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| | | Getting salty in the Gulf of Mexico, or thereabouts | | By ALAN CLEMONS, The Fishing Wire |
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| |  | | This week we'll highlight some of our favorite fishing locations. All are family-friendly and would be a great way to surprise the angler young or old for a trip in 2010. Physicians tell us that too much salt can lead to high blood pressure, and I'd have to wholeheartedly agree because whenever I'm fishing saltwater my heart's pumping to beat the band. Love it. Absolutely love it. We live about six hours from the Mobile area in Alabama and if we were closer, I probably wouldn't be worth a lick. I enjoy fishing for bass, cats, bream and freshwater species. |
But going after redfish, speckled trout, sharks and other critters that could crush a thumb, impale a finger or bite a chunk out of my leg gets me jumping.
Here are three of my favorite fishing areas for saltwater species:
Key West of Texas
One thing any angler wants from a guide, or lodge, is honesty. No BS, no stories about how great it was the day before, nothing like that. All an angler wants from a guide or lodge is the straight truth and the best opportunity to put a lure in front of a fish.
You get both, and more, at Get-A-Way Adventures Lodge in Port Mansfield, a quiet little port on the south end of the Lower Laguna Madre in Texas. It's one of three in the Lower Laguna, an incredibly fertile strip of shallow, sandy inshore waters teeming with redfish, speckled trout, a sprinking of sharks and enough space to drift or wade for days.
Capt. Bruce Shuler, his wife Shirley and their son Brandon operate the two-story lodge, which is spacious with a wonderful down-home feeling. If you want to fish, go fish. If you want to catch up on sleep and mill around the community looking at 140-class whitetails in the shade, go do that. If you want to flip shrimp on jigheads under the dock while drinking a brew, have at it.
And if you want fish, well, there are fish. Speckled trout to 30 inches or more. Redfish in shin-deep water providing sight-fishing shots, and out deeper on drifts for runs that will make your drag sing. Sharks cruise around. Bottom fishing is available for red snapper, grouper and other reef-dwellers.
At night, after stuffing yourself, sit on the porch under the stars with a cold one telling fish tales ... everyone's good at doing that. Get-A-Adventures is one of the coolest, most laid back and fun trips you'll find anywhere.
Info: www.getawayadventureslodge.com
Marsh madness, Cajun style
Capt. Theophile Bourgeois converted a two-story schoolhouse that is more than 100 years old into what some high-falutin' travel writer might describe as "quaint" while trying to get the hell out of backwoods Louisiana. Anglers might call it a "joint," as in fire up the jukebox, gimmie an Abita and shake some Cajun booty.
Either way, the roomy headquarters of Bourgeois Fishing Charters has seen plenty of anglers and tons of fish over the year, gorgeous redfish and speckled trout from the famed marshes of Barataria Bay. If you want to truly get away, Bourgeois has a "camp" on a spit of land about 20 miles by boat into the marsh on a canal where infamous pirate and privateer Jean Lafitte sailed his ships in the 1800s.
If you love catching redfish, there's little chance you'll go away disappointed. There are just too many ponds, canals, cuts, points, shallow areas, mud flats and deeper channels where you can throw a topwater or Cocahoe or big spinnerbait. Even swimming a jig does the trick, for I've found over the years if a redfish is hungry he's going to eat just about anything in front of him.
Earlier this spring with Bourgeois and his crew, I wanted to try to catch a red on two things. One was one of my father's Tight Line Jigs bass jigs with a "rusty crawfish" skirt and craw trailer. The other was a Booyah Samurai Blade spinnerbait with a Samurai Shad. The reds ate both like monsters, the former I believe because of its quiet and crab-like appearance and the latter due to the big thumping blade, mullet-imitating minnow and larger presentation.
It's a blast to stand on a deck and take in a view of miles and miles of marsh, literally looking over stands of waving grass as far as you can see. Hurricane Katrina did a number on the marsh, but it has bounced back and is beautiful. The trout and redfish won't let you down, either.
Info: www.neworleansfishing.com
Hanging at the Bar
Dixey Bar isn't a honky-tonk in Alabama, although that would be a great name for one in the state that once proclaimed (and some still do) itself as the "Heart of Dixie."
(For those of you wondering why I've spelled it Dixey and Dixie, there is an answer. You'll find the reputed origin for the former at www.mobilebaytimes.com/dixeybar.html)
The giant sandbar runs south-southwest from Fort Morgan at the eastern tip of Mobile Bay, Dixey Bar is a giant buffet line for redfish, trout, jacks, bluefish, tarpon, huge sharks (huge, as in bulls and hammerheads) and probably a few other species.
Water flowing from Mobile Bay - a huge drainage covering much of lower Alabama - meets with the tidal influence of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Wind from east and west also contribute to the upwelling surges, creating current that attracts massive amounts of baitfish and predators.
Capt. Bobby Abruscato has fished the bar for decades, along with the Dauphin Island area on the southwest side of Mobile Bay along the Mississippi Sound. On that side, you'll also find reds and trout in the more placid waters and flats, where drifting deeper holes or even wading in shallow flats is possible. Abruscato is well-acquainted with both areas and has ample experience.
Abruscato and his knowledgeable guide crew are based at Dauphin Island Marina, and primarily work the areas around the island. Along with reds and specks, you're liable to catch flounder, sheepshead, blackfish and possibly tarpon. When the Spanish mackerel are running, that's a pretty cool outing as well. If necessary, he'll make a run to the near-shore gas rigs.
Info: www.ateamfishing.com
Contact info for Niagara Charters
Due to a technical glitch Wednesday, the contact information for fishing with Capt. Frank Campbell on the Niagara River in New York was omitted.
Campbell guides out of Lewiston, N.Y., on the river in the scenic Niagara River Gorge, along with Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Anglers will have opportunities for smallmouth bass, king salmon, steelhead, brown trout, muskie, lake trout and possibly other species.
For information about fishing with Campbell, visit www.niagaracharter.com.
- Alan Clemons
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