ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Rough surf and building swells off the Alabama coast put a damper on the fishing calendar this weekend, forcing the postponement of at least three fishing tournaments and prompting a wave of canceled charter trips out of Orange Beach.
Marine forecasters called for choppy conditions to worsen as the weekend wore on, and charter captains who normally run multiple trips a day found themselves watching radar and wave-height reports instead of loading coolers and rods. For an industry that depends heavily on a short, tightly regulated red snapper season, the timing could not have been worse.
“This weekend is supposedly booked up, if we can get the weather to cooperate,” said charter boat captain Nicholas Leiterman, who like many of his fellow captains was hoping conditions would ease enough to get boats out of the marina.
Alabama’s private recreational red snapper season runs only a handful of weekends each summer, and every day lost to weather cannot be made up once the season closes. That reality was on the mind of Thad Stewart, who works at Zeke’s Landing Marina in Orange Beach and spent part of the weekend calling customers to break the news that their trips were being scrubbed.
“You can’t get days back,” Stewart said, looking over a growing list of canceled charters. He estimated that two canceled trips alone represented around $7,000 in lost business for their captains — a reminder of how quickly bad weather can eat into a boat’s bottom line during peak season.
Not every angler was shut out, however. The Davidson family, visiting Orange Beach on vacation, managed to get out on the water before conditions turned and came back with a productive haul. The trip wasn’t entirely smooth, though.
“The fish was bitin’ good, it was a little bit rough goin’ on way out there. We had a little bit of sickness,” said Ryan Davidson, the family’s father. His son TJ Davidson had a harder time of it. “Until I vomited, yes I was good,” he said. Younger son Oliver Davidson, on the other hand, shrugged off the rough ride entirely. “I’m tough!” he said.
For charter captains, the calculus around rough weather is rarely simple. Many will watch conditions up until the last possible minute before deciding to cancel, weighing lost income against the safety of their crews and passengers. Leiterman summed up the mood shared by much of the local fleet as the choppy weekend dragged on.
“Mother nature, behave yourself,” Leiterman said.
With the red snapper season winding down and only a limited number of fishing days remaining, local marinas and charter operations are hoping for calmer seas in the days ahead so captains and anglers alike can make the most of what’s left of the season.