Red Snapper Season Opening in Alabama

September 27, 2010
Red Snapper Season Opening in Alabama
Editor's Note: The following fishing update was prepared for The Fishing Wire by the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitor's Bureau. We're helping to spread the word that the Gulf of Mexico is open for business - including fishing.

Red Snapper - if you're a weekend angler, you might want to head to the Gulf Coast.
Red snapper season off Alabama's Gulf Coast begins October 1st and runs through November 21st. The federal government also has opened 8,000 miles of the Gulf of Mexico waters, about 150- to 160-miles south of Orange Beach, Alabama, that previously have been closed to fishing. Anglers may fish and keep the fish they catch during this special fall red snapper season only on weekends during that period - from 12:01 a.m. on Fridays and must return with their catches no later than 12:00 midnight on Sundays. A 2-day charter allows anglers to come in with two limits of red snapper per person on a weekend.

The red snapper season opener only tells half the story about the fine fishing anglers will enjoy at Alabama's Gulf Coast this fall. Because of the little or no fishing in the Gulf of Mexico due to the oil spill last spring, anglers have not caught and kept red snapper since the summer of 2009. Other varieties of fish also have had very-little fishing pressure. Dr. Bob Shipp, the head of the marine sciences department at the University of South Alabama, Mobile, Ala., has studied many of the fish in the Gulf of Mexico, and says, "The fish are healthy and can be eaten."

"We're seeing bigger amberjacks, triggerfish, vermilion snapper and king mackerel than we've seen in past falls," says Captain Johnny Greene of the charter boat "Intimidator" based in Orange Beach, Ala. "The red snapper have really loaded-up on all the artificial reefs, wrecks and natural bottoms in our section of the gulf. The average red snapper we're keeping will weigh 6- to 12-pounds. Too, we're seeing plenty of red snapper even larger than that - like 20 pounders. More than likely, even fishermen who book 4- to 6-hour trips should easily be able to take their limits of red snapper during October and November."

Take your vacation this fall to experience the abundance of great fishing on Alabama's Gulf Coast. The Gulf State Park Pier in Gulf Shores, Ala., the longest pier in the Gulf of Mexico, has anglers daily catching king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, flounder and speckled trout there in large numbers.

"I caught a 22-pound king mackerel the next-to-last Tuesday in September from the pier," Pete Aguon, a regular on the pier, explains. "John Gianinni has been coming out on the pier early in the morning before daylight and catching some really-big speckled trout weighing 4- to 5-pounds each. The Spanish mackerel we're catching have been big ones - running 3- to 5-pounds each. And, as the weather turns cooler, we'll start catching more and more of those big king mackerel."

Captain Gary Davis of Tidewater Fishing Service in Foley, Ala., reports that, "The big flounder are stacking-up around Fort Morgan, and we're catching them inside Mobile Bay and out on the Gulf of Mexico side. Flounder fishing should be good all the way through November. Speckled trout have begun moving out of the gulf and into Mobile Bay. We should have very-productive fishing around the Fort Morgan region well into November when the trout will move out of the bay and into the rivers."

To enjoy fantastic fall fishing, plan to red snapper fish on the weekends, and fish off the Gulf State Park Pier, in the back bays and at Fort Morgan during the week. Alabama's Gulf Coast homes some of the finest fall fishing for anglers anywhere in the nation. There's plenty of delicious fish to eat. Y'all come.

To learn more, call the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitor's Bureau at 1-800-745-SAND (7263), or visit www.gulfshores.com. For fishing information, go to http://www.gulfshores.com/fishing/biting/.