Well, after a 12 hour trip home (I 65 was a nightmare and I 10 was, too) and a busy, great Sunday yesterday, I finally have a minute or two to upload a few pics from our week. I had all five of my kids and all 10 grandkids in Orange Beach last week to celebrate our 40th anniversary. Now that alone made for a special time, but add in the pier experiences and it was a significant icing on our cake. We got up every morning at 4 AM for the trip over, and most mornings stopped by J&M first. Every time I'm around that place I marvel at the overall class of JohnG, his family, and his staff. It's an example of what an outdoor store should be -- hands down the best fishing store I've ever been in. Even at 5 am they are friendly and helpful (even when I couldn't find a ribbon rig right where they said it was).
We fished until 10ish every day, Monday through Friday. We caught good fish every day and lost kings every day. Some were sharked, some we lost from being inexperienced. One son and one son-in-law had never fished the pier with me before and the both caught kings.....big kings. We had broke lines, ate through leaders, inexplicable hook pulls, and several fish sharked. Tuesday was our slowest day, but a guy with a different color xrap (olive, the one JohnG says is the best) hooked up five times. Thursday was fairly slow but we still hooked up on some good fish -- just didn't put any on the deck. Wednesday and Friday were our best mornings with multiple kings and multiple king hook ups. Friday was the best king run I've seen in Gulf Shores since the fall of 2015. I think, if we could have stayed, that we would have caught several more and busted them off. I did that on a couple of hook ups myself. Thanks to you all who made this trip so great...and to our Lord Who "gives us richly all things to enjoy."
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