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Dauphin Island Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Alabama's barrier anchor: the rigs' inshore edge, flounder gigging lights and a fishing rodeo island guarding Mobile Bay's mouth.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
High 9:56 PM
Air / High
71 / 71 F
Wind
N 5 mph

Sources: NOAA tides 8735181, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Dauphin Island lines up a genuinely fishable day across the board. Today brings clear skies, wind N around 5 mph, steady pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 71. Tides: high 10:30 AM and 9:56 PM, low 5:35 AM and 2:19 PM: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 78 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:29 AM-11:29 AM and 9:56 PM-11:56 PM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Redfish (red drum)Excellent

Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled troutExcellent

Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

Tomorrow: Similar at 71 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Alabama requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $17.00 for residents, and salt water needs its own licence here. What a Alabama licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing redfish (red drum) here? Check the size and bag limits with ADCNR before you keep anything. The season dates for Alabama, read off the agency, are on the Alabama seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

Tides

NOAA station 8735181 (Dauphin Island). Fish the moving water either side of each change.

Fri
LOW5:35 AM0.8 ft
HIGH10:30 AM0.9 ft
LOW2:19 PM0.9 ft
HIGH9:56 PM1.2 ft
Sat
LOW6:54 AM0.6 ft
HIGH9:42 PM1.4 ft

Gulf Shores tide chart: the week and the month β†’

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp71 F
High / Low71 / 65 F
WindN 5-8 mph
Pressure1018.9 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:00 / 18:12
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~78 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Dauphin Island this week

The best day on Dauphin Island this week looks like Monday Oct 26, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Monday, Oct 26 β€” good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:29 AM-11:29 AM and 9:56 PM-11:56 PM
Minor period
3:50 AM-4:50 AM
Sun
07:00 to 18:12
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Clear, 15 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Dauphin Island: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Redfish (red drum) illustration

Redfish (red drum)

Best: late-summer and fall bull run; inshore all year

Red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), called redfish across the South, is a bronze inshore drum with a black spot near the tail, fished on grass flats, oyster bars, marsh creeks and beaches from the Chesapeake around Florida to Texas. Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled trout illustration

Speckled trout

Shallow bays spring and summer; deeper water in winter

Speckled trout is the anglers' name for the spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), a spotted member of the drum family that lives in shallow bays and estuaries from the Chesapeake to Texas. Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

When to come: the Dauphin Island calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Redfish (red drum)
Speckled trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 78 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~78 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Dauphin Island today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 71 F, wind to 11 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 71 F, wind to 13 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 72 F, wind to 18 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Alabama requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Alabama saltwater license. Trout/reds standard AL limits: check ADCNR marine. Rodeo week: plan far ahead.

Access

Billy Goat Hole ramp, island marina, fishing pier; Fort Gaines beach and Dixey Bar by boat.

About this water

Mobile Bay's barrier island, Mobile County, AL. Home of the world's largest fishing rodeo.

Fishing Dauphin Island: the full guide

The island station

Dauphin Island guards Mobile Bay's mouth: Alabama's barrier outpost, host of the country's largest fishing rodeo (July's ADSFR: a 3,000-angler institution), and the launch point for a fishery spanning bay, surf and the near-Gulf's rig forest. The island's fleet reads the water in every direction and rarely comes home clean.

Bay-mouth and the rigs

The bay's mouth churns with structure: Sand Island's shoals, the gas rigs' steel within sight of the beach (specks, reds, sheepshead, and the summer's king-and-cobia traffic), and Dixey Bar: the legendary bull-red bar off the island's east tip where fall schools stack in the current: the state's best big-red address.

Surf, sound and the back side

The Gulf-side surf runs pompano and whiting spring and fall (Fort Gaines' beaches), the Mississippi Sound's grass behind the island holds trout and flounder: gigging lights dot the summer nights: and the pier-and-bridge culture (Cedar Point, the island fishing pier) keeps the boatless in fish year-round.

Island practicalities

The public ramps (Billy Goat Hole, the marina) serve the fleet: the ferry to Fort Morgan crosses the mouth (an angling commute with a view): and hurricane rhythms reshape the west end continually: check access current. Rodeo week in July triples the island: the rest of the calendar, the fish outnumber everything.

Common questions

What is Dixey Bar?

The shoal off Dauphin Island's east end where fall bull redfish stack in the current: cut bait in October runs 30-40-pound fish boat-side in numbers. Alabama's premier big-red water.

When is the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo?

Mid-July: 3,000-plus anglers, every species on the board, the island transformed. Fish it once for the spectacle: fish the other months for the water.

Is fishing good at Dauphin Island right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Mobile Bay18 miGulf Shores24 miBiloxi47 miPensacola55 miEscambia River59 miPascagoula River61 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Tide predictions
NOAA CO-OPS 8735181 β€” Dauphin Island
Harmonic predictions, datum MLLW, local time. 8 high and low events returned for today and the next two days. A prediction, not a measured water level: wind and surge move the real thing.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 30.2500, -88.1100 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.