Offshore fishing with Captain Spencer Kight of DI Reef Monster.

Listen as George and Lisa talk with Captain Spencer about their recent offshore fishing charter.  Captain Spencer Kight tells us about fishing off the Alabama shores, how he got started and why you should come fishing in Alabama.

DI Reef Monster link
Charter Dauphin Island Offshore Fishing | Dauphin Island, AL | D.I. Reef Monster (direefmonster.com)

Transcript

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Lisa RichartHernandez  

Hi, welcome back to RView. We've got a great show for you today. We have Spencer from DI reef monster down here at Dolphin Island. He's going to tell you all about our offshore fishing trip. So stay tuned.

intro  

Welcome to RView with your hosts George and Lisa Hernandez each week listening as George and Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. Georgia and Lisa travel in their 40 foot Class A tip and motorcoach and tow their Jeep Wrangler, always looking for fun and adventure.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Hi, welcome back to RView. I'm Lisa RichartHernandez.

George  

And I'm George Hernandez.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

And we have a great guest with us today. We're super happy to have him here we have Spencer Kight from di reef monster. So I know we've talked about this in our previous podcast and told you that we are working down in Alabama near dolphin Island. And we not dolphin Island D au p h i n when people get that confused at Dolphin Island. And we wanted to experience offshore fishing which is something that the people that are owners in the resort and renting and their fishing is a huge thing around here. So we thought we'd try it out. So welcome Spencer, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Spencer Kight  

Thank you all for having me as first time doing something like this, so just excuse my excuse my dialect and all that, you know, I'm from the south. I'm very, very southern.

George  

So we'll translate later. Yeah,

Spencer Kight  

we'll work on that. But yeah. Run offshore charter. Dauphin Island, Alabama. Originally in Mississippi got started with inshore fishing and man I just can't you know, dip my toe in the deeper water and the deeper water and next thing I just got way out there and love it. And I can put more people on the boat meet more people they see cooler things, catch cooler things and this just enjoy that part of it. We also do some sightseeing. We also move into inshore occasionally I try not to do that because we have a lot of great inshore charters, but when they get booked up we can't go off shore because weather or something we do fall into that so how can so it's something to look at.

George  

How long have you been doing this?

Spencer Kight  

I'm a sports fan type of guy. outdoor stuff I've been doing my whole life more so I was in a hunting when I was younger, but the fishing side of it probably my late 20s Getting into the saltwater stuff. The like I said I cut my teeth through an inshore out of Mississippi and yeah, I got my captain's license in 2018 reasoning behind it was just never know what you can do with that. did have the, you know, the outlook they one day I would be you know, have a Charter Business. Whether it be inshore or offshore, to be able to share what I see. I mean, people just take for granted what's out there. I mean,

George  

yeah, man. We had a great time when we went out with you.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

It was incredible. Yeah. So sore are still sore from two weeks ago fishing. I never really did. So when he says literally, like, I mean, I was like stop eating. I can't pull another one and my arms are broken.

Spencer Kight  

It's a lot of action. I mean, that's, I guess that's the that's the difference from inshore and offshore is the amount of action you can get. You know, you go in shore errs casting and it's it can be slow. When you go offshore, I can take you somewhere and we're just like you've seen you know, we're just hovering over a reef even though you can't keep the fish you know, sometimes they're out of season or whatever, and it's still a blast. Yeah, yeah, you're steadily really not fish if you know what you're doing. You got the right equipment and all that I'm not just saying that anybody can go out there and do it. Right right. It was once you got the hang of that everybody's gonna say busy.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Well, that's what I was wondering because I have been offshore fishing before and caught like absolutely nothing or like three fish all day long. And I think we must have caught like 100 my arms felt like I mean, it felt like you literally put the bait and it was like, instantly we're reeling in a fish is that normal.

Spencer Kight  

i Our rule of thumb is is after five minutes, nothing, then we roll. Yeah, we move on. We don't. I mean, we want y'all to continuously be in doing some and a smile on your face. So let's say the customer is not smiling. Or you can tell after a while, you know, says,

George  

Yeah, you can tell, even when the customer is like, Alright, let's move on. Yeah, if you're catching on a fish, that'd be like, yeah,

Spencer Kight  

you'll have that to where I mean, they're like, Dude, I want to do something else. Right, right. And I'm like, What do you want to do? You want bigger? You want smaller? Are you tired? You wanna go ride around? Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  

yeah. I was like, No, I can't even hold a rock. Yeah.

George  

Well, Lisa was pretty much ready to give up. But she was a trooper, she kept going.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

And like, so for me. I felt like all the fish like these were these big, beautiful pink like snapper was what we were catching. Right? And I was like, wow, this is awesome. And you're like, Ah, it's a throw that went back. And I'd be like, what, like, what else are we going to catch in here? Yeah, so not used to that

Spencer Kight  

will be in the snapper. Wow, to season when y'all when we That's why you weren't catching the big ones. Because when the snapper season's in, we know where to go to catch bigger fish. And that's our goal. Even though Hey, after a while, hey, you need to start keeping the ones that are in the slot limit. But hey, everybody wants a big fish for a pitcher. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  

well see, I thought they were all overly like, I used to catch it.

Spencer Kight  

That's That's great. It is great to feel that pool and all that but explaining the people especially your your freshwater fishermen. Yeah. Okay. You're fighting a fish that lives in the water was sharp, barracuda. Even the other fish are trying to eat them. You know, a snapper is trying to eat the snapper. So they're like, sitting there trying to survive. Yeah, plus, you got current. You got current through there, and they're swimming 24/7 in current. It's not like they sleep or nothing. Yeah. So they're extremely powerful. So you're trying to pull this thing out of the water that it has to survive day after day with some trying to kill it. And then you're pulling across this current that's going through the water. Yeah. And yes, it is a

George  

survival of the fittest. Yes. Right.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Well, I just I mean, for me, it was amazing. Because like I said, I've been on fishing trips before and I relate it to baseball. You know, you can go I don't like to really watch baseball half the time. It's pitcher catcher. Yeah, pitcher catcher. And then once in a while I get a grand slam you like yay, that made the whole day. But this was like all day long, like, hit after hit.

Spencer Kight  

Probably liable to volleyball. Yeah, yeah. It's just costly pain. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I mean, I was not prepared for that at all. So to me, it was amazing.

George  

Well, that's, that's why when when I talked to Spencer, I knew we were on the right track, because one of his questions was, what do you guys want to do? Not um, let's go fishing. Do you guys want to catch big fish? Do you want to catch little fish? Do you want to catch a meat haul? Or do you just want to have fun? I can take you to different places. So he gave us options. It wasn't just like, okay, get on the boat. Let's go. We're gonna go fishing. Here's the fish. Let's go. We're gonna go. You know, the whole day was a blast.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Literally, like, honestly. And I'm not a morning person. So when George when we had to get up, you know, before the sun came up, I was just like, oh, man, what have you gotten us into? When I got down there. And this just so even a boat ride. I was watching that sunrise. Your boat is beautiful. The it was just, I mean, I fell asleep on the way back in a beanbag chair. I've been going over these huge waves like super fast in the ocean. And I was out cold. Like, that's how relaxed and awesome it was. Yeah. And

George  

his boat is super comfortable. It's what kind of boat.

Spencer Kight  

So 31 twin V. It's a catamaran. That's where the comfort comes in. Yeah, just how it lands on the water. And beanbags are like, awesome. I have to tell customers all the time, they want to go and get on the front of the boat. That's the worst. And I'm like, Guys, the best rides on go and be on the bike. I know, everybody wants to go to the front of the boat because I get that wind and, you know,

George  

you get tossed around. Yeah.

Spencer Kight  

Yeah, don't take much of a wave to you know. Yeah, just the way the boats work. I mean, yeah, well, I

Lisa RichartHernandez  

mean, we and we were hauling ass out there. I mean, we were going pretty fast. Like,

Spencer Kight  

I mean, it seems like you're going fast when you're on water. But if you really look at it, you're only doing like, 35

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Well, I know. But like going out to the ocean. It seemed like we were just Yeah, and we're listening Great, great music.

Spencer Kight  

Oh yeah, gotta have you gotta have music when you're leaving out at sunset, sunrise, got the sunrise going and your light is coming up. And there's nothing better than been seeing that. And well, back to what we were talking about earlier said something about, uh, about the fish inside of in the options and everything. A lot of it is just going in for the adventure of it. Right, right, right. And just say things. You never know what you're going to see. I I'm still them as much as I'm on the water. As much as I'm on a boat. Every day, I can be amazed by something even though I've seen it before. Right? I see it again. I'm like, you know, just just like, These people don't see this every day. I know.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Right? Like the dolphins coming up to the boat like we live it. You know, we're from Charleston, South Carolina. So often all the time. We see dolphins all the time. It's every single time. It's still so freaking cool that they're right there. You know, and just just incredible. And then I'm still like, the fish that we caught was like,

George  

so I want to bring in that damn shark that was totally macro.

Spencer Kight  

Yeah, we ever were not friends with sharks have. We got a lot of people are gonna catch a shark and I'm like,

George  

What a waste?

Spencer Kight  

What are we gonna do with it? I mean, right, right. Oh, you're gonna you're gonna fight it for a while. You get it up to the bottom and we're like, okay, you're not bringing me into my boat. Hopefully we'll get a picture of it. But after that, I'm cutting that line. He's not coming in.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

We never really saw what cut all of our lines. He said it was sharks. But I'm I'm certain it was a great whale or something under there because I could not move that.

Spencer Kight  

What's interesting, you said, Well, I don't know if I told y'all. Last year. I wasn't far off shore. I don't know if I was in 100 foot of water. I was running with a customer. And I passed a shark. I'm not I'm not I'm sorry. A whale. Really? I real? I mean, Oh, well. And I had to stop turn around. You said a while ago you went to sleep. That doesn't mean the decade don't go to sleep either. So the decade was asleep at that at that moment. And I turn around welcome. You know, you know I didn't want to tell the customer that you know what I thought it was right. And I want to verification. firm that. Yeah, like freaking oil. But are there whales over here? Yeah. Yeah. It's just uncommon to be that close in. Yeah, we were pretty. I almost say were you in 20 miles. And when I turned around he rolled over a you know how they shoot the water. Shoot the water. I don't know what to call it breathing. But it didn't do that kind of rolled over and aside and that confirmed I said there's nothing that big out here. Wow. But oil and went outside. It was going so I got I got three three other people that saw it. So I mean, I'm like, yeah. Really? Never know what you're gonna say? Yeah, yeah. Other seen a lot of military boats out there or ships or whatever. We're close to Eagles ship your mobiel. Ohio. They somewhere in there. They're building some military ships. So you don't know you're gonna see some of them out there and see trials.

George  

Generally talk either we saw flying fish. Yeah. Obviously all the fish that we caught. Yeah, the oil rigs is always a weird one for because we don't have anything like that in Charleston. So. So I didn't realize that they were so close to the

Spencer Kight  

so that's a misconception. Those are actually gas rigs. There's a natural gas rigs. You don't really get into all rigs until you get way off. Okay, so. So in, I try to tell customers that you know about, hey, come look at my screen. So, you know, y'all saw my screens? I got to Yeah, big garments. And I can actually show you the pipelines where they actually connect. Oh, okay. Right. So, underneath the water, there are pipelines that connect to each one of them. And if y'all notice, you probably saw a flame off some of them. Yeah. Okay. So that's what they're doing. I I wish I knew more about it. I do have chemical background and stuff like that. But I don't want to say the wrong thing. Somebody Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Yeah, I've

Spencer Kight  

got some knowledge, but not this is where they're fracking. I'm just saying that.

George  

You're not enough to tell us that it's natural gas. Yeah.

Spencer Kight  

Not all I do go to old platforms. As for tuna fishing, it's closer to Louisiana. So that's around 70 Miles 60 and 70 miles. So

George  

how far out did we go when we went with it? We

Spencer Kight  

only went 40 miles. Okay. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

So tell you just said something about tuna fishing. And when we when we went to the pool party someone had just bought a tune up fresh tuna. Yeah which let me just say like, honestly, this so we had a little cookout with Spencer and he took the fish that we caught it made it into the VJ. Oh yeah. Oh my God does the fresh fish is this there's nothing like in Georgia is not a big fish person. And so, you know, I think the hell out of yeah, having that fresh was just incredible. So that's like one of the cool things also about about doing the fishing. But what about like what, like you said, tune over here like is there different seasons? Like if you're coming to visit? What different fish are you gonna catch in different seasons?

Spencer Kight  

So oh, what you're talking about what Tina Turner is always out there. But it's how far out there they are in? Are they gonna be kind of concentrated? How easily they're gonna be the cage. If a customer wants to go tuna fish, and it's in mid July. Not good. I mean, because they're gonna be further out they're gonna be more spread out in that's a lot of money to spend and maybe not catch what you went after. Now we've we've have a pop off file. Hey, look, they're not here is get oh, yeah, we'll cut that off and say hey, let's just go date drop. And you know, let's let's go catch some group. Are you still got your other fish that are in season snapper and all that. We'll get that on our way in. But I try to tell give them give me a real answer that everybody's crazy about to everybody. Yeah. And there are certain times a year that they're more prevalent, I listless go when it's easier to catch him.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

And when is the best time for tuna? Well, um,

Spencer Kight  

you have what we call a lump season. And that's a late February March, maybe early April. It's not that far to go 70 miles. We've we've gone all the way through mid May and made made two trips within 70 miles. You got 70 Miles is if you got a boat, this roading? You know, I try to stay around 3540 miles. So it's like four hours to get out there. So if you're doing 35

Lisa RichartHernandez  

to two, oh, how long does it take us to get out? an hour?

George  

You know? Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I was only that one.

George  

Maybe an hour and a little bit of hours. The first part of your ride is slower than when you actually hammered down.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So two hours out, okay.

Spencer Kight  

You just got to look at you know, what is your weather condition? I mean, if we're going out, we got to three foot waves. You don't want to go 70 miles. I mean, my boat rods really good. But you don't want to go 70 miles. So it's Look, you're here on your vacation. This is you're not going commercial fishing. Right? You're not doing this for your job. I do this for my job. I don't want to do that. I mean, it's a you're here to have a good time in that's that's something I pride myself own about that. Hey, it's not it's not gonna be comfortable for you. Right? And I won't. I don't want just to get paid. I want you to be happy with the product that you got this. People, people some people work all year for one vacation. Yeah.

George  

Right. Exactly.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Yeah, and that's such an I really

Spencer Kight  

take that to heart because I'm a working man. Yeah. I come on blue collar guy. And so I understand that, hey, some people when they go on trips, this is their trip. Yeah. You got some people that I've taken people that were was sick. And this was their last last hurrah, last hurrah. And do in if it's bad. Oh my God, I feel terrible. You know, yeah, I just so that's something that's, that's, that's our business motto, that I'm going to make sure you're comfortable. I'm going to make sure that you're gonna have the best trip. I'm gonna do my best to make sure you have the best trip. Yeah, I'm not there to take your money. I am there to make you have a good time. Or try to have a good time.

George  

You did that with us. So we were the first time I spoke to Jennifer the first time then I finally spoke to you. And you asked me how long are you going to be here? And when I told you we were going to be here for a couple of months. You were like Okay, great. Let me look at the calendar. I'll let you know when the There's going to be great. And if you're flexible, I'll pick a really nice day for you. So you enjoy it. And I was like, this is the guy because, you know, some other people would be like, yeah, we'll go tomorrow. Yeah. And it could be choppy as hell gonna have a terrible time to get seasick. And at the end of the day, it's going to be a reflection of you, because then I'm going to write a review saying, Oh, my God, I got seasick, it was terrible. And you know, and

Lisa RichartHernandez  

even though all of that's not even under your control,

George  

you know, it's like all, like, all the crazy reviews that Lisa loves reading reviews. And, like, I can only imagine somebody, you know, you take somebody out, and it's a little choppy, and they write, oh, my god, the captain didn't tell us that we're gonna be waves in the ocean.

Spencer Kight  

I've gotten up in the morning. And actually, like, put the boat in the water. We're at the marina, and I'm watching the flags. So something you learn when you do this, when you get up, you can you can feel things, you hear things, you can walk outside, and I can hear the wind go through the trees, and I don't, I don't hear things out into the goal flight, the rig sounding or a boat, or whatever, I might not good. You know, right off the bat, but I still go, I still go, you know, do my whole process and all that. And I'm, I'm looking at all my apps, I'm looking at everything say what the conditions are? Because we all know, weather is never better than what they say it's always worse. Yeah, you're not gonna have like, a good day of weather. Yeah, better than what they forecasted. It's always gonna be what they said or worse. So I get on the water, I go to the marina. And I'll sit there and hey, we got a little time, I'll go ahead and call the customer and say, look, it's a little windy. Or we got some rain out there in this that another I'm like, Go him love No, just case. They got a little drive or, you know, they're a little hungover we get with our vacation or you know, everybody's having a good time. That's what they're here for given their vacation. Yeah, so I try to forewarn them for they get there and they get there. And we'll talk about it again and said, Look, we'll go out a little ways. If after a certain point, you know, I'll say, Look, I'm the captain. I'll turn this by around in a heartbeat if it gets by. Yeah. So you know, I tell them all of that. But the main goal is is a Hey, guys. It's not going to be an enjoyable for you. I'm not going to take you Yeah, in that's that's what we do. Yes, I've gone out there. Perfect day, in middle of the day, all of a sudden, we get a squall come up, and it turns by then. I mean, I'm getting you back in safe and all that right in.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

It happens. Yeah. I mean, that happens anywhere you're at. I mean, yeah. I mean, it's funny, like, you know, I told you, we're from Charleston. So we kind of have a lot of same thing onshore offshore, and, like, we can be on one river and the sunshine and, and be on another river and they got torrential rain and thunder and lightning. And you know, in the same town, practically,

George  

when we had our boat, we just have a 48 foot cabin cruiser. And when I first got the boat, I was just to look at the apps and I'd say to Lisa, man has a 20% chance of rain. And she goes yeah, and it's an 80% chance of sunshine. I don't like Okay, you're right, you're right. We just got to avoid the rain.

Spencer Kight  

The funny thing about that? Do you understand what percentage of rain means? I used to think it was, you know, that's the chance of it raining.

George  

Right doesn't mean it's gonna rain.

Spencer Kight  

It's the it's the in the area you are. That's how much rain you're gonna have in the area. 20% of that area is gonna have rain.

George  

Right, right. So find the 80% that doesn't Yeah,

Spencer Kight  

yeah. So I'm glad you said that. Because when you have rain in the Gulf, the Gulf is huge. Yeah. You

George  

got a couple of miles of the opposite. Yeah.

Spencer Kight  

I mean, and that's, that's why you have electronics, a boat with good electronics. You can you can look at it and say, Hey, that weather is going this way that weather is going that way or we're surrounded y'all. We gotta get back in. Yeah. So we had our last trip that we did. We had a situation like that where we had rain, and we went out and we discarded the whole time, and we had an excellent trip. I don't know if I showed you all the pictures. We crushed them. And it was our second trip with this group of so We got them out there, and we were catching so many fish, they were just finally like I said, Hey, we got another hour, let's go ahead and limit out these trigger fish. And you're like, we're good.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

That was me. I can't even move my arms are like, Please don't make me realize

Spencer Kight  

these folks that I had taken them on Monday, and they crushed them on Monday. And the people on the trip, what the primary that was paid for the trip. Of course, he went, his wife didn't go on the first one. So she went on the second one, and they traded out somebody, but it was pretty much the same people. And they were they were having a blast, and they were catching somebody to fish. And they were just finally got to the realization and I'll get to this later. How many fish do you need? Right?

George  

I mean, really, realistically, you're not going to eat all that.

Spencer Kight  

Freezer, but with with my business, too. I'm a conservation and you got to be? Yeah. Really, with regulation stuff, I do get mad about some things. You know, when you're dealing with government regulated things. They're not always going to be good. But realistically, you don't need that many fish. I mean,

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I mean, it's a lot of like, why

George  

even just the I mean, we caught a bunch of fish, but we only kept the few fish. And that was more than enough. I mean, it's just the two of us.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

And that. And it's interesting, because, you know, we talked about the tuna and people say what they want to do, but they don't really know if they haven't really been fishing like and so when you're like we're gonna keep these target fish are really good. I'm like, What the heck is a traitor? Crager version? I'm just gonna go with whatever he says because I trust you. And you were right. You know, I was like, why are we throwing away these temper? That's what's in every restaurant, you know? So we're used to that, but really that I mean, that's the VJ. I mean, I just go

Spencer Kight  

back to there so and I get phone calls all the time about oh, when snapper season amlight It's like, right and you know, you got these months. It's right here and I'm like, why don't you want to go snapper fish and they're like, because that's what everybody does. You go snapper fish and I'm like, Do you realize there's more fish out there?

Lisa RichartHernandez  

There's more fish in the sea.

Spencer Kight  

I mean,

George  

that's like what you were saying before everybody wants to know. Yes. It's like that's the only fish out there but there's a million different fish. Yeah,

Spencer Kight  

yeah. And about go back to tuna two. What are you gonna do with it? 200 pound fish.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I would eat it like sushi sushi.

Spencer Kight  

That is a lot of that is a lot of a lot. I've seen people come in and they'll have six to eight. Tuna good size, you know 100 pounds. What? What do you do with all that? I know I've done it. I've done it myself. I'm guilty of it. I went and bought an extra fate freezer off of one tuna trip. And then it gets down to it. You can't eat all that. No.

George  

If you try it after a while you're like okay, I can't eat another fuck

Lisa RichartHernandez  

yeah

Spencer Kight  

amberjack is something else that we do. That's a pretty big fish.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Yeah, what does that what does that season so this year

Spencer Kight  

they they the early season they they kept it closed and oh my god there were so many of them out there. You couldn't you couldn't go anywhere without catching more and open up August 1 And I swear to God the days before that I could go anywhere in kitchawan anywhere and then when it opened up they'd like disappeared yeah they got the memo and so snapper was in season and that that was that's our primary you know Darren snapper season that's what we go after snapper. The zone that I go to for snapper for big snapper. There wasn't a lot of there wasn't a lot amberjack there so traveling to a whole nother area in a six hour period was harder so we didn't really do a lot of AJ fishing until mid August and then but that that fish is gotta be 34 inches to keep over 30 That is a big fish a lot of meat. So it's one a person animal today. I don't I don't recall if y'all caught one.

George  

No we didn't. Okay,

Spencer Kight  

that is one of the hardest fighting fish out there.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I'm telling you. They will snapper next trip.

Spencer Kight  

They will walk you I've got equipment I got ways to make it easier. I love that type of fishing. I've got to take Nate with us. There's actually a YouTube video out there. We did May of last year. I don't let my all my secrets out, but we make it we make it easy to do and where the customer can get them in. And with less effort. Yeah. So that's kind of our somewhat hidden secret. Somebody's gonna figure it out one day, so

George  

that's cool. But yeah, well, nearly on the bar trip. Remember, we had to put Lisa's fishing pole in the rod holds? Because she couldn't even hold it up. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  

that was a giant shark I had, it might have been actually a whale now that we know. I mean, I really take forever to my arms

George  

from the fish tails.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I actually had a whale.

George  

Alright, so one thing I wanted to ask you while we were out there fishing, and I wanted you to talk about it. Briefly, but you were telling us that there's artificial reefs that they've been dropping out there. That was a bit about that. Yeah. So

Spencer Kight  

think about when you're, you're looking out on the gold. And you just see flat water and all that. There's a lot of stuff on the bottom. Okay. Back, you know, through the 1900s and all that. If a ship didn't sink, it was it was like a desert on the bottom, pretty much.

George  

All right, I was gonna say if you drain all the water, it's just flat enough.

Spencer Kight  

A lot of it is there. There's a little limestone here and there. And that might clicks and fish there. When you got out to you know, 50 ish miles or something like that. That's where you started having more of a rock contour. Okay. And that's where the fish would gather up around. Well, I don't know what time that you know, people started catching up with that going, Hey, we have something here in the water underneath the water. We know is there fish starting to congregate around? So people started figuring out that, hey, if we start sinking things out here on purpose,

George  

yeah, give them a habitat, give them a habitat. So

Spencer Kight  

Alabama has done a great job with that. So Alabama has one of the smallest coastlines in the United States. I mean, you gotta think that's, yeah,

George  

I mean, Florida on the other side of the bay, pretty much. Yeah. Louisiana is on the Yeah.

Spencer Kight  

Look how much look how much area Florida has and how much area Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have a very small kind of tiny time. Yes. But Alabama is Alabama was coastline compared to Mississippi is no comparison. I mean, CB has a great inshore industry. Alabama has a good inshore industry, they have a great offshore industry. And what the government did was I'm not, you know, hey, they do some things, right. Is that all the time? But you know, sometimes the government does things right. So there was some government funding that took place reefs out there. There's a ton of nice started years ago. So where those fish were normally 70 miles, 50 miles out or whatever. They started putting habitat closer. So when you did that, you got the fish closer. You got more fishermen to come fish and you got more vacationers. Right. Yeah. So I mean, we bring more people to the area, right. More commerce. Here we go. That's that's a lot of why, you know, I'm here and you're here.

George  

Yeah. But you were telling us they're there. They're dropping? Like pyramid shaped? Yes.

Spencer Kight  

Yes. So you got two different type of pyramids. You got a super pyramid, any the smaller ones? I think they stopped dropping them in 2007. But the super pyramids are 25 by 25. They are concrete and rebar structure. And yeah, they also sunk. Takes like military military ties in ah, M ad. Really? Yeah. Yeah, really military tanks. So you can look on my screen and you'll you'll see all these all these coordinates and stuff. And a lot of those are those tanks. But over time, it's metal breaks down, they silt over and all that. So they are still dropping rapes out there. And you know, some of them are still active. Some of them are all the older ones. Oh, there's so hurricanes and things like that. I've taken out things. Dolphin Island bridge is actually out there in the Gulf. Their original one. Oh, they dropped

George  

it out. Apparently it's a great idea. Yeah. What are we gonna do with it? Throw it out there make it a restaurant

Spencer Kight  

habitat. You got you got dolphin Allah breach. Several ship rakes partially not rigs but partially sunk out there. So

George  

I think that's what they did with part of the old Ravenel Bridge. Well, yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I never heard that. Yeah, that was the first time I'd ever heard of that.

George  

Yeah, cuz they, they blew it up in sections that it would drop into the water. And I believe they took out parts of it on barges and just dumped it out there as reefs

Lisa RichartHernandez  

that was in South Carolina. So you and your wife live on dolphin Island, and a lot of people asking what this paradise found RV resort that we're developing about, about dolphin Island and the things to do out there. And we were so lucky to get you to take us around on your golf card and kind of see everything and get it from a locals perspective. What can you tell us about Dan? Dolphin island that a tourist would want to know kind of about that area?

Spencer Kight  

Well, what what attracted us to it? Well, we start by I came to dolphin Island when I was a kid and we've maybe made two or three trips and vaguely remembered anything of it. And like I said, I started in Mississippi inshore fishing and something is click one day. So hey, I keep trying to go offshore. And I know I was going to the Alabama side to get to deeper water. And I came over here may my wife we come over here and deer in March. It was April, April 20 toil of things when we got here and just fell in love with I mean, it was like, Oh my God, why haven't we been doing this whole time? Yeah. I mean, this is awesome. And what sold us to because we don't like the hustle and bustle, right? We don't like busy streets. That's not vacationing. So it wasn't just the fishing. Fishing is great. I mean, that's that's what I do. But yeah, you not everything about life is that you

Lisa RichartHernandez  

know, right.

George  

So

Lisa RichartHernandez  

it's like, it's like a very like the way I described it to people. Like because we have Edisto Island that's very similar to that in South Carolina, near where we are. We have like, like, Myrtle Beach has got all the high rises and T shirt shops and all of that. And dolphin Island to me is like, more like it's not that it's underdeveloped. But it's just like laid back right around on your golf cart. Flip flops and T shirts kind of a style.

George  

Little more family oriented. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Well, I mean, it depends on what a family wants to do. I mean, Myrtle Beach, you know, they got every kind of kid thing to do. And all the go karts are right. And that's the same as Orange Beach, basically.

Spencer Kight  

Yes. And we we try not to be Orange Beach, right. And it's not not a shot at Orange Beach. It's like, hey, they have their clientele that want to be there. We have our clientele that want to be here. Yep. It's not an expense difference, because okay, you might be able to get something cheaper at Dolphin Island sometimes. It's it's more of what you want. We have a red light on there but not like dropping very few stops. But

George  

I mean, other suggestions too?

Spencer Kight  

Yeah. Um, so you get there. We roll the streets up by 10 o'clock.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I was gonna say that's the other thing it's like, kinda like camping lifestyle to be honest, like you know in the quiet time is 10 o'clock. And so like we were like Alright, well let's I've been working all day inside the coach and it's about 100 degrees I'm like, let's just get out of here and go somewhere and I'm like, What is close at night? Just got here.

Spencer Kight  

It was it was being a fisherman and all that but when I was wreck fishing, we would get in and we had Hurry up get a shower and oh, hey, go eat because yeah, the restaurants are gonna close restaurants are gonna close but hey, that's what you set yourself up for if you bring food, it's part of it. You know cooking your condo cooking your house or whatever you rented. I know that seem like vacation. But it you know

Lisa RichartHernandez  

it is if you just got a bunch of fresh fish. You got a bunch of friends.

George  

And there is a beauty to that because it's so relaxing. Yeah, it's you don't have the hustle bustle. We'd love like Lisa said when you came to pick us up with the golf cart And when driving around and then it's funny because that's when I realized, oh my god, there's a ton of golf carts out here. Everybody goes around in a golf cart. When you're in a car, you're looking at the house as you're looking at this and you don't realize that everybody else is just hanging out having a great time on the golf.

Spencer Kight  

There's no you got one way in one way out. Yeah. Why do you need to go over 30 miles per hour? Right? I mean, hey,

George  

you're the island is how big it's, it's 14

Spencer Kight  

miles long. streetwise. Okay, that's nice that but I didn't want to tell you I'm wrong, because somebody's gonna go Oh, my God.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Google search. It was 14. Yeah. Oh, give or take? Yeah, Miles

Spencer Kight  

was I think I think the whole islands 14 miles long. And you can't go from one end to the other on a golf cart or a car at all. The West End stops and it goes good ways further. Me I can't believe I forgot the actual distance. I know. Because I know the tail people. But uh, put her in a spot now. I'm like, Man, somebody's gonna go. You're a half mile off.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Yeah, it was a Google ad if it's really that important. Yeah. messages on our view? podcast.com Let us know exactly how big is dolphin island.

Spencer Kight  

So it's it's a course we're only Gulf Coast. So it's gonna be Eastern West. Is your your your main distance? Your main roads Bienville. You. That's mainly where you go to travel and stuff. You won't see much from a car. Like the Gulf side unless you go to the East End. Right. A very west end as far as you can go. As far as things to see, you have the fort. If he buys into historical stuff, I got a funny story about the four other day my grandma, my grandma boy wanted to go see the pirates fight at the fort. We had a pirate invasion the other day. Oh, really? Yeah. So yeah, they're firing cannons. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So yeah, a bunch of reenactment stuff. historical stuff. Oh, right. So he was all pumped. He's all about pirates. And he didn't know they shoot each other. So we get there and they're firing cannons. And he's like, can't take me back. Take me back. It's too loud cat has paid $25 to come in. snuck in here for free. But I wanted to be here early. So yeah, there's sitting there shooting each other. And he's like, I just wanted to find treasure. I didn't want to see this crowd. So it's all in what you want to see in do when you come to dolphin Island. If you want to relax, perfect place for you. If you're into scenery, I'm on into bird watch. And I'm not a bird guy. But there's a lot of people that come in April. We do have a big bird migration.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

I heard it was like literally the best bird watching in the country or something.

Spencer Kight  

You I'll be offshore and I have birds land on my boat. I came indentify litter. I'll show you a picture years ago. I think I got a picture in a video. The guys sitting there fighting the fish and a bird lands on the shoulder. I got one. Yes. God is sitting there in a bird like we're 50 miles out in a land. Why don't we show it but I mean they're coming out of South America and they're flying they're looking for somewhere to land. Water to cover? Yeah.

George  

I'm Lauren from South America and boy firearms

Spencer Kight  

Yeah, that's one of the other cool things you see is bird life. Another cool thing we are not mean people things just cool to see a fox. But last night we arrived and of course golf cart ride. Yeah, we do. And we're on down the road. And we get to pull in in our neighborhood. There's a fox. It looks like a Great Dane. Wow. Have you ever seen a fox that like it? Like a great I mean, so that's

George  

a big five to watch. Yeah, huge.

Spencer Kight  

I don't know what's wrong with them. They're not normal. They're not your normal Fox. They're eating good. There. So yeah, we have I want life on an island. A lot of bald eagles. Fox core squirrels dove.

Anybody list your dog out? But yeah, there's There's cool things to see we have

the sea turtles, sea turtle. Oh, yeah, yeah. So we have a lot of the sea turtle watching, you know, a lot of the turtles come lay their eggs. We have sea turtle watch where they, you know take sidebars or UTVs. Go down and check all the nets to make sure nothing's messing with them. Yeah, we

George  

have that in Charleston too, though. Rope them off sometimes.

Spencer Kight  

Yeah, that's what they're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Try and take you know, they have a big thing about that. It all that's volunteer the people that work and do that they're volunteers. So that's pretty cool to do. Like as a community. The people live on island kind of do those things.

George  

I just had a turtle encounter in the BVI. That was awesome.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Oh, yeah, they were like swimming with the sea turtles

George  

came right up right in front of me and I just reached out it was it was just incredible. Yeah. Never been that close to when we see them

Spencer Kight  

offshore lot. Sometimes we can get close to them. Other times I just haul is yeah, it's it's pretty cool to see.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Yeah, they're all around us in the BVI. Yeah. Okay. Cedar Point here. When you said the bar is all closed really late at night. I mean, real early at night. The only thing left to do it seems like is Cedar Point here. And we were cracking up because we drove back from Dauphin Island. We said all the bars are closed but the bait and tackle places booked I mean it is solid. There's people in there the lights are on Georgia, there's got to be a bar in that bait. And I go I doubt it. I think they just sell bait at night.

Spencer Kight  

I imagine they care to cooler down.

George  

Yeah, the only place literally the only place in this area that I have seen open every single time I went by restaurants I've seen closed, I've seen gas stations closed, but that place is 24/7

Spencer Kight  

nightlife. We do have a place called Doherty's. You just gotta be like up to whenever they're going to be open and all that. That's where they bring in some cool bands. It's got a really good bar and all that it's all outside. So that's our only really nightlife kind of area. If you want nightlife. You're gonna have to create it yourself. Right? Yeah. Or go to Orange Beach. Yes. I mean, yeah. Good. Orange Beach.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Yeah, yeah, we're not gonna make it over there. No, make it back.

George  

I logged off and I got my little dark pub. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Wednesday nights at the fact I'm going there right after this podcast. Let's

George  

wrap it up.

Spencer Kight  

way I'll look at it is. I used to be young, too. I used to think you had to stay out. You're on vacation. Yeah. Hey, we got to stay out to a. But when I got older, I realized, Oh, I feel like crap the next day. Yeah. So maybe dolphin only got it figured out? Yeah, hey, yeah, you can be up the next morning wanting to go do something. And guess what? We got plenty to do.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Well, that's it. I said, I'm here the data. So what I love about the RV lifestyle is everybody's in bed by town. We eat early birds. I love to eat early dinner now. I'm like, Oh, 430 It's time for dinner. And we're gonna be you know, nails or do whatever. We're in bed by 10.

George  

When we first got our first RV, we would go to all these RV parks. And we're like, all these old people are in bed by 10. And this is just us and we're like, yeah, FOMO fear of missing out. We're like party and let's have a cocktail. And now we're like, Shut the hell up. People. Really old people. You know, 10 o'clock has quiet time. Get off my grass.

Spencer Kight  

Our experience with the RV park down down here because that's how we started out. We were we were in an RV park. And yeah, we were party animals today. But we I had to be up at 530 in the morning. Yeah. Then I was like, Oh, he's assholes won't shut. Yeah. So I see both sides.

George  

Yeah, we still love to every once in a while cut loose and will stay up really late. And pay the price for the couple days.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

A couple of days. Back like I used what's the saying? Apparently I can still party like a rock star. But I can't recover like,

George  

yeah, yeah. So another big thing down here. I wanted you to touch on as the the fishing tournaments. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, because they are. I mean, we haven't been here for one yet. We would love to experience it. But tell us a little bit about it because they're massive, right?

Spencer Kight  

Yes. So Alabama, deep sea fish and rodeo. It's in July and it's the biggest in the world. I want to say is nanny 192 years old. I wish you were going to ask me this because I would I would looked it up a little bit more. It's old. So,

Lisa RichartHernandez  

we disclaim run, just Google it up. It's something that you

George  

alright, so I googled up the size of the island and it's 15 miles

Spencer Kight  

off by a mile. It's all what hurricane comes through. How big it is

George  

what I'm getting at as you were close enough, so 92 to 93 years old.

Spencer Kight  

Okay, so how we have several rodeos. We have striper radio is pretty big. And then right before the deep sea fish from radio, we have all you have the Junior Rodeo run for that for kids. The the rodeo, it brings a bunch of people

Lisa RichartHernandez  

to the island. Yeah, I was gonna ask. I heard it was like 100,000 people,

Spencer Kight  

right? So there is a rot at 5000 people to compete. Wow. So that's a lot of people in the water. It hit a hey, I like to see him coming. It brings commerce and things like that. But my God that mean hooks in the water after that weekend. I'm like, Look, guys might be a little slow today because

George  

there's nothing. Yeah, we

Spencer Kight  

I mean, we had to do it for a living. So we, we know where to kind of go somewhere else. We know after, you know, just kind of move a little out the middle or right. And you know, we're where the normal recreational fishermen wouldn't know where to go. But uh, yeah, I mean, they bring a lot. They they bring bands in. It's a lot of commerce. It happens. A lot of food trucks and stuff. Man, I'm ready for him to go when the weekend is over with. I love my island during the week. Yeah, I can get on my golf cart. Go wherever you want to go. I don't have to wait on traffic. Right.

George  

But that's kind of like, so we live off of our palms, which is a beautiful beach Island, similar to often. And during the summer when all the tourists are down there. We don't go down. Yeah. And then as soon as that season's over, we start going down. We're like, Oh, we got our bars back. We got our island back. Yeah. And it's just like I can relate to that. That feeling.

Spencer Kight  

Yeah. As far as competing, if you're if you're chartering. Yes, you can compete. So I try to tell my customers, if I got them on the books, I'll get a hold of them, you know, prior and just like, hey, look, you know, rodeos, you know, this weekend, and I'll send them links how to how to obtain their permit or their, their ticket or whatever. And honestly, most of my all time out of town customers. They don't really care about it. They just want to go fishing. Yeah, yeah. They don't even compete, cause it's terrible vacation. Yeah, they're just wanting to have a good time. They don't want to add anything extra.

George  

Yeah, they don't want to feel the pressure. Come on. We got to get

Spencer Kight  

there's gotta be a big fish gotta hurry up get by. Yeah,

George  

I guess the good thing is if somebody was interested, they could do it. Anybody could just join up.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Yeah. They can hire you if they wanted to.

Spencer Kight  

Yes, I've had most of my phone calls about that. Or people in the local area that their boats not big enough or they got more people that can fit in their boat. They just want to compete. That's where my phone calls come in. It I'll do it. I hate we can't speak fish. Yeah, that's, I wouldn't be doing if we didn't catch big fish. But I like my out of town visitors. Yeah, I like them. And that's, that's, that's what keeps island alive. It's what keeps everything alive is our vacationers. And those are the coolest people. You know, they're here. They show up to the boat. They're smiling. Yeah, they're ready to have an adventure. It's not somebody that's already done it before or does it all the time and see somebody and talk to somebody every day that does it? Yeah. I like my customers that are you know, hey, they're from Missouri. They're from Arkansas. They're from Tennessee. They're from wherever the Midwest and hey, they won't see the goal. They are more excited. I don't want that foti did that goes out three times a year he knows at all. You go out three times a year I call it fish this big. Dude, I do this every day. You know, three times last year to do it every day, but I like I like my vacationers. Yeah, those are my favorites. They're happy to be here.

George  

They're excited to just get on the phone. Oh, yeah, yes.

Spencer Kight  

I mean, those are the guys that they want a t shirt. They want to. They won't have a good time they, man,

George  

I want to get the pictures. They want to get your GoPro video. Yeah. Yeah, we got our GoPros Yeah, I can at least

Spencer Kight  

that's the funnest part of my job is that I get people on their best day. Yeah, that, hey, they show up. And you know, they've been dreaming about this. They're, they're happy to be there.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Well, I'll tell you what, I wasn't even really dreaming about offshore fishing. And I've done it before. And I had an absolute blast. And I loved getting up early in the morning and seeing the sunrise and catching so like I had, I had sort of the, we went literally on a deep sea fishing trip in Cabo and Mexico and spent like, six hours out there, it really did not get one fish all day long. I was like, Please, can we just go back and like, the most exciting part was feeding the bait to the sea lions. And it was like, okay, you know, and when, when George said, we're going deep sea fishing, in my mind, I was like, Oh, God, I gotta wake up before the sun comes up, go out, sit on a boat, which I go on boats all the time, I can go on the boat relax. Or I can go out there and wake up at the crack of dawn, go through all this and not catch a thing. No, we got to see the most beautiful sunrise, we had such a great time. I mean, I couldn't put my pole in the water without catching something. And I mean, I turned around, and the next, like hook was baited. Ty did such a great job, your first May. And we just had an amazing, amazing time. So I couldn't recommend it to anybody more incoming from a female. Like I would say, you know, like, hey, go with your husband, go with your boyfriend, go with your friends go with all your girlfriends. It's a great bachelorette party. Like that would be a freaking blast. Like something that you really don't think about doing that. I mean, you just the excitement of it, the the thrill of it, you know, we could bring our drinks and food and stuff like that you had ice and everything, it was just so accommodating. Even for the ladies, it was easy to go potty and the little in the little bucket or whatever, you know, if you're not a big voter, and you don't know about that you do not have to jump in, you know, they got you taken care of or whatever. But anything that you would be having second thoughts about just go do it and have the best time. It's amazing

Spencer Kight  

that people they they know about they hear about it in what is all out there to do and see. And it's not that far, people, people think they gotta go overseas to see something cool or have an adventure or whatever. And

Lisa RichartHernandez  

it's right here in the United States right

Spencer Kight  

here. And the like. Like I said earlier, it's not all about catching a fish, which that stole turn, you know that that is the goal. Right? Okay, some fish when you go offshore, if it's kind of in the name for fishing. Well, I mean, but once you get to see what you get to experience and what you get to learn how many people don't realize that it's attainable. It's not that expensive. If you got if you got five or six people going that's that all can be split. Yeah. And hey, look, newsflash, we don't make that much money. You got a quarter note? Yeah, quarter million dollar boat. You're not doing nothing without that. Right. Okay. So let's start there. They're expensive. Yeah. And maintaining everything is expensive. Fuel is expensive. Yeah, like four to $500 every six hours. So all that being said, we don't make a lot of money. We do this because we love it. And hey, how easy it is to go take your family. Your kids like you said Bachelorette, bachelor parties, whatever like trips Yeah, that is that is not that expensive to go into snow if you specially if you share it and got these people, man I got a boat. I can go do that. Yes, you can.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Not with all the equipment. You're not you don't have someone to bait your hook and take every fish off and tell you what's what's the rule. I didn't even have to touch a fish or obey or anything. I mean

George  

that's that's the beauty of it. I mean, you're kind of paying for you're paying for the service. You're paying for the Captain, you're paying for the boat, and you want your experience to be as awesome as possible. And our experience was incredible. And that's why we have you here on the podcast. We wanted to let everybody know that when they come to Dauphin Island you got to

Lisa RichartHernandez  

That's right. And can you get people could take the ferry over from the fort, right? Yeah.

Spencer Kight  

So I do pick up in Fort Morgan of So I get a lot from Gulf Shores, and Fort Morgan, which Gulf Shores and Fort Morgan they pretty much qualify that pretty much under the same name. But there's a marina over there. It's only three miles for me to go. We do it quite often. Okay.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

Okay. Well, that's great to know. Yeah. Well, let's wrap this up. Tell people how can they get in touch with you if they want to book a fishing charter? Oh, it's

Spencer Kight  

easy have the best way to do is just look at D. Reef monster, Dolphin Island reef monster, but I go after D makes it shorter. Of course. You can find me on Facebook. Under Captain Spencer chi and or Dr. Rieff monster. Yeah, just, that's easy one. Yeah, reef monster.

George  

We'll have a link on our website and on our podcast and everything. So look them up. If you're here, please, please go out. You will not regret it.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

That's right. That's right. It's,

Spencer Kight  

hey, some people don't want to go offshore. I understand that. We have other options. If you just want to go sightseeing and see stuff. You want to go see a dolphin. I'll take you out there about 10 miles drop a hook in the water and they're gonna come running. It's not a lot. We're all shore business. That's what we that's what we do. But hey, if you're here, and you just want to get on the boat. We'll put you on a boat. We'll have a good time.

Lisa RichartHernandez  

That sounds great. Awesome. Thank you so much. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcasts like it, share it with your friends and tell everybody about di reef monster. Have a good day. Bye friends. Bye bye.

Speaker 2  

Thanks for listening to another episode of RView. Don't forget to drop us a line at rviewpodcast.com That's the letter R view podcast.com And like, subscribe and follow us so you don't miss out on our next adventure.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai