How to Fish the Rigs in Mobile Bay

Mobile Bay, Alabama offers unique fishing opportunities to the adventurous angler. The oil rigs located offshore have a continuous flow of warm oil flowing through the pipeline under the water. Where the water is warmer, the fish are more active and often hungry. The rigs' underwater structures provide a perfect year-round environment for barnacles, which attract the small bait fish in turn attracting the larger red fish, speckled trout and sheephead. This environmentally integrated locale is also home to shrimp, crabs and scallops.

Things You'll Need

  • Fishing gear
  • Fish net
  • Bait based on target fish
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Instructions

  1. Fishing the Rigs in Winter and Fall

    • 1

      Use 20-lb. test line. In the winter, sheephead are a favorite target fish for angler enthusiasts. Sheephead can grow to 20 to 25 lbs. but average somewhere between 8 and 15 lbs.

    • 2

      Cast close to the rig structures but not too close that you run the risk of getting snagged. Sheephead are smart and use the barnacle-encrusted rigs as little blades to cut the line they find themselves hooked to. They make their homes in and around these underwater structures, only venturing out occasionally. You want the bait to land near the structure and draw out a hungry sheephead.

    • 3

      Set the hook hard. Sheephead have more bone in their mouths than flesh, so you will have to pull hard and reel in quickly before the fish can swim around the rig legs to cut your line against the barnacle shells.

    • 4

      Use a fish net to retrieve the sheephead when it is close enough. These fish have sharp spines in their dorsal fins and sharp teeth that can do some serious damage to a finger searching to remove a hook. Use a dehooker to remove the hook, and cut the dorsal fin if you are planning on keeping the fish.

    Fishing the Rigs in Spring

    • 5

      Use live shrimp or small croakers for bait. A small croaker is a young sheephead that makes a loud audible noise underwater when injured or in distress. In the early part of spring, the sheephead have, for the most part, left the Mobile Bay area to be replaced by the speckled trout.

    • 6

      Attach the lightest weight to the line as you can. Pinch a small clamp weight to the line with a pair of pliers. You want the live bait close to the bottom but with the ability to move around freely, which larger weights will prevent.

    • 7

      Wait for the second hit on the bait when fishing in late spring for bull reds, or male redfish. The first hit is the bull red colliding with the live bait to kill it. The second hit is the redfish actually eating the bait. This is especially true with the larger redfish which can average from 12 to 30 lbs.