The Weather Man Will Lie – Well, Maybe Just Not Tell the Whole Truth – But You Still Can Catch Plenty of Fish
Day 2: How to Fish in a 30-Mile-an-Hour Wind at Alabama’s Gulf Coast
 My son-in-law, Joe Hudson, and my grandson, Conner Hudson, of Birmingham, Ala., met me in Gulf Shores, Ala., on Saturday afternoon for a day of inshore fishing with Captain Gary Davis of Tidewater Fishing in Magnolia Springs, Ala., the following morning. That night before we went to bed, we called Davis to make sure we could fish on Sunday. “The weatherman is calling for a 30-mile-an-hour winds coming-out of the east today and 10- to 11-foot seas in the Gulf,” Davis told us. “I had planned to fish in Mobile Bay near Fort Morgan, but with that much wind and waves, we are not going to be able to fish there. But I have been fishing in Little Lagoon lately, which is on the west side of Gulf Shores. However, if we get a 30-mile-an-hour east wind, Little Lagoon will be unfishable, because this body of water lies east to west.”
 I knew all of us would be disappointed if we did not get to go fishing, so I asked Davis about fishing the Intracoastal Waterway, because I knew it contained protected waters. “Yes, we can fish there, but the fish are not holding in the Intracoastal Waterway right now,” Davis explained. “I get up at 3:00 am every morning and drive to the places that I plan to fish that day. If the weather is too rough, I call my party at 4:00 am and tell them we need to cancel due to the weather. But if the weather looks like it will be okay to fish, I tell them to get their stuff and come to where I am. In the morning, I’ll go to Little Lagoon boat ramp. If the weather’s too rough, I’ll call and let you know, and you can go back to sleep. But if I think we can fish, I’ll tell you to get your stuff and come on and meet me.”
We all went to bed that night not expecting to be able to go fishing on Sunday morning, but when the phone rang at 4:00 am, Davis said, “Get your fishing stuff, and come on.” We arrived at Little Lagoon, and the water was slick as glass. Davis had a big grin on his face. “I can’t believe this weather! When I got down here at 3:00 am, there was a north wind. The north wind flattens the waves in the Little Lagoon and calms the water. Out on the beach, there’s 8- to 10-foot seas. But here in Little Lagoon, we should have a good day for fishing.”
 We fished from 5:00 am until 11:00 am and caught 26 speckled trout, most weighing from 2 to 4-1/2 pounds. We also caught one flounder. The trout were biting a grub called a Finesse in a green back with a pearl belly and glitter throughout the plastic. The grub was braided on a 1/4-ounce lead-headed jig with an exposed hook. Later in the morning when the sun came up, we took the Finesse grub off the jighead and fished with live croakers. One of the big advantages you have when you are fishing with a guide on a charter trip is that he knows how and where to fish to catch the trout. My son-in-law looked at me and said, “You know if we had the finest boat and some of the best tackle that we could buy, we could drive all over Little Lagoon and still would not know where or how to catch the fish. But Captain Davis took us right to the spot where the fish were biting, and he had the bait and the tackle we needed to use to catch the fish.”
 This fishing trip was a family fishing trip mainly for my grandson, 11-year-old Conner Hudson. Every time Davis hooked a trout, he would say, “Get back here, Conner, you have a fish on the line.” Davis would pass the rod to Conner, who would fight the fish all the way up to the boat, until Davis netted the trout. Conner caught the most and the biggest fish of anyone on our trip. “When I take youngsters fishing, I make sure they catch fish,” Davis says. “Last week, I had a granddad, an aunt and an 11-year-old niece. The 11-year-old caught a 9-pound speckled trout and two that weighed 7-1/2-pounds.” Later in the morning, around 10:30 am, the wind switched from the north to blowing from the east, and the waters of the Little Lagoon became choppy. Before the weather got too rough to fish, we had caught all our fish and were headed back to the dock. We came home with a boat-load of memories and good times of fishing at Gulf Shores that will last a lifetime. For more info about fishing with Captain Gary Davis, you can contact him at 251-942-6298.
For more information about fishing at Orange Beach, Ala., go to http://www.orangebeach.com/fishing/biting/.
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