May Kayak Fishing Fairhope, Alabama

May 17, 2020 • 1 Comment

This blog features photography from a two day back to back kayak fishing trips in Fairhope, Alabama. These trips took place during a low activity time according to the fishing charts. This means there wasn't much movement between the high tide and low tide. Typically fish are more active the bigger the tide swings. The fish bite was very slow during these two days.

The number one thing most weekend anglers ask is "what spot did you fish?". At face value that question has merit but it falls apart in reality. Over these two days I fished the same spots and only one produced fish at the same spot. Two weeks ago every spot I fished produced fish. Fish follow bait. I have spots I typically fish but I caught fish in areas that haven't produced in the past. The reason I fished those areas this time was I spotted bait fish jumping around nervously and schools of mullet in those areas. A good indicator of bait in the area are egrets and herons perched on docks looking for bait. I also look for pelicans diving for fish. If you spot seagulls diving then it's a feeding frenzy.

Mullet are good indicators speckled trout and redfish may be in the area as they typically follow mullet. This is speculation but I think redfish and specks follow mullet because they stir up the bottom which reveal small bait and they are also great at alerting to the presence of large predators like bottle nose dolphins and even larger groups of redfish and speckled trout. Schooling fish like reds and specks typically stay in groups of similar size because they will prey on smaller fish of the same species. Mullet act like a buffer against predators.

Another question anglers ask is what type of bait to use. I have simplified the bait I use and the majority of time I am using a paddle tail soft plastic. White is the preferred color in clear water, and a darker color in muddy water. For these two trips I used a lemon lime colored swimbait as the water was in between clear and muddy. My scientific method for choosing the color is a very complicated method of eyeballing the bait in the water and see which one shows up better.