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Alabama Saltwater Fishing Report for July 31 – August 6, 2026

July 31, 2026

On this week’s Alabama Saltwater Fishing Report, host Butch Thierry is joined by co-host Angelo DePaola of The Coastal Connection for a late-July look at improving offshore conditions, exceptional Gulf billfish numbers, and a red-hot Dauphin Island speckled trout bite. The episode also features Tom Hilton of Realtime Navigator, Capt. Myles Colley of It Just Takes Time, and Capt. Cody Broughton.

Angelo reports excellent billfish activity following the recent tournament action, including a 788-pound blue marlin and strong numbers of blue marlin, sailfish, and white marlin across the northern Gulf. Tom Hilton explains how the recent tropical system appears to have improved offshore water quality and breaks down how chlorophyll, sea-surface temperature, altimetry, current direction, and color changes can help anglers narrow down productive water. Capt. Myles Colley goes deeper into current, Omni sonar, live-baiting, trolling, pitch-baiting, boat handling, and fighting big pelagics after an outstanding tournament weekend aboard It Just Takes Time. Inshore, Capt. Cody Broughton says the Dauphin Island speckled trout bite has been one of the best he has experienced, with live croakers producing exceptional numbers along the beach and around deeper structure.

Conditions Recap

Offshore conditions appear to be improving after weeks of heavy freshwater influence from Mobile Bay and the Mississippi River system. Tom Hilton says the recent tropical system helped turn over some of the dirty water and opened the door for cleaner green, mixed, and blue water to push back toward productive northern Gulf structure. Blue water is showing closer to areas around the deep FADs, the Squiggles, Delta House, Elf, Thunder Horse, and other offshore structure, while sharper color boundaries are developing farther south.

Current remains one of the most important factors. Both Hilton and Capt. Myles Colley emphasized that anglers should look for moving water rather than completely slack conditions. Myles generally prefers a defined current direction with roughly a knot to a knot and a half of flow when possible. He favors counterclockwise-rotating water, but he will also fish other conditions if the current, water color, bait, and signs of life line up.

Water color does not have to be cobalt blue to hold fish. Clean green water, mixed blue-green water, and organized color changes can all be productive, especially where current gathers sargassum, bait, and other floating structure. Hilton cautions against automatically writing off every warm-core eddy shown as unfavorable on an altimetry chart. Large offshore structures such as spars, drillships, and TLPs can hold bait and predators even when the surrounding open-water altimetry is less favorable.

The offshore tuna bite remains weak, but billfish numbers are excellent. Angelo says tournament boats are seeing impressive numbers of blue marlin, sailfish, and white marlin. Inshore, the summer heat is intense, but speckled trout remain extremely active around Dauphin Island when anglers line up the right bait, structure, and feeding windows.

Orange Beach Blue Marlin, White Marlin, Sailfish, Wahoo, and Tournament Update With Angelo DePaola

Angelo DePaola of The Coastal Connection says the northern Gulf is producing the kind of billfish numbers that once required traveling to international destinations. Recent tournament fishing produced excellent blue marlin action along with strong numbers of sailfish and white marlin.

One of the headline catches was a 788-pound blue marlin landed during the Ladies Day tournament. Angelo says the fish was the angler’s first blue marlin, making an already remarkable catch even more memorable. He also noted that more boats are mixing traditional trolling with the modern Omni-sonar and live-bait approach, keeping lures or teasers in the spread while searching for fish.

The tuna bite remains the weak point in the offshore fishery. Angelo says 60- to 70-pound-class tuna were enough to be competitive in recent tournament action, while dolphin were not especially large. Wahoo have been available, but the best action has been the sheer number of billfish encounters.

The amount of white marlin and sailfish being caught is particularly notable. Some crews are getting dozens of opportunities, and boats are now regularly producing numbers that would have been exceptional in the Gulf only a few years ago. Improvements in sonar, bait handling, team coordination, and live-bait techniques are allowing crews to find and capitalize on fish much more efficiently.

Gear and techniques discussed in this update included Omni sonar, live-baiting, trolling lures, teasers, and pitch baits.

Gulf Offshore Conditions, Current, Altimetry, Water Color, and Satellite Fishing Report With Tom Hilton of Realtime Navigator

Tom Hilton of Realtime Navigator says the offshore picture has improved since the recent tropical system moved through. Before the storm, an enormous amount of dirty freshwater had spread across the northern Gulf and forced anglers to make long runs before finding productive water. Hilton says the latest imagery shows cleaner water beginning to work back toward the offshore FADs, the Squiggles, Delta House, Elf, Thunder Horse, Thunder Hawk, and other areas.

Hilton’s approach is to look for the highest concentration of favorable conditions rather than relying on one satellite layer. Water color, sea-surface temperature, altimetry, current, structure, and bait all matter. When several of those factors overlap, the probability of finding feeding fish improves.

Color changes remain one of his favorite offshore targets because they concentrate the beginning of the food chain. Green water contains more phytoplankton and gives baitfish more cover, while an organized boundary between green and blue water can collect sargassum, floating debris, bait, and predators. A brown-to-green change can also be worth fishing if it is organized and holding life.

Hilton recommends paying close attention to current around warm-core and cold-core features. A warm-core eddy rotates clockwise and pushes water downward, while an upwelling cyclone rotates counterclockwise and brings cooler, nutrient-rich water toward the surface. The strongest current often develops where the contour lines, or isobars, tighten between opposing features.

He no longer treats the center of every warm-core eddy as an absolute no-fishing zone. Open-water anglers are generally better off working the edges where current and nutrients are stronger, but major offshore structures can hold bait and fish even inside less favorable altimetry because those structures function like enormous fish-aggregating devices.

When using Realtime Navigator, Hilton prefers comparing individual one-day satellite images whenever cloud cover allows because that helps anglers understand how water boundaries are actually moving. Three-day composites are useful when daily imagery is incomplete, while seven-day composites can occasionally retain old water features that have already shifted.

For anglers planning a trip, Hilton’s basic sequence is to find acceptable water color, look for temperature boundaries, study current and altimetry, then confirm the presence of structure and bait once on the water. The goal is not simply to find blue water. It is to find moving water with life in it.

Products and tools discussed in this report included Realtime Navigator, chlorophyll imagery, sea-surface-temperature imagery, altimetry charts, current models, AIS vessel tracking, and trip-planning tools.

Blue Marlin, White Marlin, Sailfish, Live Bait, Omni Sonar, and Offshore Fishing Report With Capt. Myles Colley of It Just Takes Time

Capt. Myles Colley of It Just Takes Time joined the show after an exceptional tournament weekend that produced five blue marlin, six sailfish, and a white marlin. The team is fishing a 74-foot Viking equipped with an Omni 8 sonar, a SeaKeeper, an extensive tuna-tube system, and supplemental oxygen for keeping live baits healthy during the hottest part of the season.

Myles says current is the first offshore condition he wants to understand. Completely slack water is one of his least favorite situations. His preference is a clear current direction and enough movement to organize bait and predators. A knot to a knot and a half can be an excellent range, while two and a half to three knots can become difficult to fish, particularly when the current direction is unfavorable.

Water color comes next. Myles is willing to fish green water if the current is right and the area looks alive. He also watches altimetry and prefers counterclockwise-rotating current when possible. If that is unavailable on a day trip, he looks for water moving inshore rather than a strong offshore flow that is pulling dirty coastal water farther into the Gulf.

Temperature is not a major deciding factor for him during the hottest part of summer, but even a small temperature change can identify a different body of water. If a productive-looking area goes quiet, a quarter-degree temperature change a few miles away can be enough reason to move and investigate new water.

The It Just Takes Time crew has also been trolling more over the past couple seasons. Live bait remains one of the most effective ways to consistently catch blue marlin, but trolling gives the crew another opportunity while the sonar is deployed. Teasers and squid chains stay in the spread, and white marlin or sailfish that appear behind them can be converted with a pitch bait.

For smaller billfish, Myles keeps a small or medium ballyhoo ready on roughly a 60-pound leader with a 5/0 or 6/0 circle hook. For blue marlin, the crew keeps a larger horse ballyhoo with a chugger head ready, along with a much larger pitch bait such as a rainbow runner, small blackfin tuna, or bonita for an exceptional fish.

Teamwork is critical. Myles runs with two full-time mates plus the owner, family members, and a regular tournament crew. Everyone has a defined role, and anglers are ready on the pitch rods before a fish appears. When the Omni sonar gives the crew an early warning, Myles can tell them which side of the boat the fish is approaching from and whether it appears to be a blue marlin or a smaller billfish.

Boat handling and drag pressure are two of his biggest lessons for recreational anglers. Myles does not want a hooked fish sitting directly below the stern while an angler struggles straight up and down. He would rather change the angle, move the boat, parallel the fish, or create another situation that gets the fish moving toward the surface.

He is also not afraid to use drag. If a fish settles into a rhythm and neither the angler nor the fish is gaining line, something has to change. Sometimes that means adding only a small amount of drag. Other times it means changing boat angle or direction. Myles believes one of the most common reasons anglers lose big fish is simply fighting them too lightly and for too long.

The segment ends with one of Myles’ most memorable fishing stories, an enormous blue marlin hooked years ago between the Nipple and the Elbow in roughly 550 feet of water. After an eight-hour stand-up fight, the crew measured the released fish at approximately 154 inches using a length of monofilament. There were no cameras aboard, but the experience remains one of the defining fish stories of his career.

Products and gear discussed in this report included a 74-foot Viking, Omni 8 and Omni 10 sonar systems, SeaKeeper, tuna tubes, supplemental oxygen systems, squid-chain teasers, ballyhoo, chugger heads, circle hooks, rainbow runners, blackfin tuna, bonita pitch baits, and heavy billfish tackle.

Dauphin Island Speckled Trout, Live Croaker, Night Fishing, Flounder, and Tarpon Report With Capt. Cody Broughton

Capt. Cody Broughton says this has been one of his best years for speckled trout around Dauphin Island. His favorite summer pattern is simple: live croakers fished from a boat tight to the beach. During the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo alone, Cody says he caught approximately 273 trout while fishing at night and during the early morning.

The front-beach setup starts with a lively croaker. Cody prefers a No. 6 treble hook, approximately 25-pound fluorocarbon, 20- to 30-pound braid, and a seven-foot medium-heavy rod. He likes a longer leader, often 12 to 15 feet, so there is enough material to retie after encounters with Spanish mackerel, ladyfish, and other toothy or abrasive fish.

Cody hooks the croaker just above the anal fin and immediately checks the bait’s activity. If the croaker is not vibrating the rod tip and digging hard when it hits the water, he changes baits. He wants the bait swimming aggressively and doing the work of finding the trout.

Boat positioning is equally important. Cody casts extremely close to the beach, sometimes telling clients that if they have to land the bait on the sand and reel it off, that is better than landing too far away. The goal is to have the croaker fall naturally off the first drop where trout are waiting to intercept it.

Cody is also a strong believer in major feeding periods. On a recent trip, the morning beach bite was only fair. He checked the major period, ran back for more croakers, and returned just before the window opened. The bite immediately turned into the kind of fast action he expects from the summer beach pattern, despite occurring late in the morning.

At night, Cody shifts toward deeper structure. Live LYs freelined around rigs can produce aggressive strikes, while a slip cork allows him to control the depth when there is no light to keep bait near the surface. Live croakers also work in deeper water, sometimes with an eighth-ounce jighead to get the bait into the strike zone.

Flounder have been showing up, although Cody has not spent much time specifically targeting them because the trout fishing has been so productive. He also reported seeing large tarpon along the beach, adding another sign of how much life is concentrated around Dauphin Island right now.

Cody expects the front-beach trout pattern to remain productive into September. Last year, his bite continued into mid- to late September before the bait disappeared and the fish moved away from the beach, forcing him to transition back toward deeper-water slip-cork fishing.

Products and gear discussed in this report included live croakers, No. 6 treble hooks, Kahle hooks for nighttime fishing, 25-pound fluorocarbon, 20- to 30-pound braid, seven-foot medium-heavy rods, live LYs, slip corks, and eighth-ounce jigheads.