[sleepyluke]

Alright, there are a couple of us going to Perdido key in a couple weeks and I just found out that I am going to be able to get my hands on several rods for surf fishing. Now the questions start - - - morning mostly fishing, what can we expect to catch, how to catch it, and what can woe do with most of it? I have heard the salt water catfish are bad news and have a lot of bacteria and very little meat. This is mostly for fun, but if we can eat something, all the better. ANY advice is appreciated. I have been offshre fishing several times, but really never done the surf fishing, is it as simple as pond bank fishing and hang on for the big one expecting little 1-2 pound anythings???

Oh, and what kind of hooks and stuff do I need? I figure we will go see a little bait shop and get the shrimp and squid or whatever is working that week best when we go get the license, but is there anything aI can get here, or use bass stuff?

 

[y hunt]

Here is a web site that will give you a lot of information.
http://www.orangebeachfishingforum.com

 

[bhays]

We surf fished last week at Gulf Shores out on Fort Morgan. We really didn't catch much of anything besides catfish and threw them back. The pampano were supposed to be running but we didn't have any luck, but you might over there at Perdido Pass. We just went to Wal-Mart and got a license and bait there. I actually caught more fish on the Gulp Saltwater Shrimp than I did on the real shrimp or squid. We caught a few croakers on sand fleas. We bought a couple of pompano rigs which are 2-3 hooks spaced apart on a leader line with a small float above them to keep the bait suspended off the bottom an inch or two. They are a couple of bucks at Wally-World. The pampano like the sand fleas and the heads of the Gulp saltwater shrimp in the New Penny color look just like a sand flea, just cut the tail off. We used them b/c Wal-Mart was out of sand flea rakes and the frozen sand fleas won't stay on a hook long enough to do any good. Good luck, you might catch anything, we've caught catfish, pampano, bluefish, croakers, mackerel, mullet, flounder, sea trout, etc. in the past, so you may catch about anything on shrimp and squid. Non-resident 7 day trip licenses were up from what I remembered. They were $25, I thought the last time I got one they were just 9 or 10 bucks...

 

[hawgpharm]

we fished with frozen shrimp down at fort morgan a couple years ago. we caught some kind of white fish.

 

[bhays]

Oh, since you said this was your first time surf fishing, a few more things...
You ought to go look at low tide and see how the troughs and channels and stuff lay through the area you are fishing. Usually we wade out about waist deep on a sandflat and cast out to a deeper trough and then walk back to the beach and wait for a bite. I usually do take a small assortment from my freshwater fishing stuff (a few grubs, jigs, spoons, shad-raps, etc.) If you happen to see a feeding school breaking water it is usually bluefish and if they are close enough, cast a silver spoon out there and crank it in and you are likely to get hit. We saw a few schools in close to the beach but didn't have the right rig set up to change gears quickly enough. Keep an eye on the seabirds and where they are feeding too, usually they are near baitfish and can lead you to a hot spot. Other than the bluefish and mackerel which are both predatory in schools, most of the other fish are more cast out and let the bait sit awhile type fishing.

 

[bps12]

Hey man where are you staying in perdido we went last year and stayed and the perdido sun or perdido skye I can't remember. we had a blast we didn't fish any but there were some folks down there they where catchin pampano. on live shrimp . You got to try the shrimp basket and the crab house ,I think it is, going back towards gulf shores those are awesome place to eat, or at least they were last year.

 

[Manybeards]

If your fishing in the gulf you will need big sinkers and surf rod. It will also be helpful to have a wire leader (lots of sharks). I always just wade out in the water and make my throw then allow my line to free spool until I get to the bank. I've had the best luck using cut bait (mullet) and shrimp.

Now if your fishing in the bay, fishing is more like freshwater fishing. B-hays gave good advise.

Here's some good fish to eat. Spanish mackeral,king mackeral, red fish, blue fish, mullet, flounder, white trout, sheephead, croaker anything other than that Im not sure about.

 

[sleepyluke]

We stay in the Grand Carribean condos. They are pretty nice, not the high rise, have grills out back and have met some pretty good folks down there. This will be about our 7th trip to the same condos, when we lived in La we went more often and actually they started putting us in the ones for sale every year. This time we are going with 3 other couples, a total of 13 big and small kids and rednecks all around. Monsterman is one of them. Just kind of ended up with these rods, so we will see what happens. This trip we are playing golf down there, maybe next year we take the charter boat for the day. The boys should be old enough not to get too bored next year. Thanks for the advice and keep it coming. I have 29 days to learn everythign i can about it, then the brain will dump for a solid week!!!

 

[thomasw_lrd]

The catfish with the big spines over there back are really good to eat. Here is a link to what they look like. http://www.identicards.com/allaboutsaltwaterfish/species.asp?fish=Gafftopsail Catfish

They are the best catfish I ever ate, and you don't even half to put salt on them. My grandparents used to live in Biloxi, and we would come home with 50lbs worth of them. Everybody thought they were trash fish, but they sure are good.