Mobile Bay / Fairhope AL area fishing guides

Shane Traylor with Bonafide Inshore Charters is another great option.

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Captain Patrick Garmeson with Ugly Fishing.

He is a native of the Eastern Shore and will put you on fish!!

Ugly Fishing

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I second this. Patrick knows the area.

Appreciate the recommendations

Patrick is the best fisherman in South Alabama period, but he is almost certainly booked for the summer.

If you want to leave from Fairhope area, Mike Dorgan is also very good and laid back guy and knows the area very well as his family has been there for like 200 years. 1-251-533-6964. Mike has a bay boat and a snapper boat.

On Dauphin Island you have Richard Rutledge who is excellent, 1-251-459-5077 as is Bobby Abescotto 1-(251) 661-7696 and the Ishee fleet. +1 (251) 591-1930.

Wilder Wing is also a young 23 year kid who grew up on Dauphin Island and was already one of the best fisherman on the island and he just got his charter license this year as well. He will likely be one the next great charter boat captains, as he lives to fish and knows the water like back of his hand. +1 (251) 581-4391.

Being totally honest with you mobile bay is terrible due to the constant fresh water excursion and none of them really fish it hard but fish around the South edges, the Mississippi Sound etc.

See link in 2nd post - Ugly Fishing

Patrick is always booked until Labor Day. But seriously it’s not like he is levels better than Richard, Bobby or Mike, you can limit out easy with any of them and have a bad day too. It’s more the conditions of the areas they fish more than anything else.

If you want to fish with Patrick go in the Fall when he has an opening, go on big bama weekend or something or during the week. The fishing is better anyway.

I am trying to get Wilder to start taking night fishing charters rn and I am sure he can take you at night if you want, (He has only been doing that for 15 years, read into that what you want lol)

Probably going to give him a bunch of my night fishing stuff soon.

What you don’t want to do is to do to be on DI and book Patrick, (Mike Dorgan will not do it anymore) or book Danny, Bobby, Ishee or Wilder from the Eastern Shore. They will either have to trailer their boat or take the 45 minute trip across the bay and then you are starting on by wasting their time and yours and making them launch in an area they don’t regularly fish and it’s really a Faux Pas. Dorgan won’t do it for this reason. He is going to only fish the waters he knows well, and doesn’t want to risk a bad trip. (Patrick can catch fish anywhere but you really need to meet your boat at his dock etc not make him an accommodations for you if you can.)

I am not saying this as a courtesy, I am just telling you if you don’t meet them close to their launch etc, you are taking a guide out of his regular routine, getting bait, getting up hour early and driving boat on trailer over bay etc, running across bay in Summer. So you just wasted hours of time that you could be fishing, and/or his level of knowledge on where fish are biting.

So if you book Richard, and he has been killing the fish every day or Wilder (and they both have, but it’s been in Mississippi Sound area which is 30 minutes or more East of Dauphin Island bridge), and you want to be picked up on the Grand hotel pier you are basically 1 hour 15 minutes or more from where they have been catching fish all week.

So they have a dilemma, (particularly if it’s not a full day trip), do they now shoot back to where they know fish are biting and hope they have enough time to do some good and miss the early morning bite or just try to catch some fish around where they picked you up. (That is depending upon weather etc)

Now Richard will probably call Patrick to see if he can give him some local spots to hit etc as this is in his turf, just like Patrick will do if he has to pick up someone at DI. But you have now lost the last week of fishing knowledge of your guide, and he may be fishing these spots for first time in a long while.

You may do great but you might as well as hired me as I call around too. You just took your guide away from his honey holes and greatly reduced your odds on having a good day for conveniences sake. It’s totally cool to do that but at least understand what you are doing. You may just want to go out on water and not care.


My advice, If you have to be picked up at the Grande Hotel or on the Eastern Shore use an Eastern Shore guide. If you want to be picked up on Dauphin Island use a Dauphin Island guide. it’s best to meet them where they buy bait or launch so they can get you to where they know fish are biting quickly

Give my guy a call. I have been fishing with him for 20 years. Capt William Manci 251-269-7463. This time of the year he is the best Triple Tail guide in the area