Mobile Bay Sleigh Ride - Red October Morning

This was an early morning trip in Fairhope, Alabama. The water was calm throughout the day with an easterly wind. I thought the action was going to be hot as I hooked up to a 19” speckled trout just after the American Legion. I met up with my buddy Kyle and he landed a nice speckled trout. We thought it was going to be on. However, the speckled trout had lockjaw and we didn’t get a bite for about an hour. It was encouraging that schools of mullet were thick so we figured the fish were there, just scattered around. The fishing charts showed a major peak was around 8 am. Around 8:40 we found a school of fish by spotting fish slicks. Kyle caught a few on a Mirrordine. I was using a white paddletail and caught one trout. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the fish were looking for a twitch bait with sound so I switched to a Rip-n-Slash. After about two casts I hooked up on a 33” redfish. Unfortunately it hit my light action rig so I couldn’t horse it around. I went on a sleigh ride. Kyle had caught his limit so he followed me around. After about 30 minutes the fish finally tired and Kyle was able to net it. After measuring it was safely released.

It was fun going on a sleigh ride but frustrating at the same time. While fighting the redfish I could see all kinds of fish slicks popping up that I couldn’t fish.