[JimD]

My wife and I enjoyed Orange Beach so much last May, we are headed back. When we were there in May,we stayed at one of the Phoenix properties and the surf fishing was awesome. We went to PB pier one evening and stayed till past midnight. My wife loved it. She will fish from the pier, but will not even concider surf fishing, "There are sharks in the water". It didn't help that I caught a small one my first morning of surf fishing.

Well, this time I have booked us at Four Seasons. I can't wait! Since she will fish from the pier and is looking forward to fishing, it means I get to fish even more. Man, I am stoked! We will be there again in May.

Has anyone fished this pier?

Oh yea, I am also thinking about doing some crabbing from the pier. Can anyone give me any pointers? Are there crab seasons and what type of crab might I be able to get. What about a license. Is crab covered by the As a teenager in So. Cal. I used to crab off of piers all the time using crab nets and am thinking I would like to do that again.

Thanks for any info,

Jim

 

[Chris V]

A lot of my friends and customers stay at four seasons and they usually do pretty well from the pier. Lately they've been catching a lot of big redfish and some flounder. Usually in may you can expect spanish mackeral, kings, blues, jack crevalle,sharks, lots of flounder, and later in the month big tarpon start rolling in along with a few other species. The only real set back on the pier since they reconstructed it is its a lot shallower than it used to be. That has made it harder to catch big kings and tarpon but nevertheless plenty were caught this last season. The best thing about the pier is the fact that it is private and it very rarely gets crowded. Hopefully this hurricane season won't be too bad and you'll have some luck.

Chris Vecsey

Top Gun Tackle (251) 981-3811

Orange Beach Al

 

[Pier#r]

Maybe this will help answer some of your questions about the pier...

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=34414&posts=24

As far as crabbing, buy you some drop crabbing baskets, string and chicken backs ;-)



IF you have an AL saltwater fishing license you are covered for crabbing too.

You will be catching blue crab mostly. Minimum size is 5" across the back of the shell, NO closed season.

http://www.bluecrab.info/

http://www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/saltwater/regulations/crab_rec.pdf

 

[JimD]

Thank you for the responses.

I didn't see any mention of limits on blue crabs. Also, it seems that the only information I can find on the Alabama web site is for blue crabs, which I realize are the most common, but what about stone crabs? Florida has a season, but I can't findany info for Alabama.

Thanks again,

Jim

 

[bamasam]

Add a 1 lb rock in the basket to keep it in place. Like pier r said plenty of blue crabs. For fun for the kids tie a chicken leg to a string and let them throw it out and sit for awhile then slowly drag it in and have a dip net handy.

Stone crabs you can only harvest one claw! I will check the limits and let you know.

 

[bamasam]

O.K. Alabama has no limit on stone crabs just remove the bigger claw and release.

Could not find any regulations on quantity but Florida is 10 gallons and that is alot of crabs so I would stay safe and go with that. Only keep males and release any egg bearing females. Plenty of crabs there to enjoy.

 

[JimD]

Awesome, thanks so much for the info. This is going to be the best vacation ever!

 

[bamasam]

Jim you also might want to check out the need a crew /need a ride section when it gets closer to that time. Someone is allways posting room for one or two on their boat. Usually it is just a split gas, bait and ice type of deal.

 

[JimD]

That a good idea, thanks for the heads up.