– Advertisement / Advertise with Us –

Alabama Saltwater Fishing Report for October 2 – 8, 2026

October 2, 2026

In this week’s Alabama Saltwater Fishing Report, host Butch Thierry and Angelo DePaola of The Coastal Connection cover a Gulf Coast fishery that is still holding onto late-summer water temperatures even as October begins. The episode features Capt. Cody Broughton of Smok’n Reelz, Capt. Richard Rutland of Cold Blooded Fishing, and David Thornton, The Pier Pounder.

Cody reports excellent live-bait yellowfin tuna action and a strong recent swordfish trip, Richard shares what he has learned while helping the University of South Alabama tag cobia and tripletail, and David explains why unusually warm water and limited bait around Gulf State Park Pier have delayed some of the fall patterns anglers normally expect by now. Across all three reports, the common theme is adjustment: work with the water and bait you have, pay attention to subtle signs of life, and be ready for patterns to change quickly as cooler weather arrives.

Conditions Recap

Early October still feels more like late summer along portions of the Alabama coast. Offshore, Capt. Cody Broughton found productive tuna fishing even in green water when cleaner blue water was too far east for a practical day trip. Live bait remained the key, and the fish were willing to eat despite water that did not look ideal on the charts.

Closer to Mobile Bay, Capt. Richard Rutland said cobia have been surprisingly consistent within roughly 20 miles of the mouth of the bay during a University of South Alabama tagging project. Tripletail remain more scattered and mobile, with productive areas changing between Mobile Bay, the Mississippi Sound, poles, buoys, and tide lines. Richard’s biggest advice is to cover water until a productive zone reveals itself, then slow down and work it more methodically.

At Gulf State Park Pier, David Thornton said the water temperature had recently been around 86 to 87 degrees, roughly four to five degrees warmer than the 20-year average at the nearby Orange Beach buoy. Water clarity has improved, but bait has been less abundant than anglers normally expect for this time of year. Spanish mackerel, slot redfish, speckled trout, whiting, flounder, and mangrove snapper are all available, but the classic fall migration pattern has not fully settled in yet. David expects a meaningful drop in water temperature to improve the pier and beach bite.

Offshore Tuna And Swordfish Report – Capt. Cody Broughton

Capt. Cody Broughton of Smok’n Reelz says late September and early October are among his favorite times of the year offshore, and recent trips have backed that up with yellowfin tuna and swordfish.

On one recent tuna trip, Cody left without an ideal satellite picture. Most of the clean blue water he could see was too far east for the type of day trip he was running, so he started close and fished the green water instead. The first stop immediately produced action, reinforcing one of his biggest points from this report: do not abandon a proven area simply because the water does not look perfect on a chart.

Cody’s preferred tuna approach is active live-bait fishing rather than trolling or traditional chunking. He throws several live baits behind the boat, sends a hooked bait back with them, and then uses additional live bait to keep fish engaged. Because he is often doing this from a center console with limited livewell capacity, he tries not to waste bait early. If the initial presentation does not produce, he increases the amount of bait he throws and adds more to the bait-chumming system.

Small greenbacks were the standout bait on his most recent trip. Cody also carried small hardtails, crazy fish, and sardines, but the greenbacks drew the most bites. He prefers to nose-hook his live baits so they can swim naturally while he moves the boat forward and works the school.

Leader choice can also make a major difference when tuna are eating the free baits but refusing hooked offerings. Cody specifically recommended Seaguar Gold Label fluorocarbon when the fish become leader-shy. He has gone as light as 40- to 50-pound leader in difficult situations, but on a recent trip with better water he was able to catch fish on 60-pound fluorocarbon. His preference is to fish the heaviest leader the tuna will tolerate so anglers can apply more drag and shorten the fight.

Swordfishing has also been productive. Cody described landing a swordfish measuring about 70.5 inches that he estimated at roughly 185 to 205 pounds. He was fishing two rods: a tip rod and a buoy rod. The fish apparently became interested in the buoy bait almost immediately, but the bite did not fully develop until later in the drift. Once the fish came tight, it produced a hard fight lasting around an hour.

For that swordfish setup, Cody uses a roughly 75-foot leader and pays close attention to where the fish is holding in relation to the leader and weight during the fight. He said the fish repeatedly stayed in the zone where the leader would come onto the reel and then pull back out, creating a nerve-wracking fight before the fish finally came to the boat.

Cobia And Tripletail Report – Capt. Richard Rutland Of Cold Blooded Fishing

Capt. Richard Rutland of Cold Blooded Fishing has spent much of the past two months helping the University of South Alabama with a cobia and tripletail research project. The team has been catching, tagging, sampling, and releasing fish to learn more about movement, habitat use, diet, and seasonal behavior.

The project uses acoustic tags placed inside the fish, along with external tags so recaptured fish can be identified. Richard said anglers who recapture one of the tagged fish can receive a $250 reward for returning the tag information. Researchers are also collecting fin clips for DNA work and fecal samples to study diet. Some fish have received satellite tags that can provide additional information about movement, depth preferences, and time spent near the surface.

Richard said the crew had caught roughly 100 to 120 cobia since the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, with much of their success coming within about 20 miles of the mouth of Mobile Bay. Live bait has clearly been the best approach. Earlier in the project they regularly cast-netted pogies, while more recent trips have involved catching hardtails, cigar minnows, crazy fish, Spanish sardines, and threadfin herring on Sabiki rigs.

One of the most important lessons has been that cobia can become very selective about bait. Richard has watched fish ignore one bait species and immediately eat another. Rather than betting everything on one bait, he prefers to catch a variety and let the fish show him what they want that day.

For cobia around ships, rigs, buoys, and other vertical structure, Richard keeps at least two free-line rods ready. Those are generally rigged with 40- to 60-pound leader and 5/0 or 6/0 Owner circle hooks. A knocker rig has also been especially productive. He commonly uses a 2- to 4-ounce weight and flips the bait close to the structure, then works it with a slow lifting and falling motion that combines a live-bait presentation with the feel of jigging.

Richard also shared a simple rigging trick for circle hooks. He cuts a rubber band into a single strand, ties it around the hook shank, and trims it to create a small stopper. That helps prevent the hook from sliding through and embedding back into the bait during a strike. He said the small adjustment has noticeably improved hookup percentages.

Another option is what Richard calls a down rod. He uses a 6- to 8-ounce weight, a swivel, and a long leader of roughly six to eight feet, then positions the bait at the depth where fish are appearing on the sonar. He will often reduce leader size to about 40 pounds on this presentation. Cobia frequently move throughout the water column, so a bait stationed at a specific depth can catch fish that never show themselves at the surface.

Tripletail have required a different approach. Richard says the biggest key is covering water until he finds a productive zone. He may search a six- to 10-square-mile area around poles, buoys, floating structure, and tide lines before a pattern becomes obvious. Once he finds a couple of fish, he slows down and works the surrounding area more carefully.

Small bait gathering around structure has been an important visual clue. Richard looks for little pogies, glass minnows, and other small forage around poles and buoys. When that life is present, he has more confidence that tripletail may be nearby.

Live shrimp worked very well earlier in the season, but spadefish, mangrove snapper, pinfish, and other bait-stealers eventually made shrimp difficult to use. Richard shifted to small pogies in the three- to four-inch range, which have stayed lively in the well and produced bigger tripletail. He has been finding those small pogies near the mouths of tidal rivers including Dog River, West Fowl River, and Bayou La Batre.

For tripletail around poles and buoys, Richard has been using a short slip-cork leader with a 4/0 circle hook and approximately 60-pound leader. The short leader makes it easier to keep the bait tight to structure without wrapping around the pole or buoy. In lighter current, he often hooks a pogie through the back to make it swim hard against the line. In stronger current, he hooks it through the nostrils so the bait tracks naturally with the flow.

Richard is also deliberately using heavier tackle when targeting bigger tripletail near structure. His spinning setups include a roughly seven-foot, 15- to 40-pound-class rod, a 4000- to 6000-size reel, and 40-pound braid. On conventional gear, he has been especially impressed with the Shimano Tranx 300 and 400, which he fishes with 65-pound braid and a very tight drag to turn large fish before they can reach chains, pilings, or other cover.

Tide lines have produced another strong tripletail pattern. Richard looks beyond the obvious foam line and searches for larger floating debris such as logs, buckets, and other structure. A five-gallon bucket floating in a productive tide line is one of his favorite things to find. He idles slowly, keeps the sun at his back when possible, and looks for baitfish, needlefish, ballyhoo, bay anchovies, and glass minnows. Even when a fish is not visible on a log, he will sometimes blind-cast a slip cork set four or five feet deep and let the bait drift alongside it.

Gulf State Park Pier And Beach Report – David Thornton, The Pier Pounder

David Thornton, The Pier Pounder, says the Alabama beach and pier fishery is waiting on a more substantial fall cooldown. Water temperatures around the Orange Beach buoy had recently been running about 86 to 87 degrees, which David said was roughly four to five degrees warmer than the 20-year norm for this point in the season.

That warm water appears to be one reason the Gulf State Park Pier has not seen the king mackerel and large Spanish mackerel activity anglers often associate with late September and early October. Another major factor has been the lack of bait. David has seen mullet, croakers, Atlantic bumper, hardtails, and blue runners, but not the large concentrations of sardines and other small forage that normally pull pelagics around the pier.

The most dependable bait recently has been small scaled sardines, commonly called LYs. David has been drifting and free-lining them live from different areas of the pier and has been able to catch Spanish mackerel along with other species. When the mackerel are stacked at different depths, he has noticed that smaller fish often hold higher while better Spanish may be underneath them. Letting the bait or lure drop below the smaller fish can create a shot at the larger mackerel.

Artificial options around the pier continue to include Rapala X-Rap lures, Got-Cha plugs, and bubble rigs. David said there was a short but productive flurry around daybreak on one recent morning, with several quality mackerel landed before the action abruptly stopped after sunrise.

Slot redfish have been one of the better recent surprises. David saw one day when roughly 25 slot reds were caught around the end of the pier, and fish have also been showing in the surf zone. Speckled trout remain in the mix as well, including fish around the beach and near the pier.

Flounder and mangrove snapper are present, although many have been undersized. Whiting are also beginning to show close to the beach, particularly during a falling morning tide. David has watched them feeding along the slope where the water quickly changes from roughly knee deep to chest deep, including fish rooting around ghost shrimp mounds.

For now, David believes the fishery is still in a transition period rather than a true fall pattern. Water clarity has improved significantly after a difficult summer, and the next major step should come when fronts finally push the water temperature down several more degrees. Once that happens, the remaining small jacks, hardtails, ladyfish, and other warm-water species should begin thinning out, while the more familiar October patterns become more consistent.