Sand in the Coffee, Vol. 89: how to walk past a surf fisherman

“Can we swim there? There’s a man with, like, four fishing poles.”

That question gets asked at every beach access from Johnson Beach to Alabama Point every single week, usually by somebody holding a boogie board and squinting. And the honest answer is yes, you can swim near him, as long as you understand what he’s doing, because right now you’re about to walk directly through it.

So let’s meet the surf fisherman. He’s the one person on this beach who isn’t on vacation and isn’t at work.

What all that equipment actually is

Those white tubes stuck in the sand are rod holders, PVC spikes he pounded in before you’d finished your first cup. The rods sit in them so he doesn’t have to hold ten feet of graphite for four hours. Each line runs out from the rod tip, across the wet sand, and into the water somewhere past the first sandbar. Sometimes past the second one. The weight on the end is a pyramid sinker that digs into the bottom and keeps the bait in one place while the current tries to move it.

He is not watching the water. He’s watching the rod tips. A whiting nibbles and the tip twitches. A pompano hits and the tip bows over like it’s been insulted. That’s the show, and he’s been running it since before sunrise because dawn on a rising tide is when the bite happens, and by ten the fish and the fisherman are both done for the day.

What’s on the end of the line

In early September, on both sides of the state line, it’s mostly this:

• Whiting. The honest fish. Small, polite, delicious, and there are a lot of them. If he’s got a bucket, this is what’s in it.
• Pompano. The prize. The best-eating fish a person can catch standing up, in my opinion, and the reason he owns a rod that long. They show up when the water starts to cool, so September’s early but not impossible.
• Redfish and bluefish. More of a fall thing. The bluefish have teeth and know it.
• Ladyfish. The one nobody wants. It jumps like it’s being paid to, then it’s a ladyfish.
• Hardhead catfish. The reason he’s wearing gloves and saying words your kids haven’t learned yet.

The bait is often sand fleas, which are not fleas. They’re the little gray egg-shaped crabs that bury themselves when a wave pulls back, and he dug them right there at the water line with a wire rake. If your kids have been digging at the wet sand and finding “bugs,” they’ve been collecting his bait. Shrimp and the artificial stuff work too, but the sand flea is the local’s move.

The one rule

Walk behind the rods. Always. Dry-sand side of the spikes.

Everything between the rod tip and the water is his line, angled out and hard to see, especially in low morning light. Walk between him and the Gulf and you’ll either clothesline yourself or snap his rig, and he’s going to be much nicer about it than he’s feeling. Go around the back, say good morning, keep walking. That’s the handshake.

A few more, in order of how often they get broken:

• Don’t set up right next to him. There’s a current that runs along the beach here, and his lines drift with it. Give him fifty yards if you can. On a September weekday you can give him two hundred.
• Swim beside, not in front. Straight out in front of his rods is where the hooks are. Thirty yards to either side is just the Gulf.
• The bait bucket is not an aquarium. Kids are drawn to it like it’s a magnet. Have them ask first. Almost every one of these guys will pull out a sand flea and let a seven-year-old hold it, and that seven-year-old will talk about it for the rest of the trip.
• Dogs and bait buckets are a known problem. Leash rules vary by access, and the National Seashore at Johnson Beach is strict about pets, so check the sign at the boardwalk before you commit.

What to say to him

“Catching anything?” is legal. Everybody says it. He’ll say “a few” whether he’s caught two or twenty.

If you want the real answer, ask “what are they biting on?” That’s the question locals ask, and it opens a door. Ten minutes later you’ll know the tide, the water temperature, where the trough runs, and which bait shop he doesn’t go to anymore.

One thing not to ask: whether it’s safe to swim with all the sharks. He will answer honestly. You don’t want that at 7 a.m.

The free intelligence you’re walking past

Here’s the useful part. He didn’t set up at random. He put those rods where the bottom drops into a trough close to shore, because that’s where the bait collects and the fish come to eat it. Which means his spot is also telling you where the deeper water sits near the sand today. Swimmers with little kids: notice where he is, and pick a spot well to the side where the water stays shallow longer.

And he’s the best flag reader on the beach. If the beach conditions say double red, nobody’s in the water, and he’s still standing there, that’s your answer about who this beach really belongs to at dawn. Yellow flag, he’s happy. Purple flag, he’s the one who’ll tell you exactly what’s in the water and whether it stings.

If you want to try it yourself

Two things before you buy anything. Florida and Alabama each require their own saltwater license to fish from the sand, they don’t honor each other’s, and the state line runs right through the beach at the Flora-Bama, so know which side you’re standing on before you cast. Florida residents can get a free shoreline license; visitors need the real one from the state website, and it takes five minutes on a phone. Alabama’s is a separate purchase.

Then go to a bait shop, not a big box. Say “I’ve never surf fished, what do I need,” and let them set you up with one rod, a couple of pre-tied rigs, a bag of frozen shrimp, and a rake. Ask what’s biting. Ask where. They’ll tell you, because a happy first-timer comes back and buys ice. We keep the running rundown on the fishing page if you want a head start.

Best first spots for beginners: the east end of Johnson Beach, where the road ends and the crowd thins, and the Orange Beach accesses at Cotton Bayou or Alabama Point, where the parking’s easy and there’s usually somebody nearby to copy. Stay away from the Pass itself when you’re new. The current through there is a different sport.

Before you walk down

Check the live cam around 6:30. If the Gulf is slick calm and glassy, the fishermen are down there and so should you be. If the water’s brown and stacked up from an overnight blow, they didn’t come either, and you’ve just been given permission to sleep in.

The surf fisherman will be there when the snowbirds show up in October. He’ll be there in January in a hoodie. He’s the most reliable feature of this beach that isn’t the water, and all he wants from you is a wide berth and a good morning.

Walk behind him. Ask what they’re biting on. That’s the whole thing.

— Chris

P.S. If you run a place on the Key or in Orange Beach and it’s on this site, it’s yours to claim — free, always: /submit/claim/