Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Trips and Reports

By Captain Don McPherson

Click here for  2007 Spring & Summer Fishing Reports

2008 Spring Fishing Reports (shown below)

Red snapper are everywhere in Federal waters just a few miles off the Alabama Gulf Coast. Book your trip now for what I beleive will be some of the finest red snapper fishing we have witnessed. Red snapper season opens June 1st and closes August 5th in Federal waters. I would suggest a 6 hour trip. That will be all you need for a red snapper fishing charter. This will be a great charter for your family or for you and your friends.

May 9th, 2008  Today, we enjoyed an afternoon 4 hour charter fishing near the Alabama Coast. The king mackerel and Spanish mackerel bite was hot on the last 2 hours of the 4 hour trip. Great fishing on light tackle. Thanks to Bryan and his group.

April 30th, 2008 Another great 12 hour deep sea fishing charter off the Alabama Gulf Coast. Variety is the highlight of this trip. Nice amberjack, big vermillion snapper, white snapper, scamp and triggerfish. Leigh and I enjoyed a very delicious scamp dinner, thanks to this group of hard fishing deewater anglers. This young man reeled this fish from some deepwater and never stopped fishing.

April 26th, 2008 Offshore bottomfishing on a great 12 hour charter. We enjoyed having Kevin, Sherman and friends from the North Alabama area with us for some Alabama deep sea fishing. We caught white snapper, vermillion snapper, yellowedge grouper, scamp, amberjack and triggerfish. Our largest vermillion snapper weighing 4.25 lbs, caught by Ralph Bratcher, made 5th place on the Saltwater Series Tournament board.  

April 23rd, 2008 Today was a great 6hr trip with Darian and his group. Darian fished with us in the fall and caught some big redfish. I have been disappointed with the red snapper fishing in Florida waters. The fish are just not there in numbers. So today, we travelled offshore about 18 miles and caught vermillion snapper, triggerfish, white snapper and a black snapper. The bite was great. We travelled back to Florida waters and caught 2 red snapper and finished the trip. I later joined Darian and friends for some fresh catch at Geno's. Fresh catch was awesome. Fried, grilled and blackened. Thanks, guys.

April 21st, 2008 Awesome weather and nice calm seas off the Alabama Gulf Coast. What a great day for a 12 hour offshore bottomfishing trip. We were happy to have David Long and his group with us again. David fishes with us 2 - 3 times a year. We are looking forward to having his family with us in June. David caught our 2nd largest red snapper of 2007 at a whopping 28.6 lbs. Today we caught amberjack, vermillion snapper, white snapper, scamp and missed 2 nice king mackerel. The bite was not red hot but David and his group just kept fishing all day and ended up with a nice catch.  

April 19th, 2008 Another fun 12 hour trip. John Shultz managed to place 2nd in the Saltwater Series Tournament grouper category with a 28+ lb gag grouper. The grouper bite has been a little slow but there are being a few caught. We also caught vermillion snapper, white snapper, triggerfish, scamp  and amberjack. Great group, great fun.  

April 17, 2008 We have enjoyed a few 4 hour trips over the past week. The Spanish mackerel bite was great for a few days and today was slow. The pattern right now is off and on. It should improve over the next week or so. The redfish are almost gone for the season. King mackerel should show any day. Red snapper season is now open in Florida waters, which are just minutes from the time we leave our dock. The 6 hour trip is a great choice right now for red snapper. Choose an 8 hour trip for a little more variety. Our recent 12 hour trips were great with catches of amberjack, grouper, scamp, vermillion snapper, triggerfish and white snapper. Come enjoy some great deep sea fishing along the Alabama Gulf Coast.  

April  7th, 2008 Spring break is winding down with some really fun fishing charters here in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. This is alabama deep sea fishing at it's best. The wind started blowing hard and is expected to last through April 12th. We will then be looking for more of the beautiful weather we have experienced over the last week. See some great pics below from 4 and 6 hour fishing charters earlier this week. Remember, red snapper season opens in Florida waters on April 15th. We are licensed in Florida. This is good for 6 and 8 hour trips. We will be fishing deepwater for grouper, scamp, amberjack, vermillion snapper, triggerfish, king mackerel and more on the 10 and 12 hour charters.

March 30th, 2008 Warm weather and good fishing. The Spanish mackerel have arrived. These fish are fun to catch and can be caught on 4 hour fishing charters in Orange Beach. The redfish are still here but they are becoming more difficult to locate. The cobia are probably still a week or more away. See some pics from some fun fishing this past week. Amberjack are biting offshore on 12 hour trips along with vermillion snapper, triggerfish, grouper, scamp and white snapper. The grouper bite has been slow but we are catching a couple or so on our trips. See pics below from Alabama deep sea fishing aboard the Getaway.

March 22nd, 2008 Today was an awesome 12 hour trip. The sun was shining, the seas were calm and the fish were biting. We really enjoyed having James and his wonderful  family with us on a 12 hour trip. We departed the dock and the kids were still a bit sleepy. They all took a nice nap on the way out. We made our first stop and Gill, my deckhand, gave some instructions to the kids on how to use the tackle. It did not take long. Everyone was catching vermillion snapper, white snapper, and triggerfish. We then travelled on and caught more triggerfish and vermillion snapper throughout the morning. It appeared that everyone was ready for a break, so we travelled a while to the next stop. It was now dad's turn. Gill had rigged two amberjack rods and and James had the rod in his hands for no more than a couple of minutes and the rod bent over. What a fight. No doubt it was a nice jack on. After several minutes later we had a big amberjack on the boat. James wanted Carly to try to catch the next one. With a little help from Gill, Carly fought this big jack and brought it to the boat. We lost one more. The boys cheered on as they watched their dad and sister catch two huge fish. We then travelled on while the kids were watching a movie that Gill had placed in the DVD player. We made the last stop and James enjoyed the last hour of fishing and talking with Gill while the kids were entertained by the movie inside the cabin. James boated two nice grouper. The kids then came out and everyone fished for a bit longer and then we were off and running to the dock. This was a great 12 hour Orange Beach deep sea fishing trip in March. Thank you James and family for spending the day with us on the Getaway. A wonderful family.   

Triggerfish, lane snapper, amberjack, grouper, vermillion snapper, white snapper and chocolate porgy seen below.

March 17th, 2008 Spring Break is on in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama. Everyone is having a blast. We have been fishing many 4 hour trips for redfish. The bite has been good overall. We have experienced a couple of trips that the bite was slow or no bite and some days were just great. I believe the last couple days of windy weather from the south has slowed the redfish bite. I expect the redfish bite to pick up again after this next front passes through. The redfish bite will probably begin to slow down in early April and the Spanish mackerel should move in nearshore anyday. The big cobia should also appear within another week or so. We will running some 10 and 12 hour offshore trips later this week. Red snapper season also opens in Florida waters on April 15th. We will target red snapper on some of our 6 and 8 hour trips. See some great pics below of fishing over the past week.

Thanks to Captain Troy for furnishing his boat in addition to the Getaway for this group of guys from TCU. Fun by all. 

March 3rd, 2008 March is here and so is some beautiful weather. We enjoyed temps in the 70's here in Gulf Shores. And the fishing? Well, it continues. The big bull redfish are still biting and we are having a blast watching many battle these giants with light tackle. Thanks to Tim and his family from Athens, Al. We all had a great time. See pics below.