Looking for good place to catch large croakers, pin fish, hardtails, etc. in Mobile Bay... - The Hull Truth

brantleytrest · 06-27-2007, 04:22 PM

Can anyone help me?? Thanks!

bluffman2 · 06-27-2007, 05:05 PM

not sure about the bay but im sure GOTCHA could give you some advice...

brantleytrest · 06-27-2007, 05:10 PM

thanks bluffman. Gotcharb, you out there?

Seaquility · 06-27-2007, 06:31 PM

The first 2 weekends of this month, I saw lots of schools of hardtails in the area between the lighthouse and Sand/Pelican Island, closer to the east end of the island and just south of there. There have been lots of minnows out there for them to eat. The minnows were trying to hide under the boat. Hardtails and Spanish were all over em. They weren't huge, but probably big enough. I was just floating up to them and letting the kids have fun catching fish. Could've loaded the livewell in 15 minutes. On occasion, I have caught some large pinfish around sand island. If you can find a hole holding them, you can get plenty. I am still looking for a large croaker spot myself.

Domino Effect · 06-27-2007, 07:19 PM

go to boykin reef around by the bridge or to the bridge itself and nose up to the supprts and drop sabiki rigs for croakers and pin only problem they were small last weekend, any of the rigs out front have hard tails up inside them.

Lee

fowl river todd · 06-28-2007, 01:35 PM

These days, I fish mainly inshore, so I don't venture past Pelican Island, sometimes called Sand Island.
You can expect to find plenty of pinfish around Billy Goat Hole, right at the launch. If you are able to throw
a cast net, there is always lots of bait near the Coast Guard Station, just at the mouth of Billy Goat Hole.

I never found a shortage of hardtails, when I did fish offshore. If they were not schooled up on the way out,
there was always an abundance at all of the rigs. Based on the bait you described, I would think you are
fishing offshore? Then again, this would be fun for young children to catch these..

As far as catching croakers, you could fish the reef that was mentioned, with any kind of cut bait/squid/shrimp,
or even gulps. You might catch, croakers/ground mullet/whiting/specks/flounders etc.

brantleytrest · 06-28-2007, 05:03 PM

Yep, we are going to be fishing approx. 20 miles offshore and need hardtails and croakers. We are leaving from a wharf in pt. clear so I am not sure we will make it over to the west side of the bay. We want to catch all of our bait on friday and keep it overnight in a holding tank we have.

capt_dalton · 06-29-2007, 12:35 PM

Try fishing with small pieces of dead shrimp and/or squid right from the wharf you are leaving from. I'd be a little surprised if you didn't catch some croakers in that neck of the woods.