Little Lagoon - Gulf Shores, AL
 

Just curious if anyone has fished this area before. My wife and I are taking a vacation down there in late July and have a house for a few days right on the Little Lagoon which just so happens to be a similar brackish water environment that I fished a lot growing up in south Florida for redfish, snook, seatrout, etc so I'm super excited to fish that water again. I promised my wife that if I bring the kayak I'd only fish one day lol but it will be a FULL day.

While this place is too far North for Snook, this water is full of redfish, seatrout, flounder, and snapper. Hopefully we can have some very fresh seafood for dinner one night! Let me know if you've been there before. Otherwise, I hope to have a good fishing report to post in about 5 months!

Used to fish the mouth where it dumps into the Gulf a lot before the last hurricane. When the tides are moving you can catch just about anything. Caught a lot of redfish there. I know they did some major dredging and work on it. Have only fished the lagoon a couple of times w/ limited success. Go to Gulf Shores Pier Fishing forum. Lots of info there. Lots of stuff hidden so you need to register.

The furthest west I've fished in the panhandle is Destin. Let me know when you are going, right before hand and I can hook you up with some people.

That would be awesome Jeremy, thanks! I'm going to try and make another trip down there later in the Summer and this one will be a hardcore fishing trip, leave the wife and dog at home. I'd like to get a few of the kayak crew to come along so I'll let you know if/when I can go back. There is a lot of really nice lodging right on the lagoon that split between a few people wouldn't be too costly. 3-4 days of floating along flats chasing redfish, I think so!

I fished some in Orange Beach, AL last year then poked around at future opportunities.

I'd probably fish the Gulf side. We had a condo on Wolf bay just east of there and it was pretty barren for a long way in bottom contour. You will probably find some croaker, some form of trout and sailcats as they seem to be every where. The jetty that is on the west side of Perdido Pass Bridge pointing towards the gulf is a great place to fish out on the end. Berkley Gulp and a jig head or three way will probably keep you hooked up.

For food...if you haven't try Lambert's on the main drag into Gulf Shores (not on the beach) instead on the south bound road heading to the ocean. That was a high point. Ribs and Red's over in Gulf Shore's was over prices not really worth the food a low point. The Hang Out is a really cool place to get live entertainment and if you care to wait probably decent food (long waits).

Let me know the general area at the Lagoon you will be fishing and I will pm you a Navioncs screen shot with depths if you want. It looks like it's a pretty uniform depth. On the Gulf side there's some good contour swings up by the beach which should give way to decent sunrise fish cruising shore.

Travis I never even thought about my Navionics app until you mentioned it. Looks like no depth detail is given for that area though. Either that or it's all very flat, even out in the middle. I've talked to a few on a gulf shores fishing forum and they basically confirmed my suspicions based on research and having fished that type of water growing up. It's pretty clear that this area isn't the spot for a trophy redfish. There are a lot in there, but not large ones. That's fine though. Just for sentimental value, it would be a big deal for me to finally catch another one. It's been 14 years. No snook that far North either.

The place is loaded with specks and flounder, great table fare. Also plenty of jacks which I've eaten and they don't taste bad but they're really just fun for the impressive fight they give you. Berkly Gulp shrimp baits, large curly tails, and some paddletail swimbaits will work great for all species. No need to buy an entire separate tacklebox full of saltwater gear. I'll get those, maybe a couple Johnson Silver Minnow spoons (those were my absolute go to on redfish down in Flamingo) and I'll bring some topwaters just in case.

Too bad there are no Snook that far north. This is the first year you could keep a Snook. The freeze took it's toll on them 3 years ago and the season closed.

Hope you get into them Jimmy.

From the looks of the layout, I am willing to bet that a lot depends on how much flow comes or goes through that small canal inlet. Better check your tides on the day your fishing it as timing may make or break the day.

My family has gone to the "West Beach" area of Gulf Shores every summer for the last 5 years, and we always stay on the Lagoon side so that we have access to both bodies of water.

In this area, you have 4 really great and cheap options - fishing the lagoon, fishing Little Lagoon Pass (that's the channel under the bridge connecting the Lagoon to the gulf), surf fishing on the beach, and going to Gulf Shores State Park Pier. As a previous poster said, I recommend going to the GSSP Pier forum and reading lots of posts about what's going on. There are forums on there that aren't dedicated solely to the pier, with fishing reports that even include Little Lagoon.

As far as the specifics of fishing the Lagoon, I have done OK by bringing a cast net with me and catching baitfish that I've used on a "Carolina" rig with a 1/0 Kahle hook. Many of the places that you can rent have fishing piers on them. Some of them are lit at night, so night fishing is actually pretty common for specks and flounder. A lot of sting rays are caught in the lagoon as well, and I've caught a handful of cats, but never a shark. There are small redfish that cruise the lagoon. I've seen a bull red that easily topped 20 lbs cruising the pass, but i'm not sure how far into the Lagoon they venture. The channel extending from the pass into the Lagoon (or out of it) gets fished fairly heavily, for good reason. I would definitely check that area out with your kayak.

My family and I will be in the area the week of July 12-22nd this year, so perhaps I'll see you around. Best of luck!

Just got back from a week of fishing in the Gulf Shore's area. I fished a day in the lagoon when the winds kicked up too much to fish the bigger water. As mentioned, the inlet is always good. I also like the west end for reds. Since you're kayaking, I'd also fish Alligator lake, it's just west of the lagoon. I'm going back in June ... I love that area!

The beach fishing is also great if you can catch a calm day...usually can if you have a north/northwest wind. A south wind...forget about it!

I went back to Little Lagoon Pass about 3 weeks ago (just before the big flood hit) for a quick trip. We hit the GSSP pier for the first day, and fished the pass the following morning.

We caught a handful of black drum that averaged 2 lbs each (VERY tasty) and a couple decent bluefish in less than an hour, then the bite shut off.

For the drum, we were bouncing fresh dead shrimp pieces on a pompano rig along the bottom in the current.

The bluefish were on a jerkbait and a spoon, also fished in the current.

We got no bites from the surf, but didn't try that hard since the bite in the current was more active.

The pier bite was slow, but the GSSP pier forum (register on there to read the fishing reports) is saying that the bite has picked up some in the last few days.

Can you still get to the mouth where it enters Little lagoon? I heard there was no place to park. I will be there July 4th. If it was anything like last year I probably won't leave the beach where we are staying.

Not sure, we launched at the public ramp on the north side of the lagoon.

Glad to see this thread come back alive with good advice. I really appreciate all the information. As of now, my plans are to fish 2 or 3 times in the early morning before sunrise until maybe 9 or 10. I'm really looking forward to this vacation, not only for the fishing, but the vacation is a much needed one for me and my wife. Maybe I'll get a group of kayakers together in the late summer/early Fall period and we can make a hardcore fishing trip down there for 3-4 days.