about us
Orange Beach Fishing Charters and Guide Boats is the Official Website of the charter fishing cooperative. Our boats, captains and guides are the best in the charter fishing business. The information we provide to you via this website will help you make an informed decision as to which type of fishing trip is best for you and your group. After navigating our site and understanding who we are, we hope you trust us enough to fill out our reservation form and submit it to our guides. Our guides are very busy, but each has that ability to instantly check their availability will respond quickly to your reservation request. After that, you can finalize your reservation in just a few easy steps directly with them.
More about us: Because we care if you get the best fishing charter in Orange Beach, we are very selective about the boats we put you in touch with. Unlike other brokers websites who will book any boat willing to pay them a commission, we are not like that. All of our professionally run charter boats are hand chosen by our executive board because of the high level of service they provide. We only offer charter boats membership or inclusion, only if they exhibit good character with solid moral fiber, have a conservation ethic and can produce quality catches of fish. There is no way for someone to buy their way into this group by offering to pay a commission (pay to play) or by making their customers pay a hidden commission.
All Orange Beach Fishing Cooperative members must participate in all aspects of the fishery management process to ensure we have healthy and sustainable fisheries for generations to come. We take our membership a step further. All of our charter boats are legal, carry all required commercial insurance, licenses and permit on their vessels, their crew, and their passengers. Our Captains, crews and charter boats are all properly licensed, documented, and our members must participate in a random rug testing program as required by the US. Coast Guard.
When you submit a reservation request via this website, your request will be forwarded to the appropriate charter, so that they can quickly respond directly to you. You will receive service and a level of quality that is unheard of in the charter fishing industry, save some money and get the fishing trip you expect.
When you book use our website to book direct with the fishing charter you want, there are no brokers and you do not have to pay a commission to the broker. This means you will get a better fishing charter and save some money. The reason is: When a charter boat or a customer doesn't have to pay a commission, the boats have the revenue to buy fuel, maintain their vessel, equipment, build artificial reefs and provide you with a better over all fishing experience.
There are a hundred more reasons you should book your fishing charter direct in Orange Beach. What you need to look out for is: Online Brokers. They are everywhere in the fishing charter business and on the internet. They look like other websites, but they have hidden fees that you don't know you are paying. They offer one stop booking process that is easy, but the results anglers get are not so good in our opinion. They tend to book boats that are not full time or boats that don't have enough of their own business. Examples of brokers are: Fisherguiding, Fishanywhere, Groupon, Tripshock. Fishingbooker is in SERBIA and they take your money out of the USA. These super websites offer free listings for boats and will book anyone willing to pay them a commission. But, in order for the boats to book trips, they must allow the broker to charge customers 15% to 30% fees up front. They disguise their commissions as deposits. Many are non refundable.
Private Fishing Charters Are The Best Option For Deep Sea Fishing
The most popular fishing trips in Orange Beach, Alabama are private charters. This type of charter is for only you, and your group will be on the boat during your trip. These charters offer the BEST service around. With most charter boats offering private charters, you can get the first-class service, and the captain takes you to his best reefs and lets you fight some really big fish. There is an advantage in choosing a private charter. However, not all private charters offer the same level of customer service. It is up to you to do your research and check out their reviews online to see if they will meet your expectations. Two of the best in Orange Beach are a six-passenger boat named Distraction Charters and a multi-passenger boat named Intimidator Sportfishing. These boats also have air conditioning and private restrooms on board.
Why You Want A Private Fishing Charter
Our best Orange Beach charter boats only offer private trips. Private charters can be on both inshore and offshore boats. Being private means only you and your group will be on the boat. On all of our bigger boats, there will be deckhands or mates on board to serve you. The deckhands on these trips are right there beside you at all times and take care of you. Our private charters offer offshore fishing and inshore fishing. As mentioned above, our fishing guides provide some of the best services in the world and have the reputation of being responsible, accountable, and professional at all times. All of our boats are independently owned and operated. This is a big deal, so just remember this... A captain running his own charter boat is essential because you know what type of service you can expect from him. Vessel owners and captains, have a vested interest in ensuring you get a fishing charter that lives up to their reputation. Private charters range anywhere from 4 hours to 4 days. The most common deep-sea fishing trips are 6 hours, and some boats offer two a day while some opt for longer day trips each day. The ideal excursion for families or first-timers is these short trips. More serious anglers need to look at full-day trips or longer. The most common inshore bay fishing trips are 4 to 6 hours in length. Inshore fishing charter boats can only carry a maximum of 6 people.
What A Deckhand Does For You on Private Deep Sea Fishing Trips And How He is paid
The deckhand/mates take time to educate and demonstrate different fishing techniques that you might not learn on a walk on or party boat trip. The gratuity for your mate (or mates) is customarily 20 to 25% of the total trip price of the charter that you paid, plus tip. You may always tip him above that amount if he deserves it. Some charters offer free fish cleaning, but on full day trips, expect to pay $.30 cents per pound whole weight of the fish.
Inshore or Bay Fishing Charters
Back Bay fishing has become very popular over the past few years. We see more guides arrive almost every year. With more guides, it means more fishing pressure. With so much fishing pressure in Orange Beach, the abundance of fish does not last long at times. If you don't pay attention to the details and book the wrong boat, you might not catch many fish! If you decide to save a few bucks and end up fishing with a guide who stays close to the bridge in Orange Beach, you might not be happy. The best guides are our guides like Jayhook Inshore Fishing Charters. They leave the Orange Beach area and take you to areas that are seeing less pressure and where the fish are more plentiful. The cost of these fishing trips runs about $450 for four people for 4 hours and goes up from there. The price is a little more, but our guides are not afraid to burn the fuel to get you to where the fishing pressure is less. Our inshore guides move to where the fish are. The best back bay fishing is in Mobile Bay, so you need to find a guide who works that area if you want to catch speckled trout, redfish, or tripletail.
Why Book BOOKING Direct With The Charter Boat You Want IS SO IMPORTANT
Popular Fish Species You Can Catch With Us
Alabama is famous for its artificial reef system that covers over 1200 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico. Until private, man-made reefs were built back into the 1950's fishing for Shark, Red Snapper, Grouper, Amberjack, triggerfish, lane snapper, vermilion snapper and, white snapper, was not very predictable. The Gulf Shores area, all the way to Fort Morgan and Dauphin Island, has long been known for its excellent King Mackerel and Spanish Mackerel fishing. When we were kids growing up, most of the fishing we did along the Alabama Gulf Coast was near shore trolling for these two species of pelagic fish (migratory non-reef fish). As fish finding technology improved, we were able to build artificial reefs were able to re-locate them each trip to make bottom fishing relatively easy and have some consistency to it. The coastal Alabama area south of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores is mostly shallow and has a muddy or sandy hard bottom. Seven miles offshore, you get to about 70 feet deep and 20 miles offshore, and you are only in about 100 to 110 feet of water. Some reefs that built closer to shore that hold reef fish like red snapper, grouper, and amberjack, but they see a lot of fishing pressure and are often hard to get a bite. However, if you take a 6-hour deep-sea fishing trip, you have enough time to get far enough offshore to where the fishing pressure is less, and the fishing is better. The oil rigs you see off of Gulf Shores Alabama's Coast are in what we call shallow water and will hold some fish around them, but they are too far out of Orange Beach to fish around on a short trip. Our artificial reefs produce better fish than the close in oil rig platforms. If you want to go after blue marlin, yellowfin tuna, mahi-mahi (dorado), or Wahoo, you need to go at least 60 to 120 miles around the deepwater oil rigs. To get out there, you need to take an overnight fishing charter to a two-day charter to have a chance to catch these species. Our artificial reefs simply don't hold game fish species as the deepwater rigs do.