Alabama’s Target-Rich Mackerel Waters
 All
Types of Reef Materials
Editor’s Note: Anglers on the Gulf Coast will
find a target-rich environment there for hunting big
kingfish. The State of Alabama has the largest artificial
reef-building program in the nation, and many of these
reefs have big king mackerel swarming over them. The
Department of Conservation's Marine Resources Division
has charted hundreds of public reefs with Loran coordinates
and DGPS coordinates at www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/saltwater/tides-weather/.
You also can pull down maps of the area at this site.
For each public reef you pinpoint on the map, three
to 10 unmarked and unnamed reefs may exist within the
designated reef-building area. The state permits individuals
to carry reef material out to the reef-building zone
and deploy that material  without
having to tell anyone the exact location. When you’re
fishing for king mackerel, keep your depth finder on,
and search for hidden reefs as you go back and forth
to the reefs you plan to fish. Artificial reefs attract
baitfish that will draw in big king mackerel. Generally
the bigger reefs will attract the larger mackerel. However,
anglers may locate big-king honey holes on the many
small reefs that most fishermen will overlook.
Back in the early 1950s, an airplane crashed off Orange
Beach, Alabama, out in the Gulf of Mexico. Captain Roland
Walker went to the wreck and caught some unbelievable-sized
red snapper. After a few state politicians fished with
Walker, the state started an intensive reef-building
campaign. Using funds from the Dingell-Johnson Act and
state matching  monies,
AMRD sank 1500 car bodies out in the Gulf of Mexico.
Because of the recognition of the value of artificial
reefs and their fishing potential, the state applied
early for a general permit for reef building. This process
made reef building quicker, easier and faster and enabled
more sportsmen, charter-boat captains and state and
federal agencies to build more reefs for the fish on
Alabama’s Gulf Coast.
"The artificial reefs off Alabama's Coast have
made a big difference in our fishing success,"
Captain Don Walker of Orange Beach said. "When
I first started fishing off Orange Beach, we only had
a few reefs to fish. Most of the captains built their
own reefs and didn't tell anybody the locations of their
hotspots. Now more and more captains in all the Gulf
States are building reefs as are the state governments
bordering the gulf, the federal government and hundreds
of individual anglers. What we've done is create a tremendous
amount of habitat to raise more fish on each year."
Captain Iris Ethridge of Orange Beach, Alabama, realized
that a trolling alley for king mackerel and Spanish
mackerel close to shore would allow small boats and
big boats to troll for kings and Spanish. But Ethridge
knew the region needed some type of bottom structure
to hold the baitfish on which the kings and Spanish
would feed along a feeding lane between two  major
reefs. A resourceful captain, this retired schoolteacher
began to look for reef-building materials and came upon
124-obsolete voting machines weighing 830-pounds each.
Working with county officials, she helped to obtain
the voting machines to use them for reef material. Ethridge
worked with Vernon Minton, director of the Marine Resources
Division (AMRD) for Alabama's Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources, to develop a plan to deploy the
voting machines in a line 1.5-miles long between the
sunken “Liberty” ship, the “Allen,”
and the Bridge Rubble Reef. Volunteers cabled the voting
machines together in groups of four and placed them
in a line between these two already-established major
artificial reefs, completing the trolling alley in October
1997.
According to Minton, “We enhanced the trolling
alley with some bridge rubble, concrete and large boulders
since we originally put in the voting machines. We’ve
really been surprised at how well the voting machines
have stayed intact and created many reefs along which
king mackerel can feed.” Today Alabama's trolling
alley produces king and Spanish mackerel for thousands
of gulf visitors to the Dauphin Island, Gulf Shores,
Orange Beach and Fort Morgan areas.
For more information on the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention
and Visitors Bureau, visit www.gulfshores.com,
or call 800-745-SAND.
To learn more about fishing the Gulf Coast, contact
the Orange Beach Fishing Association at 251-981-2300,
or visit www.gulffishing.net.
Tomorrow: Places to Catch King
Mackerel
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