Fishing with Captain Maurice Fitzsimmons
Orange Beach Fishing
Editor’s
Note: On the last weekend of snapper season, I went
fishing at Orange Beach, Alabama, with Captain Maurice
Fitzsimmons on his 100-foot long charter boat, the “Miss
Celeste” - the biggest and fastest charter boat
in Orange Beach. The seas were rough, and only two boats
were able to get out in the water at 7:00 a.m. However,
because of the size and the speed of Captain Fitz’s
boat, we were able to take 18 people out for a day of
snapper fishing, limit out on red snapper and return
to the dock by 4:00 p.m. We also watched any college
football game we wanted on the boat’s wide-screen
television with satellite hookups, while sitting in
comfortable, overstuffed couches and eating all of our
favorite foods. Life doesn’t get any better than
this. Captain Fitz was also the creative mind who came
up with the Red Snapper World Championship (RSWC), which
has been responsible for one of the largest public artificial-reef-building
programs in the nation, and has one of the strongest
sportsmen’s lobbies in Washington. This week,
you’ll meet Captain Fitz, learn how and why the
RSWC began, and how to catch big snapper.
Question: What kind of reef do you believe hold the
best red snapper?
Fitz: I believe the big heavy-duty industrial size dumpsters
hold more and bigger fish than any other type of reef
material. That’s the reason we pay the money to
have those dumpsters hauled-in, cleaned-up, barged-out
and sunk to create artificial reefs. The open-top dumpsters
weigh about 3,500-pounds each, and the compactor dumpsters
weigh about 8,000-pounds each. So, when we put one of
these big dumpsters on the bottom, we know it’s
not going to move much, even in severe weather. We cut
holes in these containers to make them better habitat
for reef fish like red snapper. These dumpsters won’t
last as long as concrete pyramid reefs will, but in
my opinion, they hold more fish than the concrete structures
do.
Question: How do you modify the dumpsters to make them
better fish habitat?
Fitz: With open-top dumpsters, I don’t have to
do anything to them. But if I have a compactor-style
dumpster, I’ll have to cut holes in it. The holes
are cut in the tops of dumpsters to let light inside
the dumpsters. You’ve got to have sunlight to
create marine growth, which is the very basis of the
food chain. Once the marine growth starts, then all
the other fish species begin to congregate because the
little fish eat the marine growth, the bigger fish eat
the little fish, and the biggest fish eats whatever
he wants.
Question: At one time, Orange Beach didn’t have
any grouper. But I’ve noticed more grouper being
caught in the Orange Beach area. Why?
Fitz: I believe the storms we’ve had have pulled
grouper up from the south and brought them to Orange
Beach. Once grouper arrived here and found all those
artificial reefs with plenty of habitat, they seemed
to have thrived. There’s no doubt that the grouper
are reproducing on our reefs, and we have a large number
of grouper being caught. Although everyone on the Gulf
Coast has hated all of the storms and hurricanes, one
of the major benefits of the big hurricanes has been
the increased number of grouper they’ve brought
into our area.
Question:
What’s type of grouper are you seeing the most?
Fitz: We’re seeing a tremendous number of red
grouper, but we’ve also seen a tremendous increase
in the number of gag grouper that we’re now catching.
Our anglers can catch one red grouper and five gag groupers.
Question: Can you go out and catch a good limit of
grouper anytime you want?
Fitz: No, I can’t. If someone just wanted to catch
grouper, I’d suggest a different captain and a
different boat because the captains who do a lot of
grouper fishing have built more reefs to the south and
to the west than I have. They’ve also built the
kind of reefs that grouper like better than the reefs
that I’ve built. I build my reefs primarily for
red snapper. But I do have some reefs built for triggerfish
and mangrove snapper. We’ve always had a lot of
black snapper (gray snapper) in our area. I have some
spots that produce a lot of black snapper, and these
fish will weigh 7- to 10-pounds each. But usually, the
black snapper is just a bonus fish in the box.
Question: Captain Fitz, how did you get to Orange Beach
from Wisconsin?
Fitz: I worked for Wrangler Jeans, they moved me to
this area, and the Gulf Coast became my territory. While
I was here, I bought a boat and started doing a lot
of fishing. I began building my own reefs, and really
enjoyed doing that and catching fish. I decided that
being a captain would be a great job when I retired.
So, that’s exactly what I did. When I retired
from Wrangler Jeans, I became a charter-boat captain.
Every day of my retirement has been fun. When charter
fishing becomes work, I'll quit. I really enjoy my job,
fishing, the people who go fishing with me and seeing
how much fun people have catching big red snapper. I
once did 200 trips a year, but now I only run 100 to
125 trips per year. I have fun every day I go fishing.
But I remember one particular charter that we had for
a billfishing tournament with a group of high-school
boys. On that trip, we took first place in two categories,
blue marlin and tuna, and we won top boat and top crew.
Those four wins paid $183,000 for one day of fishing.
That was the best payday I’ve ever made as a charter-fishing
captain. Although every day I go fishing is fun, coming
in with that much money after one day of fishing has
to be the most fun I’ve ever had. We charter not
only for snapper, but for blue marlin and tuna. Our
tuna fishing is best in February or March. That’s
when we go down to fish the Louisiana lumps. But here
in the Orange Beach region, we have good tuna fishing
from April to December. Our marlin fishing is best from
mid-May to November. I don’t cobia fish, but we
have quite a few captains here who do, and that fishing
is best in March and April.
To find the locations of Alabama’s public reefs,
visit www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/saltwater/where/artificial-reefs/.
To learn more about the Red Snapper World Championship,
go to http://redsnapper.orangebeachsnapper.com/.
To fish with Captain Fitz, you can reach him at (251)
626-9437. To learn more about the Orange Beach/Gulf
Shores area, check out www.orangebeach.com, or call
– 1-800-745-7263. For more information on the
Orange Beach Fishing Association, go to www.gulffishing.net/.
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