gets too cold for Mobile Bay redfishing. “Never!” he says. “I’ve been out duck hunting when the air temperature was in the teens, and I could see redfish finning on the bottom digging up crabs.”
COLD WEATHER SURVIVAL Dr. Bob Shipp of the University of
South Alabama Department of Marine Sciences says the creeks and bayous of Alabama have lots of redfish now — perhaps more than ever before. “The fish are thick in places like the
For the first three or four years of their lives, reds live in estuaries and creeks.
Fowl River, Dog River and in the Bayou LeBatre systems,” he says. Although Mobile Bay itself is famous for its very large bull redfish — usually found in the Dixey Bar area where the bay meets the Gulf — very few large redfish over 15 pounds are
TIDE
caught in the smaller creeks and bay- ous. Anglers targeting the creeks can better select appropriate fishing gear with this fact in mind. Super-heavy rigs won’t be necessary.
“It’s all part of the natural cycle of
redfish life. For the first three or four years of their lives, reds live in estuar- ies and creeks,” Shipp explains. “When they mature, they move offshore where they spend the rest of their lives. When they are in the creeks, they’re looking for food, and they find it there. They can stand low salinity, and with our mild winters, we usually don’t need to be so concerned about cold tempera- tures affecting the fish.”
MOBILE BAY BOATERS BEWARE
The biggest obstacle for winter anglers to keep in mind when navigat- ing the Mobile Bay system is that the water level can get extremely low. Winter tides can often look like some- one opened a giant drain on the bottom of the bay and make a boat ramp that worked in the morning unusable by that afternoon. The underwater haz- ards — such as old wrecks, hurricane
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debris, abandoned crab traps, and old pier pilings — that you never even knew were there in summer can come close enough to introduce themselves to your hull and props in winter. Strong north winds can literally blow much of the water in Mobile Bay out into the Gulf and it is not uncom- mon in winter to see vast expanses of mud flats exposed. These conditions make prudent boat handling a necessi- ty. Being “grounded” on an exposed mud bank is never a good thing, but it can be very tough in cold weather, not to mention dangerous. Never attempt to walk or wade from a grounding as Mobile Bay mud is sticky and very deep. Stay with the boat and wait for more water or call for help.
Ed Mashburn lives in Bay Minette, Alabama, where he is a teacher at Baldwin County High School and adjunct instruc- tor at Faulkner State Community College. He is the author of Fishing Alabama — Fifty Great Places to Fish, and he writes for several regional magazines. He is a member of Southeast Outdoor Press Association.
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