This year UNT and Texas A&M had spring break at the same time. Linda and I took the week off. We all packed out bags and tackle boxes loaded up in our perspective Expeditions and headed for Alabama. Yup, Alabama. Ft Morgan to be exact. It’s west of Gulf Shores and east of Dauphin Island. A small beach community, it has no high rises, mostly single family homes and a few condos. The beach was as nice as the state’s beaches 30 miles east (that would be Florida for the geographically challenged).
As you may know, we have taken many vacations in the Destin Fl. area. We thought we would try something less crowded this year. As a bonus, it was less expensive as well. High on our to-do list was fishing so the island nature of Ft Morgan lent itself well to that activity with both surf and bay easily accessible. Sarah’s boyfriend, Greg joined us this year. I am not sure who was happier to have him along, Sarah or me. Sometimes the estrogen gets pretty think wherever Christy’s gather. Remember, I have 3 sisters 0 brothers. Katie and I gained a fishing buddy and Linda had someone else to carry stuff to and from the car. It was all good.
In general we had good weather. It was a little nippy and a little windy at times, but we had plenty of sun. We rented a house, it was great. It was well appointed and truely had all the comforts of home plus porches on two levels and a view of the ocean. Here is a link if you want to see it http://www.vrbo.com/264653 We cooked some food to take with us which turned out to be a good idea on several fronts. We had the food we liked, it cost less than eating out, it was available anytime and it was a long way into town – about 14 miles.
Fishing – I did it every day. Our first day there we (Katie, Greg and I) chartered a fishing guide, Capt Kathy Broughton. It was an afternoon trip. Unfortunately the wind had been building all day. By the time we were out on the water the wind was hitting 20 mph. Not the best conditions. For 3 hours we tried to find fish and some decent water conditions. We essentially failed at both, we caught 1 fish between the 4 of us. No one complained but Kathy felt bad. She offered to head in early and take us out early the next morning when the conditions would be better. She got no argument from us.
The next morning we were up at 5 am so we could make it to the marina by 6:30. Unbeknownst to our captain, the time had changed the day before and sunrise wasn’t for another half hour. We went out into the Gulf to fish the far side of a jetty, it was a great day, very little wind about 58 degrees and a beautiful sunrise. We fished for about 30 min with no luck, so we moved to the other side of the jetty. There was a boat in the prime position so we had to move down a bit. We were there for 5 minutes and Greg caught a fish. Then Katie caught a monster Redfish, then it was my turn. The other boats saw us catching fish and lined up along the jetty. We were pulling them in, one after another, Redfish, Sheepshead, Black Drum. There were at least 5 other boats next to us, some of them no more than 15 yards away – NONE of them got a fish, not even a bite, it was crazy. On boat stopped fishing and just watched us. We started throwing them back. Finally we gave our spot to another guide who was friends with Kathy and went back to the dock. Kathy had some fish cleaning to do.
Katie’s Redfish was 33 inches long, we pulled in the biggest Sheepshead I had ever seen and a Black Drum that had turned my arms to rubber by the time I got it in the boat (we promptly through him back because he was too big). It was a great day and it was only about 9am. Just one of the highlights of our vacation. Check out some of the pictures we have posted on Google.