Fishing with Captain Maurice Fitzsimmons
Artificial Reef Building
 Editor’s
Note: On the last weekend of snapper season, I went
fishing at Orange Beach, Alabama, with Captain Maurice
Fitzsimmons on his 100-foot long charter boat, the “Miss
Celeste” - the biggest and fastest charter boat
in Orange Beach. The seas were rough, and only two boats
were able to get out in the water at 7:00 a.m. However,
because of the size and the speed of Captain Fitz’s
boat, we were able to take 18 people out for a day of
snapper fishing, limit out on red snapper and return
to the dock by 4:00 p.m. We also watched any college
football game we wanted on the boat’s wide-screen
television with satellite hookups, while sitting in
comfortable, overstuffed couches and eating all of our
favorite foods. Life doesn’t get any better than
this. Captain Fitz was also the creative mind who came
up with the Red Snapper World Championship (RSWC), which
has been responsible for one of the largest public artificial-reef-building
programs in the nation, and has one of the strongest
sportsmen’s lobbies in Washington. This week,
you’ll meet Captain Fitz, learn how and why the
RSWC began, and how to catch big snapper.
 Question:
Captain Fitz, many captains have their own opinions
about what type of reef material seems to produce the
most and the biggest red snapper. What kind of artificial
reef material do you buy and deploy, and why?
Fitz: I like dumpsters. We had access to some large
open-top commercial construction dumpsters and large
restaurant compactor dumpsters. We’ve gotten hundreds
of these dumpsters to use for reefs over the years.
The reason I like dumpsters so much is they always produce
fish, and they stay in place, even during the worst
hurricanes we’ve had here on the coast. I also
put out plenty of steel frames that have been curing
racks for concrete block makers. These are big, large,
heavy-duty steel structures, and we will weld four of
them together to create a really-big reef that water
can pass through. These spots stayed in place, even
during Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. With the major storms
the Gulf Coast has had in the last several years, I’ve
only lost about 10 percent of the reefs I’ve built.
Our reefs are very dependable. I usually try to fish
about 10 to 15 reefs per day. If I can catch 10 to 12
large snapper off each of these reefs, then my fishermen
have a good day.
Question: How many active reefs you’ve built
yourself do you fish?
Fitz: I have about 1,200 reefs, so I have plenty of
places to fish every season. Often, we’ll fish
the same reef four or five times a year, depending on
the quality of fish on those reefs. We’ll only
fish some reefs twice a year.
Question: When you’re fishing in the Red Snapper
World Championship (RSWC), which occurs the first 30
days of red snapper season, usually mid-April to mid-May,
do you save some of those reefs just to fish during
this tournament?
Fitz: No, I learned a long time ago if you try and save
a reef, another fisherman’s will find it, fish
it and get all the benefits from it. I’ve been
to every one of my reefs each year, and I know the quality
of fish that’s on each. I’ve learned if
you don’t pick a few of those better-quality fish
off each reef every year, then you won’t hurt
the reef, and someone else will get those fish. I pick
my reefs like I pick a tomato plant. I take the biggest
and the reddest tomatoes off the outside of the plant
throughout the season, and that’s the way I fish
my reefs.
Question: How m any
of the captains who fish the RSWC plant reefs each year?
Fitz: Many of them. At Zeke’s Marina where I tie
up my boat, all the captains are required to build reefs
as part of their lease agreement. If they don’t
build reefs, they’re asked to leave the marina.
A six-passenger boat’s required to build at least
five reefs a year, and a multi-passenger boat’s
required to build at least 10 reefs a year. There are
35 charter boats at Zeke’s Marina. Most of the
captains build more reefs than the minimum requirement.
Question: With the number of reefs being built by the
captains, the additional reefs, usually over 200, being
built as a result of the RSWC, plus the reefs that are
built by the Marine Resources Division of Alabama’s
Department of Conservation, how many artificial reefs
do you think are being constructed off Alabama’s
Gulf Coast each year?
Fitz: I believe we’re building between 1,000
to 2,000 artificial reefs each year. This artificial-reef
program is the reason Orange Beach produces more red
snapper than any other port on the Gulf of Mexico and
probably any other port in the nation. Our customers
want to go out and catch quality red snapper, whether
they throw them back or put in the cooler to take home
and eat. To consistently produce those big red snapper,
we have to be diligent in our reef-building efforts.
To find the locations of Alabama’s public reefs,
visit www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/saltwater/where/artificial-reefs/.
To learn more about the Red Snapper World Championship,
go to http://redsnapper.orangebeachsnapper.com/.
To fish with Captain Fitz, you can reach him at (251)
626-9437. To learn more about the Orange Beach/Gulf
Shores area, check out www.orangebeach.com, or call
– 1-800-745-7263. For more information on the
Orange Beach Fishing Association, go to www.gulffishing.net/.
Tomorrow: Catching Big Snapper
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