Some of the bigger reds show up in Perdido Pass at Orange Beach each summer. Photo by Polly Dean.

It's pretty hard not to appreciate the beauty, power and stamina of hard-charging redfish hooked in shallow water. The strong pulsating runs and the brute strength of the red puts a smile on any angler's face. It's also hard to believe that up until 25 years ago the redfish was thought of as by-catch instead of the highly targeted species it is today.

Then an ingenious chef out of New Orleans came up with the recipe to blacken redfish and it started a craze that made the once lowly redfish into a superstar.

There were a couple of reasons the reds had such a small following before the blackening craze. First, the fish were difficult to clean with their tough scales protecting their bodies. Second, the redfish has a smaller yield of meat due to its skeletal structure and large head. With a smaller reward for the extra difficulty in cleaning compared with similar sized fish of other species, redfish were more of an afterthought while fishing inshore waters.

But the species' sporting qualities have now changed that view.

Along the Bama Coast in June, redfish are feeding heavily as waters warm and bait becomes more plentiful. Whether roaming over natural shell reefs, manmade reefs, pier pilings or grassy shorelines, redfish are eating machines this time of year.

Known for its fondness of crustaceans, such as shrimp and small crabs, the opportunistic redfish won't turn down an easy meal if it presents itself. This willingness to feed makes the redfish mighty popular to anglers looking to get their lines stretched.

The real beauty to redfish angling is their abundance and the multiple places where these battlers can be caught in and around Mobile Bay. Let's take a look at a few places to find the hearty redfish.

PLACES TO TARGET REDS
Dauphin Island is one of the best places to target redfish this month. Starting at Sand Island's east end, --located south of Dauphin Island -- anglers can get into great redfish action when the tide is moving swiftly. Redfish stack up in the current waiting to pick off an easy meal being swept by. Live shrimp or live croakers fished on the bottom both take reds waiting to ambush a meal in the strong currents.

Anglers can also catch redfish with gold or silver spoons fished while wading along the island's beach.

Moving north of Dauphin Island, there is a place known to local anglers as The Shoals. The Shoals are an abundance of shell material on the west side of Dauphin Island Bridge that has gathered over the years, forming small islands. These small isles are magnets to redfish patrolling the shells for shrimp and small crabs that are hiding in the debris. Known mainly as a great destination for speckled trout, the shell islands produce reds on a regular basis this month.