Finding the Ghost Trout of Alabama’s Mobile
Bay
Enjoy Hot Fishing in Cold Weather
 Editor’s
Note: Most visitors to Alabama’s Gulf Coast fill
their ice chests with speckled trout, redfish and flounder
during the spring, summer and fall. Five and 6-pound
trout come frequently from the artificial reefs, numerous
oyster reefs and oil rigs in Mobile Bay. But when Jack
Frost comes calling, he seems to cause the trout in
the bay to vanish like ghosts. Only the locals and some
veteran fishermen know the secrets, which they pass
down from generation to generation, to finding these
trout that take a northern wintertime vacation to warmer
waters and more-abundant food. What we’ve learned
from these ghost-like trout in Mobile Bay may help you
find where cold-weather trout stay in secluded hot spots
all along the Upper Gulf Coast.
The rivers feeding into Mobile Bay won’t have
fishermen, water skiers or pleasure boaters on them
in the winter. Most of the time you’ll only see
boats on the water that contain speckled trout fishermen,
and probably you won’t spot many of them.
“On an average day in the winter, we’ll
catch 20 to 30 trout, and although we’ll take
some really-big trout, we’ll also catch and release
quite a few small trout,” Captain Gary Davis of
Foley, Alabama, who’s guided and fished for 40
years on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, explains. “Last
December, I was fishing with my frie nd,
Jack Smith, and we had a 60-trout morning on the Magnolia
River.” River anglers will find the most-productive
days for trout fishing when a warm front moves into
the area. Davis picks the Magnolia River as his most-favorite
river to fish during December and January. But, if he
doesn’t locate fish there, he’ll head to
the Fish or the Bon Secour rivers - all within an easy
30-minute boat ride of each other. “I like to
fish the Magnolia River because rarely will you ever
see another boat there at this time of the year,”
Davis says. “Also, the Magnolia River has always
supported a good population of wintertime speckled trou t.”
For hot inshore fishing in the winter, head to Alabama’s
Gulf Coast where the trout vacation north of their regular
haunts in Mobile Bay in the river systems that feed
the bay. Throughout the Upper Gulf Coast, any place
where you can pinpoint channels or deep-water holes
in brackish-water rivers, you’ll find the ghost
trout that seem to have vanished from the bays in the
winter.
When planning a trip check out Tidewater Fishing Service
(Captain Gary Davis), Foley, AL 36535, (251) 943-6298
and www.gulfshores.com,
1-800-745-7263.
Tomorrow: Where
to Find the Trout
|
