking off too often...


These fish fight 10x harder than anything you can catch in freshwater.... (and they taste pretty stinkin' good too!) I still am daydreaming about all those big red snappers right below us at the one little rig out in no mans land.


It took all of 30 minutes to have our limit of red snappers with this technique!! Once we got our limit, Dad focussed on using shrimp for bait to catch mangrove snapper, triggerfish, and spade fish... he was having an absolute blast!


We caught a few smaller jacks and hard tails and send them out for bait for something big! We had a few broken lines on the big baits. Oh yeah we also caught a little chicken dolphin (mahi mahi) using a free lined cigar minnow:


Anyhow after a pack of big dolphins (real dolphins, like flipper) came swimming all around our boat, all of our fish headed for the safety of the oil rig.... we had fish all over around our boat until those dolphins came and spooked me all away... but nonetheless we packed up and headed back to land with a boatload full of fish!


So we were back by 10:30 am and spent the rest of the day just hanging out at the pool... later in the afternoon we took the girls out for a little boat ride and about a mile offshore we hooked into this big king mackeral and spanish mackeral while trolling.


Look at how pretty this spanish mackeral is... these fish are just awesome looking! One tip for eating mackeral is that you have to eat them fresh! They are very good when you eat them same day you catch them, but they get mushy fast and dont keep well. (especially they dont freeze good at all)... every day you wait to eat them they taste worse and worse...



Needless to say we had fish for dinner again... we cooked king mackeral burritos and grilled mahi mahi, spanish mackeral and triggerfish.... Actually we havent been out to eat at a restaraunt yet. Gulf Shores is loaded with awesome places to eat, but you just simply cant beat cooking and eating your own fresh fish from the gulf......

Tomorrow we are taking the day off from fishing and gonna take the kids shell picking on the beach!

Gulf Shores Deep Sea Fishing on The High Cotton

I have been fishing with Capt Chris Garner and the High Cotton for about 20 years.... He is by far the best offshore deep sea charter captain in the Gulf Shores / Orange Beach region. When I first met Chris he was young, ambitious, and captain of a small boat. Every year we would come back to Gulf Shores he would have just a bit bigger/nicer boat, and every year we would head out a little further and catch bigger/ nicer fish!!



So anyhow every year I head down to the beach, I always call Chris and see whats happening... Now that he is on Facebook at High Cotton Charters so its even easier to stay connected to whats biting... So Chris said "Nate, there is a special 14 day snapper season right now and you absolutely have to bring your dad on Sunday's trip, its perfect for him. Just a 6 hr trip and we are headed to my snapper honey holes"

Come Sunday morning and Justin, Dad, Lee, and me were headed out 30 miles into the Gulf with 10 other people... Most charter boats out of Orange Beach have a maximum of 6 people, but the High Cotton can handle groups up to 15!! Usually we do a private charter on his boat, but this trip we joined a split charter to save on cost (and to get in on the monster red snappers before season closed Monday)...

Lee started out the morning with a very large and in charge snapper in 70' of water.... We were fishing only 40' down with live cigar minnows we caught right outside of Perdido Bay:


Dad actually doesnt like to reel in the big fish, so he focused his time on catching triggerfish. He caught some very nice triggers!!



Justin's first snapper was also really nice! I still cant believe how many BIG snappers we caught....


'bout 10 minutes after Justins biggest fish, my rod was doubled over with this nice snapper!


Followed up that one with this one:


We fished 4 different spots out in the gulf... one of them was holding lots of small fish, but the other 3 spots were loaded up with big fish. We filled up the fish cooler with some of the biggest red snappers I have ever seen (and I have been snapper fishing a few times in my day)... Usually you only get 2 or 3 of the big boys on a fishing trip, but this trip we limited out on the big boys!


Here are some more awesome snapper pics:



So here is how the 6 hour charter broke down... We spent 30 minutes catching bait with sabiki rigs which is actually pretty fun! Then we drove for an hour. Then we fished 4 wrecks/reefs for about 30 minutes each and then headed back in. The key to the trip is actually driving out further than the rest of the 6 hr charter fleets.... you spend more time driving and less time fishing, but the time you do spend fishing is just so stinkin productive. Here is a pic of the fish box getting filled up:


We got back to the dock about 1:30 in the afternoon and snapped a couple more photos and cleaned all the fish:




We spent the rest of the day swimming, watching football highlights and then took all the kids on an evening boat ride in the lagoon. We have only been down here 2 days and already have jampacked in a pretty event filled trip...The kids are having a blast exploring the beach!

Family Vacation Gulf Shores Alabama

Friday at noon I put the last Blue Catfish into his new home and headed home! This week we stocked thousands of rainbow trout, brown trout, channel catfish and blue catfish!! But anyhow, by 1 pm I was driving a van load of kids down to the BEACH!! About 300,000 other people had the same idea as well for this weekend....


This weekend is the national shrimp festival here in Gulf Shores. I drove through the night and arrived at our place on the beach at 3:20 am... We slept for a couple hours and then right full bore into a day of shrimp festivalling, swimming on the beach, swimming in the pool, and then capped off the evening fishing near the beach in our boat:





In just a little 2 hr fishing trip we caught 9 flounder and 1 pompano. When we got back we cleaned them up and cooked them fresh for dinner...

So anyhow, the shrimp festival is like dying and going to heaven for a guy like me. We feasted there for lunch! I carefully made the best shrimp choices possible.. There are like 100 vendors selling shrimp this and shrimp that.





After combing through them all I chose perhaps the smallest booth but they had a handmade sign that said "best fried shrimp n the civilized world" after chit chatting and sampling I told the gal that I dont want fries, I dont want cole slaw, hushpuppies or anything else in the box. I just want $20 worth of this shrimp..... SHEW BOY it was indeed the best fried shrimp I have ever had.... In fact I was smiling so big while I was inhaling the shrimp, the news cameras came over and asked if they could film me eating my pile of shrimp.... that was fun... I gave them some good footage with all kinds of cheezy audio....

So anyhow our first day of vacation was about as good as it gets, 83 degrees, sunny, calm, warm clear ocean water, great food, fun and delicious fishing, and just total relaxing on vacation... bout 8 pm Drake asked if he could go to bed!! At bedtime Drakes favorite part of the day was crafts at the shrimp festival, Mae's highlight was also crafts at the festival, but Noah's highlight was swimming in the Oceans waves.... Brooks highlight was the laying out chair at the pool and the laying out towel on the beach... My highlight was every minute of the entire day....

Oh yeah, a few days before we left for vacation, I took Noah down to Presleys to get a bow and arrow... he has been faithfully practicing with me the last couple months and his desire to shoot with me was just too strong to not get him started.... while we were at the store he said "dad, you just even thinking about getting me a bow makes you the best dad ever"...





We got the bow and he has spent hours shooting it! He has spent even more hours thinking and daydreaming about it though.. that is what is so cool, he is a dreamer like myself... he brought me home this picture from school... Me and Dad shooting our bows:


Then en route to gulf shores he spent a couple hours drawing more bow shooting pictures... this time he added my glasses to make me look more realistic:


Being a dad is the coolest thing ever. I wouldnt trade these moments for anything... You just never know what these kids are gonna say, do, think out loud, and ponder....to watch them grow up is just too cool...

Midwest Big Bass and Killing Fish

BIG bass are putting on the feed bag right now, and BIG bucks are gobbling up any beans that are still green... One piece of advice for hunting the first two weeks of season would be to look for major deer activity on the south edges of bean fields where they will usually be greener....

The past month has been a blur to say the least. I've been to tons of new properties shocking and designing lakes in Mt. Pleasant, Columbus Junction, North English, Cedar Rapids, Marion, Grundy City, Ossian, and Altoona all in Iowa. Here are a couple big bass from a 1 acre pond...


Then we continued down I-80 and met up with the pond boss gang in Lincoln, Nebraska for a meeting of the minds...


Im talking the best of the best in the pond mgmt sector met up at Lincoln... Guys from Virginia, Pittsburgh, Missouri, Texas, Florida, Indiana, South Dakota, and a few more states converged on a dock we built in Lincoln 3 years ago to talk about FISH..... Here are some of the fish we were talkin about:




Then we did a little run through Missouri and have also been doing work in Indiana. The latest project in Indiana we killed off thousands of bass, bluegill, and crappies to turn the 5 acre lake into smallmouth, perch, and walleye...




While in Cedar Rapids we also killed off hundreds of bass to give the remaining fish more food to eat...


Oh Yeah, also did a pond mgmt seminar up in Northern Iowa at a really sweet farm:


So anyhow here is a big fish we shocked up in a 6 acre pond while up near Savanna shocking on a road trip up north:



I am super excited about the weeks to come! Deer are gonna start pouring into our bottom ground prairie grass looking in just a couple weeks looking for some ladies and then gonna stick around to gobble up some good grub... Fishing today with the owner of Rock River Arm Company. Hopefully the fish are biting!!

Next week we start stocking rainbow and brown trout along with lots of forage minnows!!!