Alabama Inshore Saltwater Fishing Guide A-Team Fishing Adventures with Captain Bobby Abruscato Joey Abruscato and Chip Deupree

January 4, 2008
Here are pictures from my trip on Friday, January 4, 2008. The crew was the father and son team of Charles and Chuck Lea. Despite 30 degree temperatures and gusty 20 knot winds, we caught 35 trout and a couple of redfish. The fish bit slow sinking Mirro-Lures, and GULP! minnow baits fished on the river channel dropoffs.
Chuck with an early nice one	Charles admires one of his many trout

December 30, 2007
Here is a recent trip that I took on my winter vacation from December 27-30, 2007. We spent 3 days in Delacroix catching an absolute ton of redfish! They bit spinner baits, top waters, some new GULP! shapes and well...almost everything else in the tackle box.
The Captain with a beauty.	Donald Wayne Garettson with one of his many on a spinner bait.	Larry "Carman" Kirby with a toad redfish shortly after his call to WNSP Outdoors.	The results of a big redfish day	Bruce Howell (aka Top Dawg Sr.) with one in some nasty weather.
Oh yea- the bass compete with the redfish- Scott Ritter with a giant bass in the middle of a redfish bite.

December 7, 2007
This was the Reggie Smith group- Reggie, Joe and Mike. We caught about 30 nice trout on topwaters, Mirro Lures and crankbaits.
J Joe starts off with a nice one on a topwater bait.	Reggie had the hot hand late with a nice one on a sinking Mirro Lure	Mike caught the only redfish of the day using a GULP! sinking minnow.

December 6, 2007
This is from my trip on December 6. The crew was Ramsey Stuart and Edmund Garner. Despite a cold, 20 knot wind, we caught a bunch of nice trout on top waters early and GULPS! Mirro-Lures, and crank baits throughout the day.
Ramsey tries to get warm by catching a nice trout early	The WNSP fishing report fish, by Edmund.	Edmund had the hot hand all day- here with a nice redfish.

December 5, 2007
Here is a trip from December 5, 2007-the crew was Reggie Smith and Wayne Palmer. We caught some nice trout on top water and some and GULP! grubs.
Reggie with a nice trout	Wayne, not to be outdone catches a good one on a GULP! grub

November 10, 2007
Here are some pictures from a trip with Captain Joey Abruscato. The crew was Amy Jones & son Boone Reeves with his pal Keegan Williamson. We had a blast and the weather was PERFECT !!!!!!!!!
Boone Reeves with a sheephead	A speck Boone Caught ~ 3.5 lbs	Terry admires this monster.	Here is Boone reeling in a big fish

November 9, 2007
Here are pics of my trip today. This is Tammy and Terry Cox. We caught some beautiful bull redfish early on GULP! and top water baits.
Terry starts us off at sunrise	Tammy is not to be outdone. This one was caught on a Top Dog.	Terry admires this monster	Another bull for Tammy

October 26, 2007
This is the Ron Cox group. We caught 25 redfish and about 40 trout on live shrimp, GULP! shrimp and D.O.A.
A fine early slot red	nice trout for thre lady using a GULP! shrimp	Ron and I admire one of his many redfish.

October 18, 2007

This is of my crew from October 18. They are Tami Johnson on my right and Gayle Willcox. We filmed a "Perfect Bite with Jim Cox" which aired a couple of Saturdays ago. We caught a bunch of speckled and white trout, flounder and redfish in some nasty conditions using live shrimp, GULP! and D.O.A. all fished under corks.

October 14, 2007
Here are some pics from a scouting trip on October 12th. I was in the Panama City area, and found a flat that was loaded with all sorts of inshore fish. There were sharks by the hundreds, rays of all species- sting, manta and leopard , sea turtles, trout, and most importantly thousands of redfish!
Sharks, and a big ray.	This one wouldn't leave.	A shark almost jerked me off of the poling platform when he hit my push pole.	Sharks finning on the flat.
I finally took a break from catching them and shot a picture or two of the redfish.

September 6, 2007
Here are pics from my trip with the Bonner family- Steve, his brother Paul and father David. Steve bought a trip that was auctioned off by WNSP. The proceeds from the auction went towards building a special needs house for Sgt. Edwards who was severely wounded in Iraq. Despite some tough conditions we had a good trip catching some fine trout on live shrimp.
Steve with an early nice trout.	David had the hot hand all morning.	Paul wrestles with one of his nice ones.	David and the Captain

September 5, 2007
Here are pics from my trip on September 6. The crew was Chuck Crouch, Steve Setterstrom and Zack Ashbee. We caught about 60 trout by 11 A.M. on live shrimp, croakers, D.O.A.'s and GULP! shrimp.
Steve with one of his many trout.	Zack with a nice one.	Chuck with a trout on an artificial bait.

August 27, 2007
Wait a minute, this isn't really John , Paul and George. Yes it it is and without Ringo (please no comments about the guide looking the part). The actual crew was John Megginson, Paul Russell, and George Radcliff. We caught 50 or so trout by 10 A.M. On live shrimp and croakers.
George admires one his many nice trout.	John with a good one.	Paul and "Ringo"?

August 26, 2007
A great trip with three generations of Brandaus- Russell, Russ and Adam (aka Mo). We caught about 60 trout on live shrimp and croakers.
Russ and "Mo" with a good trout.	Russell not to be outdone.	Surprise- Russell with another nice trout.	The action was hot all morning- This little one made a good account of himself, so he got to go back.

August 24, 2007

The crew was father and son team of Anthony and Jerry Wilkes. We caught 50+ speckled trout.

Jerry bowed up on a nice one.

Yea, that one will work

Anthony with one of his many.

August 20, 2007
The crew was a couple of 80 year old youngsters Ponnie McClellenad and Son Courtney. We caught about 50 trout up to 4 pounds on live shrimp and croakers.
Ponnie and me with one of his nice trout.	Son with a good one.	Ponnie needs the landing net- again!

August 18, 2007
Here are pics of a trip with some friends of mine. The crew was Willis and Gayle Willcox, and Jimmy and Terry Quint. We caught about 40 trout up to 4 1/2 #'s on live shrimp and croakers.
A beautiful trout for a beautiful lady (with a beautiful guide)- Gayle Willcox	Gayle had the hot hand	Willis Willcox with a nice one	Jimmy Quint with a bull red in the middle of a trout bite.

August 15, 2007
Here are some pics from a recent trip with Captain Chip.
Dave Cotugno with a very nice Redfish.	Dave Cotugno with a nice trout.	Jay Myers with one of many trout.

August 3, 2007
Here are pics of a recent trip with some friends of mine. We caught about 50 trout up to 4 pounds fishing from the Alabama/Mississippi line to the northern part of Mobile bay- and most points in between! The fish were caught on live shrimp and croakers. The crew was Randy "Buck" Bryant, Jimmy Quint, and Willis Willcox.
Willis on the net for one of jimmy's nice trout.	Jimmy with a nice one	Randy "Buck" Bryant had the hot hand all day- here with one of his nice ones

July 26, 2007
Pictures of from a trip with Son Courtney and his son Edward. We caught 73 trout up to four pounds. The largest came on tight-lined croakers, with some fine ones on shrimp as well.
Son and I admire a nice trout that he caught on a tight-lined croaker.	"Sonshine" with another fine one.	Not to be outdone, Edward caught some nice trout like this one.

July 25, 2007
Pictures of my trip with "Tup" Dukes and his 14 year old grandson Haddon. We caught about 50 tout on live shrimp and croakers.
Haddon is "wowed' by on of his many nice trout.	Another nice one for Haddon.	Grandpa "Tup" with a nice one of his own.

July 17, 2007
Here are pics from my trip on July 17. This is the Sullivan crew- Allen, Emil, and Graf. We caught 40 trout, a big redfish and a bunch of other stuff. Again, the best action by far was very early.
An early double.	Graf with a beautiful trout.	Allen and Graf with a monster redfish!	Emil and Graf with one of the many trout that they both caught

July 16, 2007
Theses are pics from my trip yesterday. Crew was Son Courtney and Mobile Country Club tennis pro Jeff Gray. We caught about 40 trout among other fish. Best action was early and all were caught on live shrimp and croakers.
You'd better be out early like we were to catch fish this time of the year.	86 year old Son Courtney with an early nice one.	A "back hand" cast got this one for tennis pro Jeff Gray.	We had to run from a squall which ended our day early

July 15, 2007
Here are pics from a tournament scouting trip. This is Scott Ritter and myself with some redfish in the south Louisiana marsh.
This one was a beauty. You don't see many with spots like that!	Fatsos like this one will win us a check.	Wait a minute- that's not a redfish! He did hit a gold spoon though.

July 9, 2007
Here are pics from my trip on July 9. Crew was Glen and Stewart Coffee. We caught 45 speckled trout up to 3 pounds, a couple Spanish Mackerel and about 2 million white trout!
Glen Coffee with one of his nice trout.	Tuscaloosa City police officer Stewart "Bear" Coffee bows up on one!	Glen with another nice one.	The downside of being as big as a "Bear" is that all of your fish look small!

July 2, 2007
Here are pics of my trip with Mike and Phyllis Seal from Hattiesburg , Ms. We caught 50+ trout up to five pounds on live shrimp and croakers.
Phyllis with one of our early tout.	Phyllis bows up on another one.	Mike with one his several fine trout.	Phyllis with her trout of the day.	Now that's a trout!
Mike shows off the colors of a clear water speckled trout.

June 27, 2007
These pics are from my trip with the Whetstone crew- Brice, Cullen and Hayden. We caught 50 trout mostly on live shrimp, Berkley GULP! a few on croakers an some early on top water baits.
Cullen with a nice early trout.	Hayden bows up!	Brice with a "let me get back to fishing" smile.	We're both happy with this one.

June 26, 2007
Here are pics from one of Captain Chip's trips. They caught their fish on live shrimp in Mobile Bay.

June 26, 2007
Crew was Will "the Thrill" Harrison (aka Will "the website guy"), David Strain, and Johnny McLelland. We caught 50-60 trout a redfish and some other surprises on topwater baits, shrimp and croakers.
Will bows up on a redfish.	Will admires a redfish.	Johnny Mac stayed bowed up all day!	The Captain gets in on the action.

June 23, 2007
Here are pictures from a wade trip with WZEW radio morning personality and co-host of WNSP outdoors Sean Sullivan and I. We caught a bunch of nice trout while wading with top water baits.
Sean prepares his gear in the pre-dawn darkness.	Sean is all smiles after this trip.	We released all of the big trout while keeping a few smaller ones for the skillet.

June 22, 2007
These are pictures of a trip where we filmed a 180 Outdoors T.V. show. We caught 40 or so trout up to 4#'s as well as some Spanish Mackerel and a 30# redfish. The show will be aired nationally on many cable and satellite channels. The crew was show host and director Lawrence Smith, and famous hunter from PRIMOS Hunting Calls, Kevin Matthews.
Kevin admires his monster redfish. He picked the smallest rod on the boat to catch him with too- wait until you see the fight on T.V.!	Kevin, Lawrence and myself with Kevin's redfish. I think that I got more excited than he did!	Kevin had the hot hand. Here with a nice trout- he can call up a turkey pretty well and he ain't a bad fisherman either.

June 21, 2007
This is the Sullivan crew- Graf, Sam and Grandpa (aka Popsey) Sullivan. We caught 35 trout- among other things- on shrimp and croakers.
Popsey Sullivan and Graf get us started.	Oops- a catfish	Nice trout!	A trout eater, but the boys loved it!	The captain and the crew
Spadefish were a late in the day hit!

June 15, 2007
Here are pics from my trip on Friday with the Jimmy Quint crew. We caught 100 & 1/3 trout. With over fifty being landed before 8:00 A.M. Whew, that was some action!
"Fast" Eddie waits on a bite	This was the 1/3 trout	Jimmy with one of many	Durell with a fine trout	Mike admires one his many

June 11, 2007
This is of the Bryant crew. Randy, Glenn and his son Will. We caught about 65 trout up to four pounds.
Randy "Buck" Bryant does his Capt. Bobby imitation.	Glenn Bryant with one of his several nice trout.	Randy bows up on another one.	Wilson with a fine trout of his own.

June 11, 2007
This is Corby Waters and son Canon. We caught 75 trout up to 24" by 10:15 on live shrimp and croakers. We really had a good croaker bite going when we were interrupted.
Burnin'up Mobile Bay just at daybreak- Why would anyone want to miss this backdrop?	An early toad for Canon Waters	Sharks, people and porpoises can screw up a good trout bite
Corby with a nice trout	What a team!	Finally the M/V "Sea Idiot" can't stand to see us catching fish so they anchor right on top of our fish. Oh well- like I said- people, porpoises and sharks will always screw up a bite.

June 5, 2007
Despite an early morning squall, some west wind and muddy water, Rob and daughters Kaleigh and Madison (aka Maddie) Floore and I managed to catch about 25 trout as well as some white trout and flounder.
Rob and Maddie with one of our early trout.	Standout softballer Kaleigh and Rob with one of Kaleigh's nice trout.	Nice Trout and a crew like this bring a smile to the Captain's face!

May 28, 2007
David Vella and I went to work on some May pre-full moon pigs. The days total was about 25 fish up to 5 pounds on top water, live shrimp and croakers.
David with one of our early 4+ pounders.	The Captain with one of several on a top water bait.	David bows up on another.	They weren't all big, but fun anyway!

May 20, 2007
Here are pics from a scouting trip on Sunday. The crew was Joe Geil Sr. and Jr. We caught a bunch of trout and some redfish mostly on new spots.
Joey Geil with one of our early trout	Joe Sr. bows up on one	Whaddya know! The captain even gets a big one for a change!

May 16, 2007
Below are pictures from a mid week trip. The crew was Son Courtney and Ethan Fishman. We caught about 40 trout- most of them in the first two hours of the trip- before getting run in by a nasty squall.
Ethan Fishman with a 24" trout caught on a live shrimp.	Son Courtney with the fish of the day. This one pushed the 6# range.	Hold on to your hats boys! We've got to run from this squall.

May 13, 2007
Below are pictures from a trip with our Lt. Governor, Jim Folsom Jr. on Sunday morning. Jim is an avid outdoorsman and a heckuva of fisherman. We caught some nice trout on top water baits.
An early nice top water trout got our day started off with smiles even before the sun got up.	We stayed on the trout by following slicks like this one.	The Lt. Governor bows up on another one!

May 12, 2007
Here are pics from Captain Bobby Abruscato's trip on Saturday with the Albert Haas crew. We caught trout using all artificial bait with several nice ones early on top water baits.
Tal Vickers with one of several trout he caught on a top water plug.	11 year old Fox Haas landed this nice trout on a D.O.A. fished under a cork. He also called up and killed a turkey by himself earlier this year. This guy is quite a sportsman!	Dr. Albert Haas was all smiles with this fine trout.

May 8, 2007
Here a pics from a recent scouting trip. Captain Bobby was accompanied by Al Hurd and Will Harrison.
Will "the thrill" with the first trout of the day- a nice 4 pounder.	Trout are hearty fish. This one had a chunk out of him and was still eating.	Al Hurd with one of his several pretty trout.	Will spent as much time rigging as he did fishing. That was a lucky thing for the fish.

April 29, 2007
Below are pictures from a recent trip. The crew was Reed Harvey, William Harvey and Sterling "Chili Bean" Rivers. We caught about 60 trout mostly on shrimp with some on Berkley Power baits and D.O.A.'s.
Reed with one of our first trout of the day.	The "Chili Bean" bows up on a nice trout.	William with the finishing touches on one of his many trout.	This trout got a smile out of Sterling.	William with a nice trout.
Our day ended with William hooking a 25# Jack. He just thought his arms were tired from the trout.

April 22, 2007
Below are several pictures from Phil, Chris, and Cameron Gill's trip with Captain Joey Abruscato.
Chris's big bull red	Phil fighting a nice fish		Chris fighting a big fish		Chris fighting one of many fish		Captain Joey Abruscato releasing a nice fish
Captain Joey Abruscato and Cameron		Phil and Captain Joey Abruscato		Captain Joey Abruscato and Cameron		Phil's big bull red

April 21, 2007
Below are pictures from a recent chanter with Chris Sr. and Jr. Schatzman. We caught around 50 trout on top water baits, D.O.A's and live shrimp.
	Chris Sr. with a nice trout early	Chris Jr. bows up on a trout	We found the fish by drifting upwind of slicks like the one over Chris's shoulder	A late in the day quality trout for Chris Jr.
I finally got to try out the Capt. Bobby ironin' board fish cleaning station (patent pending)

April 17, 2007

This is captain Chip with his charter. He caught this one on a sweet trout while drifting Dixey Bar.

April 10, 2007
From Capt. Chip's trip with the Laura Hess crew. They caught bull reds on Dixey Bar.

April 13-14, 2007

Below is a recap of mine and Scott Ritter's participation in the OhBoy! Oberto Redfish Tourney in Lafitte, La.

Our practice had resulted in us finding a number of good fish (7-8#'s) all holding in a 3 square mile area of ponds and broken marsh. Our plan was to kind of run and gun in the areas. Here is what went on during the tourney:

Day 1- forecast was for 25-30 knot SE winds, but it wasn't that bad.

Probably around 15 all day with sun. Not bad for a tournament in April. We made our run with 101 other teams to find the water a little lower than we expected, but that turned out to be a good thing. Although the water was muddy, we could still see the fish. We had about 13 pounds after less than one hour of fishing and proceeded to upgrade all day to 15.19#'s. That put us in 10th place- only .4#'s out of the top five. Well within striking distance.

Day 2- forecast was for 15-20 out of the SW with thunderstorms. Again, especially in the morning it wasn't bad. As a matter of fact, it was so slick that we had trouble with bugs for about the first hour. Unfortunately we had trouble with fish too. The water had come up about two feet which allows the fish to really move. It took a little while, but we found them.

They had pushed way back into the marsh. After digging hard all day we were only able to come up with 12.54#'s which dropped us back to 36th. Not a successful tournament for us, but one for the adventure record. We will get them next time.

From day 1- this was a nice one, but a little too nice 27 1/2" had to let her go.

Scott with a keeper on day 1. One of our bigger fish- 27" about 7 1/2#'s.

From day 2- Scott gets us going with the first fish of the day.

Day 2- we always worry about someone beating us to our spots- this guy was in one of our ponds.

From practice- they don't help in tourneys, but darn they are fun!

April 2, 2007

Mike Goff and I had a great trip this week. We caught some very nice fish while we quietly drifting across shallow oyster reefs.

Mike Goff with a 4+ pound trout!

A trolling motor can be the difference between quiet and noisy- and fish or no fish!

Find these guys right now and you'll probably find some trout.

March 26, 2007
Below are pictures of Dave Wirtes recent trip with Captain Chip . They caught their fish on D.O.A's and live shrimp both under a cork while drifting over shallow oyster reefs.

March 25, 2007
Here are some pictures from a recent redfish scouting trip that Scott Ritter and I took. We spent much of the time just trying to find clear water. When we did find clear enough water, the redfish cooperated. We are still searching for perfect tournament fish, but these kept us busy in the meantime. Spinner baits and jerk shads did the trick, with a few on jigs tipped with a GULP! trailer.
Scott releases a Louisiana marsh redfish.	This one was too big, but fun nonetheless.	Note the tail in the top of the picture as Scott prepares to cast.	Scott admires another beauty.

March 22, 2007
Despite a steady 20 gusty knot east wind, Gary and Don Grady and myself managed to catch 75 or so trout. The beauty of fishing during the spring is that the fish are in shallow bays. You can always find some protected water to fish in. Getting there can be tough sometimes, though. Thank God for my Blue Wave 2200 Pure Bay!
Gary Grady with the lunker of the day.	"Dandy" Don Grady with a nice one.

March 20, 2007
This was a great trip with Mark Langan and Scott Winter. By the end of the day we had landed over 100 fish!
The start of a 100+ day!	Mark Langan with one of many.	Live shrimp and D.O.A's did the trick.	Scott Winter adds to the total.	Some unwelcome guests manage to screw up the bite- I guess that they have to eat too.

March 18, 2007
Captain Chip Deupree and I did a little scouting Sunday March 18. We found these beautiful trout and redfish in a classic spring pattern. Although it was a little cool at day break, the action warmed us quickly. We caught around twenty trout 2 1/2-4 pounds and 5 redfish 24-28 inches. Live shrimp under a cork produced all of our fish and we covered a lot of ground to find out how places the fish were.

March 3, 2007

I found some gorgeous trout in some extremely shallow water. The fish were relating to the points of some sandbars and got tighter to the points as the day’s strong tide increased. The only bait that worked was a small minnow bait (see "Tip of the Week" March 1 2007) and trout wanted it “nuked” through the eddies- just reeled fast with no pauses or stops. I have found this to be effective in the past when the water is clear and shallow as was the case Tuesday. I think that this presentation works well in this application because the fish have to react to the lure and aren’t able to get a good look at it. Late in the day I also managed to catch some redfish in the 27” range on a crank bait. I guess it was a “crank bait kind of day”.

It always pays to get out early!

The last seconds of the fight!

This one almost took up the whole net!

February 11, 2007
Having gotten bitten by the sight fishing bug in Louisiana, I decided to chase a few around in my home waters. The weather was perfect for it so I headed out. I managed to find some very clear water right away, and though not Louisiana caliber sight fishing, I saw about 15 redfish on the very first bank that I visited and scraped out. They were between 21 and 28 inches.
The 4" GULP! mullet in chartreuse did the trick.	About a 23 incher. Not a monster, but any sight-casted redfish always gets a bonus 2 inches added to him!	A view from the poling platform. If you look closely towards the top of the screen- where the slick water meets the ripples, you'll see the redfish. They are much more visible with polarized glasses.	This is the type of bank that I look for. The redfish really seem to like features on a bank, rather than just a straight bank. Notice the small creek mouth with broken up grass near the entrance.

February 9, 2007
In preparation for a series of Redfish tourneys, Scott Ritter and I took our first scouting trip of the season to Venice on 02/09, the trick was to find clear water as the river levels were at their usual springtime highs. Once we found the clear water, it was on! We found redfish almost everywhere that we went, and more importantly found some that would do us well in the tournaments. The redfish have to be no longer than 27" measured with the tail pinched and anything over 8#'s usually does well, even in Louisiana.
"I think that we are... right...here- no wait, maybe we are ... right here." Due to the severe marsh erosion, the satellite maps that we use are in constant need of updating. We didn't have updated maps-God bless the GPS system!	We caught most of our redfish using Berkley "Power Baits" rigged on a spinner harness with gold or copper blades.	I spend most of my time on the poling platform. It can be a little eerie fighting a fish when you're almost 8' above the water's level. If I do fall off, I try to land in the water, not in the boat!	This perfect specimen weighs almost 8 1/2#'s. We need him on tournament day!
Here we wind through a narrow can lined canal, while searching for green water.		This one is a little too long!

February 1, 2007

We left at daylight in a warm rain that transitioned to a cool, all day drizzle. Figuring the fish would bite as the weather changed and we went pre-full moon, we managed to grind out some nice trout, a few redfish and even a couple of flounders. The best sized trout came late in the day on top water baits, while the numbers of trout and all of the redfish and flounder came on Berkley pre-rigged shrimp under a cork, and Berkley GULP! jerk shads rigged on a flutter hook.

The captain gets in on the action!

Paul Smith with a slot red taken on GULP! jerk shad in 18" of water.

The bigger trout waited until late in the day to eat on top. Paul with a nice one on a "Skitter Walk" top water bait.

The Fowl River eagles decided to stay home because the weather was so bad!