I'll be down there with the fam next week and will be doing my best to slip out and wet a line early in the mornings before the wife and chirrens wake up. Is anything biting off the beach? I'll be keeping it simple - M/MH action spinning gear with carolina rigged gulp scrimps or crabs. What say the experts - any reds to be found off the beach early/mid October? Anything I should be doing different? I honestly don't care too much what I catch...If it's got fins it's a good fish. I'd just like for something to tug on the line while I watch the sun come up over the water...

Thanks in advance.

Me too....We leave tomorrow for 5 days...all I've done is watch videos and read up on how to catch something while I'm there.

In my best Jeremy Wade voice' "Put a bait in the wata"

I don't know about from the beach, but last Sunday morning there were some reds being caught from the pier between the beach and the midpoint. There were lots of sharks also around the pier.

Carolina rig with a kahle hook and fresh cut shrimp.

If you catch a croaker, cut it into chunks and put it on a bigger hook and throw it deep.

Check pensacolafishingforum.com

I follow "Bama Beach Bum" on facebook/instagram....he's a youtuber-turned-fishing-guide doing mostly surf fishing....they've been catching a little bit of everything lately. I suggest looking him up on Facebook/Instagram/Youtube.

Humongous ladyfish are in the surf. The surf also has the normal array of stuff that some like to catch. Small Sharks are everywhere. Trout are nowhere to be found except the gas rigs in the daylight but ok at night on lights. The bull reds must be offshore spawning. They aren't on Dixie bar in any appreciable numbers and not in there normal bay places either for October 3. They have shown up the last 4 years out of the dark between Oct 7 and 11. menhaden are waiting for the bulls to eat them.
I have been doing really good on slot reds pretty much wherever the wind has let me fish the last 6 weeks.
Best bet as of today is the GSPP...slot reds and Spanish there most days.
Discaimer...this is all subject to change in 4 days but not bad in it's own right.

Good report, thank you.

What are the reds being caught on off of the pier?

Should be some bull redfish starting to show up along the beach. Use cut mullet, live bait, etc.... Whiting should be biting. Use peeled shrimp on a carolina or two-hook pompano rig.

Who can recommend a hotel to stay near ft Morgan that I can park with a boat ?

Don’t know of any hotels on Fort Morgan road. Just condos and rental homes. Kiva Dunes has plenty of parking. Not sure about Martinique or the Beach Club.

Houses can be cheaper than the hotels down that way. We rented one in November for a $100 a night

We used to catch some huge bluefish off the beach out there in the fall. Don't know if they still run like that or not. Caught several over 10 lb.s. Have caught reds, trout, ladyfish, jacks, sharks, sting rays, blues, spanish, and even bonito out there.

What can be a boatload of fun down there is throwing a gotcha at night under the bridge at perdido pass. We have caught bluefish and ladyfish on every cast until we just didn’t want to catch anymore