Orange Beach, Alabama Spring Break Fishing 2011
February 1, 2011 - Orange Beach, Alabama - The Alabama Gulf Coast has almost fully recovered from the April, 2010, BP Oil Spill. This years Spring Break is looking like it is going to break all time attendance records. Our bookings are starting to pick up and people are excited about being able to come to the Alabama Gulf Shores and enjoy a much needed break from cold Winter. The forecasted Spring Break weather is supposed to be warm and there will be plenty of sunshine. The Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, beaches are clean, white and ready to wiggle your toes in. The waters are emerald green and teaming with marine life. The fish are biting. Our charter boats are ready for the upcoming season.
We have had all of the charter boats in the boat yards, performing our annual safety and maintenance inspections. It makes you feel great when you get a clean bill of health on your fishing boat and everything works properly. It is really makes you feel good when the Alabama Coastal Waters gets a clean bill of health. We are extremely excited to get back on the water and get the Orange Beach Spring Break started.
Everyone who calls or emails, asks us, "Hows the fishing?" and "Do you have any oil?" The answer is; fishing is great and there are no significant amounts of oil anywhere along our coastline. The water is safe for swimming and is really beautiful. From time to time, small, BB sized tarballs wash up but have the consistency of hard clay. This weathered oil poses no danger to anyone, according to the EPA, NOAA and state officials. The old oil looks like black specks in the sand. We expect miniscule amounts of weathered product to come ashore for years to come, but it should not be a major concern to the public.
Orange Beach Spring Break - What type of fishing is best?
Many of you who come to the Orange Beach area for Spring Break want to go deep sea fishing or inshore - bay fishing. Spring Break is a transitional period where our cold waters, begin to warm up. The saltwater fish are coming out of a cold Winter and getting ready to spawn in May and June. These fish are hungry. Spring has some warm days, which causes the fish to feed more agressively than they do during colder days.
Most of the deep sea fishing charters that are being booked are the 6 hour offshore bottom fishing trip. The 6 hour fishing charters offers a lot of action and quite possibly some larger fish. The offshore bottom fishing is wonderful right now and is expected to get better as Spring Break 2011 approaches. The fish are a little further offshore because they are following the bait fish. They are hungry and will eat just about anything. We should not have any problems being able to catch you some quality fish. The only drawback is, the fish you will be mostly catching are not going to be in season until June 1. Until then, you will have to take your picture with them and then release them. The 4 hour trolling charters usually get good in mid March. The migrating Spanish Mackerel start to move in and it is not uncommon to catch two, three or four at a time. Trolling charters are designed for those who are on an extremely tight budget or don't really want to get that far away from land. Our most popular fishing charter in Orange Beach is the 6 hour bottom fishing trip. Bottom fishing is best because everyone on the boat can fish at the same time.
Inshore fishing is good during Spring Break. The Speckled Trout, Redfish and Sheep Head are biting regularly. The moving tide along piers and jetties provides the best bite in and around the Orange Beach area. The reefs over in Mobile Bay and the deep holes in the local rivers also provide some nice size fish. The best time to fish is when the tide is moving. The fish tend to feed a little better during this period than they do when the tide is slack. Your captain keeps up with the tide tables and will certainly tell you when the best time to fish is going to be. The Moon has an effect on the bite as well. Combined with watching the tides, your captain is aware of the Moon phases to help guide you to an area and a time when the fish will be biting.