A little late report, but...

From Saturday May 9 in South Baldwin County:

I FINALLY got a chance to fish with my ole fishin padna "the hardest working realtor in the Mobile area" on Saturday.

We had made plans to fish Dauphin Island, but @ 4am the wind was just blowing too strong (up to 20 knots) to do what we wanted to do.
So a quick 'Plan B' was formulated to launch in Gulf Shores and fish east to try and find shelter from the wind.
We put in under the Hwy 59 bridge with 6 dozen mixed (mostly small) live shrimp and a bit of aprehension.
At least these locals were amused...


When we saw our buddies the "Delta Pirates" we figured there must be game afoot. So we set up shop a few hundred yards away.
But the strong W-E current had the water VERY silty (1 foot vis) and all we got in an hour or so were a couple of hardheads and dink specks (on our dink live shrimp)

Still those were our first specks of the year, so pics were in order...





So 'Plan B-2' was to head east to find clearer water and a shelter from the wind.
Wolf Bay provided that water change (water vis 3'-4') and we set up on a likely looking point.
Unfortunately it held the 'Mother Lode' of pinfish in south Baldwin County and they rendered every live shrimp to legless chum in just seconds
Besides those we had a variety of 'Garbage Can Slam' candidates with some sizeable hardhead and sail catfish, and a few heat-stopping ladyfish.
Plus this lone lost spotted soul on my new combo...
My first 'keeper speck' of the year



We also had the opportunity to see enough boatage parade by to pay off the national debt!
Literally hundreds of boats were running up and down the ICWW near Bear Point from stealthy homemade kayaks to 50+ foot three-foot-wake-throwin yachts
So by noon we knew we were in trouble and asked for Divine Guidance to salvage our trip.
Rusty Hook kept mentioning a new artificial reef nearby (in Perdido Bay) so we pulled anchor and picked our way through the traffic to scope it out.
No body was home on the fish finder during our 'fly-by', but some MIGHTY impressive structure was seen.
We figured it'd be as good a place as any to sacrifice the rest our live bait and at least we were the only boat on the reef.
As I was laying the rope out Rusty Hook chunked out and immediately hooked up a decent fish
An 18" speck...


His next shrimp quickly produced another hit, but we were dismayed when an 8" mangrove snapper popped up
Those lil bait-stealin, bust-you-off, up-to-11" bastages were all over the reef and lived up to their reputation
Over the next hour or so we managed to cull through them lil terds and get another keeper speck each so we stayed with the area.
Finally, down to our last few (2") live shrimp I cast one as far upwind as I could manage and BAMMM!
A solid fish was on, taking drag and head shaking...
I just knew this was the 5# speck I'd been waiting on all day, all year!
After an agonizing 5 or so minutes to carefully work it to the boat we finally got it in...




Oh well, Rusty Hook told me. At least I had dinner
Taking that as good naturedly as I could, I hooked up the last 2" live shrimp from the baitwell and chunked it to the same spot.
BAMMM! Another fish on!!
It feels like a trout!!!
But wait he's not very big, maybe not even legal...
Whoaaa! it's a white trout and on a day like this it could be a contenda in the UCP (United Cerebral Palsy) Tournament I had a ticket for

So we headed in and back to the Causeway for the weighin.
We got there about 4:30 to weigh my 14" WT.
And guess what????


Still I had to agonize for over an hour that it would stay on the board (till 6pm scale closure).
In the end the fish stayed on the board and I walked away with some fine prizes



Thanks UCP for putting on a fine/fun tourney for a great cause!
Thanks to my buddy Rusty Hook for being a great friend and "the best realtor in Mobile" (at least in my book
And thank You Lord for days to fish with good folks like these and overcoming the adversities that keep us from enjoying the outdoors You created!

thank you #'r!

I'm new to the forum but if you get many fine reports like this one I'll keep coming back and, I hope, have a contribution to make. Great presentation - good story. Thanks for the effort.