Alabama Snapper & Bull Redfish

[Westii]

Another great fishing trip to the Alabama coast (yes, Alabama has beaches) this year with my family and another family with teen boys (and a fishing boat  ).  This was our 5th year in a row and the snapper keep getting bigger and much more abundant.  It's a great fishery off the coast of Alabama with so many artificial reefs.  In addition to snapper on the reefs, we also caught numerous king mackerel, gag grouper, lane snapper, vermillion snapper, triggerfish and bonita.  We also caught some bull redfish just off the shore at the mouth of Mobile Bay, along with spanish mackerel, speckled trout and a lot of small sharks.

Here's a few shots of my son with some of the fish.  The big redfish was released (not good eating at that size).  The shark was pretty good, but the snapper was excellent!

[ACDIII]

Looks like a great trip westii...during my trip to Orange Beach last year I picked up an Artificial reef guide, listing all reefs with Lat/long ..its amazing how many artificial reefs AL has allowed to be put in......wish other states had a fisheries/reef management program like AL.

Andy
GA

[Westii]

Yep, I have the same guide.  Makes it easy to find the spots, but also makes it easy for everyone else to find them too.  What we need are the numbers for the "secret spots" where the private reefs have been deployed.  We fished the last week of the snapper season this year, and the number of snapper on the public reefs was still really good.  Not too many 20+ pounders around on them, but still better than I have ever seen it.

[Bryan Young]

Those snappers look fake .  They are just so perfect looking.

Looks like a great day, smiles, and great tasting fish...what else could you ask for???  Oh yeah, someone else to clean and prepare the fish for you just the way you like.

[onemako]

hey westi did you see where they caught a 980 tiger in the tournament off destin. Weighed it in at destin supposedly caught in Gulf shores. Could be risky as FL does not allow possession of any tigers.

     Tyler Kennedy, third from right, caught this massive 948.6-pound tiger shark Saturday to set a new record and win the open and tiger shark divisions of the Outcast Mega Shark Tournament based in Pensacola. Also onboard were, left to right, Rob Mayfield, Brett Rutledge, Tyler Kennedy's uncle Michael Kennedy and his cousin Ryan Kennedy. Kennedy landed the fish after what he described as a "miserable, painful" three-hour fight while fishing 20 miles southeast of Orange Beach. (Photo submitted by Tyler Kennedy)
ORANGE BEACH, Alabama -- Tyler Kennedy called it a "miserable, painful fight."

But when the three hours were over, he'd landed a 948.6-pound tiger shark to win the open and tiger shark divisions of the Outcast Mega Shark Tournament held out of Pensacola over the weekend.

Kennedy, a 21-year-old senior at Auburn from Mobile, said that the shark bit at about 6 o'clock Saturday morning 20 miles southeast of Orange Beach.

The bait — a 15-pound king mackerel with its tail cut off — had been on bottom for about an hour in 130 feet of water when Kennedy noticed line beginning to slowly tick off the Penn International 50W reel.

"With the giant hooks we use and big bait, you have to let the shark eat it for a while before setting the hook," he said as he recounted the story Monday.

He let a minute or so pass, then tightened the drag.

"The first time I set the hook, the rod spun around and almost jerked out of my hand and out of the boat," Kennedy said. "It was like the rod was tied to a brick wall."

A wall that did not yet know it was now hooked to Kennedy, an Auburn University student who grew up in Mobile.

"I actually got it to the surface and we saw it the first time 20 minutes in. We saw this giant silhouette come up about 50 yards from the boat and saw the stripes, so we knew it was a tiger," he said.

As the shark circled near the surface, the crew, including his uncle Michael Kennedy, cousin Ryan Kennedy and fishing partners Brett Rutledge and Rob Mayfield, hoped that it would be a short fight.

But then the mighty tiger quickly sounded with just a few thrusts of its huge tail.

"We didn't see it again for the next three hours," he said.

Through the course of the fight, Kennedy said he managed to wedge his knees under the bow pads of his uncle's boat.

"Those big sharks will run and fight and roll around, but then they'll rest for a while and it's just dead weight. That's when you have to fight and pull as hard as you can. We had no idea it was close to a half-ton I was pulling on."

Several times the shark rested directly under the boat, reflecting a large red/orange blob back to the onboard fishfinder.

"I was doing all I could to get line back and Uncle Mike would tell me it's 50 feet under the boat, 40 feet, 30 feet, but then it would make another run," Kennedy said.

With his knees "aching down to the bone," along with his lower back and every other joint, he worked the shark close enough to the boat for Michael Kennedy to get a harpoon into the back of its head.

That still did not take all of the fight out of it.

"Brett lassoed the tail and the shark just went crazy. Brett's a big guy, and every time it would whip its tail it was lifting him 2 feet off the deck," Tyler Kennedy said.

Rutledge managed to get the tail under control and lash it to the boat. Several well-placed pistol shots finished the fish — and none too soon.

"I was more relieved than anything that we had managed to get it secured to the boat. I couldn't have gone for too much longer, honestly," he said.

But there was still the task of trying to get the shark onto Michael Kennedy's 33-foot Contender.

Several attempts to use a portable winch attached to the boat's T-top proved fruitless.

"With the head secured to the bow, we thought we'd be able to use the winch and get its tail over the side. Even with Uncle Mike, Brett and me pulling, we couldn't budge it," Kennedy said.

They were forced to lash the shark to the side of boat, then make an excruciatingly slow, 5 mph, five-hour trip back to Perdido Pass.

To say the shark caused a scene among the crowd gathered on Robinson Island just inside the pass is an understatement, Kennedy said.

"People jumped on Jet Skis and into their boats to come out and look at it. Everyone was taking pictures. It was something," he said.

Motoring to a friend's boathouse in Terry Cove, they used the winch there to lift the shark and swing it into the boat.

While tourney organizers had been notified that the shark was on its way, it created another mob scene once it arrived at the scales in Pensacola.

The shark's weight shattered the tournament record, and flattened a couple of tires on the cart hauling it to the scales.

Kennedy said the shark likely would have eclipsed the 988-pound, 8-ounce Alabama state record tiger shark caught by Larry Eberly in 1990.

"The difference is equal to only about five gallons of fluid," he said. "That shark was easily over 1,000 pounds and maybe closer to 1,100 when I caught it. But that's something everyone who catches a big fish out there has to deal with."

Tyler Kennedy said he was glad to hear that the marine biologists who dissected the shark for research purposes reported that it was a non-pregnant female.

"We were worried that it was going to be pregnant because we really don't want to kill a bunch of baby sharks," he said.

The biologists also found the complete skeleton of a 7-foot porpoise in its stomach. That meal among many others over the years had stretched the shark's girth to an amazing 10 feet, he said. It measured 13½ feet long.

Topping off the weekend, Tyler Kennedy also claimed second place in the bull shark division with a nearly 336-pounder weighed in on Sunday.

[Westii]

Those snappers look fake .  They are just so perfect looking.

Looks like a great day, smiles, and great tasting fish...what else could you ask for???  Oh yeah, someone else to clean and prepare the fish for you just the way you like.

Real snapper.  He's just using the old fishing trick of holding them out away from his body to make them look bigger in the picture   They were about 15 lbs each.  I actually preferred the smaller ones for eating since they are easier for me to clean.

[Westii]

Onemako, I hadn't heard about that tiger shark but that is amazing.  The boys were jumping off the boat and swimming about 20 miles off of Orange Beach when we went.  I'm guessing they wouldn't have even considered jumping in the water if they knew something like that might be around. 

[wallacewt]

had another look at your pics;house is similar to the ones in queensland.up on stilts for ventilation.must be hot there.nice fish,doesnt matter what colour they are as long as they are red.cheers

[alantani]

nice!!!!!!

[Westii]

had another look at your pics;house is similar to the ones in queensland.up on stilts for ventilation.must be hot there.nice fish,doesnt matter what colour they are as long as they are red.cheers

Houses also up on stilts to avoid flooding when hurricanes hit and tidal surge comes ashore.  It does get hot during the summer down there.  Wasn't too bad this year, only upper 80's to low 90's.

[Bill B]

Nice fish...always a plus to take your kids fishing AND CATCH GREAT FISH...by the way what kinda a shark was that?  And how did you cook it?  Might make a good entry in the recipes section

[Westii]

Nice fish...always a plus to take your kids fishing AND CATCH GREAT FISH...by the way what kinda a shark was that?  And how did you cook it?  Might make a good entry in the recipes section

TARFU, not exactly sure what kind of shark, but I'm gonna guess it was a sharpnose.  I will try to find another picture and post it so maybe someone can help identify it.  We just covered the shark fillets with seasoned breadcrumbs and fried them up.

[Westii]

Anyone know what kind of shark this is?  My guess is sharpnose.

[onemako]

What you have there is a dusky shark and is almost indistinquishable from the sandbar shark. The main difference is the sandbar sharks dorsal fin is almost perfectly even with the pec fins. Sharp nose do not have the snout near that long. World record sharpnose is around 16 lbs and 4 feet long. A lot of the little sharks you see caught off the piers are sharpnose. They typically are about 2 foot long.