It’s May, and in a few weeks school will be out and summer will be here. Fish are on the move and if the wind works for you, the fish will be everywhere. If you’re at the south end of Mobile Bay, the flounder are moving on shore at a steady rate. If you want to fish flounder, try all the rocks at the lower end of the Bay as well as all the piers both up and down and any pillings you see in the water. Fish the rig legs as well. Channel marker pillings will hold flounder, too.

Use as small a weigh as you can to get the bait to the bottom. I use Carolina rigs with 1/2 to 1/4 ounce lead with a swivel and 15-pound test leader with a 2/0 khale hook. For bait, I like bull minnows first, live shrimp

second, and gulp baits last. All three are good, but I think live bull minnows are best. Always use a landing net and never net tail first. That can spook them and they can cut the line real quick if they run from

the net.

If you fish in the upper part of the Bay, use the same set up and bait but try to fish the entire piers by stopping at the end and casting as far as you can towards the bank. Crank in all excess line and lift your rod tip to raise the weight and bait and pull it towards you a few feet. Let it settle to the bottom for a few seconds and try it again and again until the line is at the boat. Then, do it all over again.

Sheepshead will still be on all the close-in gulf rigs as well as the Bay rigs. Stout lines and rods with a chunk of lead and a ciccle hood with fiddler crabs or live shrimp will do the trick. Put the bait on the bottom and crank it up like a snapper rig a few feet off the bottom. These fish bite soft but pull like a train when hooked. Their dorsal fins are fierce weapons and can

really ruin a fishing trip. Landing nets are also needed for these fish.

Black fish will also be around in good numbers. Fish all the channel markers, rig legs, crab-trap markers, floating boards and other trash, as well as attracters that some fishermen put out. If you put these out, be

sure to make them well with bright tape and buoys. Pick them up at the end of the day so that boat bottoms and shrimp nets do not come in contact with the attractors.

White trout will also be on the move into the Bay. Some will stay off shore around the gas rigs, as well. These fish have no creel or size limit. Catch all you want, but clean and eat all you catch. A Carolina rig with a 2/0 khale and 1/2 lead on 12-pound test line fished on the bottom works well. Try the light house off shore as well as those near by gas rigs, then move inshore to those gas rigs, then move to the inshore reefs and try around the edges of these reefs for schools. For the past three years, I’ve loaded my fish box down with white trout at Katrina Cut on the west end about 30 feet from the rocks in 10 to 12 feet of water. They will even bite a bare hook if the school is thick. Great fun and a great meat trip.

Also this month, the bull red fish will be on the Dixie Bar thick as fleas. All you need is a boat plus 30-pound test on a good spinning rod with a 6,000 or 8,000 reel rigged with a Carolina rig using 2-ounce lead, 40- or 50- pound test leader, and a 7/0 khale hook baited with a live 8-inch pogie or croker. (or a guide). Then drift the deep water northeast of the sand bar (on an out going tide). Continue your drift over the sand bar as well and wait for the tug. Always net red fish as you’ll most likely release the fish.

These bull reds are the basis for our redfish population in Alabama. Plus the leadership in Alabama’s Marine Resourses, our Marine Police and

Marine Biologists, work hard to keep red fish populations healthy. All we need to do is comply with the laws and release all the red fish that we can and make sure that they swim away, belly down, to fight another day.

While on the Dixey Bar, you may hook a king mac, a cobia, or a drum. All are fun to catch and are caught using the same bait and tackle. Speckled trout are the top inshore sport fish and are caught using live crokers, live shrimp and most all types of artificial baits on both ends of the Bay. Shallow waters allow you to use popping corks and deep water allows you to use slip corks.

All in all, this month is a great month to be on Mobile Bay. Always obey the rules, watch your wake and stay safe.

Feel free to visit me, Don Holloway, at BackBayFishingWithDon.com.