Gulf Shores in October

[starfish]

I have playing around with buying one of those Native 12 or 14' canoes for flyfishing and exploring. I've got a local dealer about 100 miles away. How do they work for you for flyfishing? I've heard they are very stable but I have no first hand experience. I'm thinking the 14' would be more appropriate for 2 svelte adults and perhaps a small child or even usable for 1 adult what do you think? I see generic canoes at Sams Club but they look to weigh a lot. Thanks,
Racine

Fantastic boat. VERY stable. I stand to sight fish in mine all the time. It's a little wobbly at first, but once you get your legs, it's super easy to cast standing.

The 14 footer can be converted between a single and a tandem. If I were doing it over again, that would be the one I would get.

Starfish

[racine]

Starfish, I appreciate the input and you've swayed me towards the 14'. These look a lot lighter than other canoes I've seen and I hear they even make one in Carbon Fiber. Though tempting I'm not sure how fragile they'd be. Thanks Much.
Racine
BTW, have fun and how you net quite a few.

[john52948]

starfish,
i used to live in spanish fort al, which is just north of i10 at mobile bay. in the spring time i would fish dauphin island, and in the fall i would fish west pass. west pass is the outlet to the gulf for little lagoon. if i was you i would fish the lagoon at night under the dock lights. try a chartruse clouser, you should be able to get specks and reds.

at first light, or at dusk i would fish the pass, especially if you can get an outgoing tide. you should encounter, specks, reds, spanish ,bluefish, ladyfish(skipjack) and hardtail. all of which will be a ball on a fly rod. for flies i would use surf candy. it does a great job of imitating the small baisfish that are present in that area at this time of year.

crowds should not be a problem, most of the tourists have left by october. the only conflict would be the occasional surfer, or the shrimp festival. the shrimp festival is a big arts and crafts fair that happens in the begining of october in orange beach. it jams up the traffic at the end of route 59, but should not affect the fishing.

walk the beach early and late , and you should see large schools of bait being chased and devoured.

a good local website would be www.gcomag.com. they have a message board and should be able to give you some help.

good luck !!

[EdD]

I was talking to my sister, a nurse in Pascagoula, MS. She said that there are some very bad bacteria in the coastal waters between the barrier islands and the mainland up and down the coast now. It is mainly a lingering result of Hurricane Katrina. There have been some fatalities from infections that entered through open sores. There is an on-going monitoring effort for bacteria. Areas are often closed for having pathogen counts that are too high. PLEASE FOLLOW THESE WARNINGS !!! People are still dying from the after effects of Katrina.

She also suggested not eating crustasceans or flatfish taken near the mainland shore.

Ed

[starfish]

starfish,
i used to live in spanish fort al, which is just north of i10 at mobile bay. in the spring time i would fish dauphin island, and in the fall i would fish west pass. west pass is the outlet to the gulf for little lagoon. if i was you i would fish the lagoon at night under the dock lights. try a chartruse clouser, you should be able to get specks and reds.

at first light, or at dusk i would fish the pass, especially if you can get an outgoing tide. you should encounter, specks, reds, spanish ,bluefish, ladyfish(skipjack) and hardtail. all of which will be a ball on a fly rod. for flies i would use surf candy. it does a great job of imitating the small baisfish that are present in that area at this time of year.

crowds should not be a problem, most of the tourists have left by october. the only conflict would be the occasional surfer, or the shrimp festival. the shrimp festival is a big arts and crafts fair that happens in the begining of october in orange beach. it jams up the traffic at the end of route 59, but should not affect the fishing.

walk the beach early and late , and you should see large schools of bait being chased and devoured.

a good local website would be http://www.gcomag.com. they have a message board and should be able to give you some help.

good luck !!

Well, I didn't catch much, but I had a blast. West Pass was sealed off, so there was no tide. A local said it was the first time in 6 years that enough sand washed in to close the pass. They had heavy equipment out all week working on getting it open again. I caught one nice speck one night there, and that was it.

I also hit Perdido pass and fished the grass flats between the islands there. That was super fun - wish I had spent more time there. I caught a few little tiny guys - looked like pinfish, one flounder, and a small grouper - 2 or 3 pounds probably. Lots of fish activity though - I just couldn't get them to chase my flies. No reds whatsoever. Saw one other fly fisherman there - he was on a wave runner and waded the flats.

My Ultimate 12 was perfect. I was able to stand and cast in it with complete confidence.

The last morning I was there, I decided to put in at cotton Bayou. What a waste of time. I spent two hours pounding docks and never had hardly a look.

Jeff