# Plugging on Alabama Beaches



## willie mckoy (Oct 20, 2010)

Made two short morning trips this week to try out the new lures got from Chris at Sams. Weds morning fished Dauphin Island from 8:30 to 11:00. Planned to get out much earlier but the heavy rain made it easy to hit the snooze button at 4:00 AM. Fished west of the pier/boardwalk out towards the end of the spit, then cut across to the Pelican Bay side and fished my way back. The gulf was very muddy,as in Mississippi River muddy. No strikes at all on that side. There was plenty of bait, birds, fish but outside of casting range. Across the spit the water was much clearer, but a very strong Northeast wind made casting difficult. Caught one ladyfish and had one other strike. 

Hit Gulf Shores this morning arriving around 5:15. Bait, birds and fish were right up on the beach. Fished for a couple of hours and caught several small spanish and ladyfish, and lost a decent sized spanish right at the beach. Every Spanish was foul hooked under the gills or behind the head. No specks or reds caught or seen. After the sun got up good the fish moved on out and I switched to bouncing a jig on the bottom with no luck. Quick trip home and into the office. 

The rip and slash lures will cast a mile.

No pictures - too busy fishing.


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## Bama Rick (Apr 13, 2017)

Cool report. We went down towards Fort Morgan and did basically the same thing from 7-9 this morning. Threw the rip-n-slash awhile and then a looney jig. There was just enough grass to mess things up. Very little to no activity along that stretch.

The rip-n-slash* will* cast a mile!


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Honestly, the conditions have been pretty bad for walkin and pluggin the last week or so but it's shaping up. I plan on giving it a go this week a couple times.


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## countryjwh (Nov 20, 2007)

chris--i was fishing dauphin island and doing pretty good with live croakers.. ran out of bait and tried some plugs... all types of sub surface/sinking pirror lures.. i know they were there but by god they didn't want hard baits for me.. i was actually wading out to chest deep also to catch them on croakers.. surf was rough except for the troughs i was fishing.. any thoughts... ideas.. as good as they were eating the croakers, i just knew they would hit artificial. maybe it was color...


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

countryjwh said:


> chris--i was fishing dauphin island and doing pretty good with live croakers.. ran out of bait and tried some plugs... all types of sub surface/sinking pirror lures.. i know they were there but by god they didn't want hard baits for me.. i was actually wading out to chest deep also to catch them on croakers.. surf was rough except for the troughs i was fishing.. any thoughts... ideas.. as good as they were eating the croakers, i just knew they would hit artificial. maybe it was color...


Next time in that scenario, throw a rat l trap and do a slow roll style retrieve. 4-5" swim baits slow cranked might do well too. In rough conditions, that Rat L Trap can be a killer.


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## countryjwh (Nov 20, 2007)

man i left them in the truck some how.. i got there and was ticked off i did forget them.. thanks..


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## willie mckoy (Oct 20, 2010)

Great advice on the rattle trap - will have to keep one in my case! I have not been able to get back out and obviously the past few days have been out anyway.

For those that do a lot of this type of fishing do you keep fish or release them all? If so how do you keep them? This style of surf fishing is new to me and honestly one of the draws for me is mobility and simplicity. Carrying one rod and a fanny pack with a few lures is very appealing and lets me cover more territory for sure. But I do like to eat fish


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

I do keep a lot of flounder and either:

A) Carry an Igloo backpack cooler

or 

B) Tote a 5 gallon bucket

I rarely fish more than 2-3 hrs when I'm walking the surf so the fish stay cool enough in the 5 gallon, but I do prefer the cooler backpack.


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## wde414 (Jun 5, 2014)

Ive got the same Igloo cooler backpack. Cheap and easy. Just throw a frozen water bottle in if youre gonna be fishing for a while and hose it out when you get home.
What does the water look like down there now, Chris?


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## willie mckoy (Oct 20, 2010)

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I may look into those backpack coolers.


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