The Weather Man Will Lie – Well, Maybe Just Not Tell the Whole Truth – But You Still Can Catch Plenty of Fish
Day 3: The Best Beach Fishing Ever at Gulf Shores, Ft. Morgan and Orange Beach, Alabama
 Why in the world would anyone in his right mind buy three children’s snow sleds, if he lived on the Gulf of Mexico where it only may snow once in 20 years? “I needed a better way to get my fishing gear from where I park my car to where I wanted to fish down on the beach,” explains David Thornton of Mobile, Alabama. Thornton is a beach, jetty and pier guide. When people go to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama, to vacation in the sun for a week, they may go charter fishing for a day for red snapper, grouper, amberjack, king mackerel and Spanish mackerel, but then they’ll have 6 days with little or no fishing, and no one to show them how to fish, where to fish or when to fish. To solve this problem, David Thornton, longtime resident of Mobile, takes families, individuals and fishing buddies fishing on Alabama’s beaches at Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Fort Morgan.
 “Many of the places we fish are on the edges of sandbars, little cuts and channels just off the beach, the jetties or the Gulf State Park Pier in Gulf Shores,” Thornton says. “I show people how to fish, where to fish and teach them to catch fish, if they don’t have boats or have some vacation days left and want to go fishing after charter-boat fishing. There’s plenty of great fishing all along Alabama’s Gulf Coast that can be done along the beaches. But no one wants to lug a heavy ice chest, three or four rods, a tackle bag and bait down to the beach to go fishing. To solve this problem, I went on the internet and purchased three children’s plastic snow sleds for $45. I really only needed one, but now I have two spares.
 “I found that I could put my ice chest with water, soft drinks and ice on the sled and still have room for a small tackle bag and a piece of wood with four pieces of PVC pipe attached to it. I put the handles of four rods in the PVC pipe and easily carry four rods with me. I took a piece of cotton rope and attached each end to the front of the sled. Now I can load my ice chest, rods, tackle bag, bait, soft drinks, water and ice and easily drag that sled across an asphalt parking lot, over the sand and down the beach as far as I want to go. I have everything I need to fish. If I get tired of fishing one spot, I just pick up the rope that is attached to the sled and drag all my equipment down the beach to the next place I want to fish. If I am guiding a family or an individual, I can load all their gear on my sled, and no one has to carry any of their fishing equipment. This is the simplest, quickest, easiest way I know to get all your fishing gear from your vehicle to the beach and then move all your equipment if you want to change fishing sites.”
 If you’ll be in the Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Fort Morgan area of Alabama this summer or fall and want to catch fish like pompano, redfish, flounder, speckled trout, white trout, whiting, ground mullet or any of the other species of fish that run just off the beach, contact David Thornton at 251-458-2775 or e-mail at pierpounder@gmail.com. He will guide you to places where you can catch fish and teach you to use the right tackle and baits to be successful.
For more information about fishing at Orange Beach, Ala., go to http://www.orangebeach.com/fishing/biting/.
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