Shark Fishing Orange Beach AL: The 2025 Guided Fishing Ban
Shark fishing Orange Beach Alabama is a search a lot of you type from a condo balcony on Perdido Beach Boulevard, and the answer changed in April 2025. The City of Orange Beach, Alabama passed an ordinance that bans guided fishing of any kind on its beaches, shorelines, and waterways. Fishing on your own, recreationally, is still legal. Booking a guide to run rods for you on Orange Beach sand, unfortunately, no longer is. This is the full rundown from Coastal Worldwide: what the rule says, what it does not say, how we take care of guests who are staying in Orange Beach, what you can still do from the sand yourself, and the species, season, and setup that make this stretch of the Alabama coast worth fishing. Land-based, no boat, same as every trip we run.
What's In This Guide
- The Short Version
- What Changed for Shark Fishing Orange Beach Alabama in 2025
- How We Handle Orange Beach Guests Now
- Fishing Orange Beach on Your Own: The Rules That Still Apply
- Shark Species Off Orange Beach
- Best Time of Year for Shark Fishing Orange Beach Alabama
- Our Land-Based Setup
- Trip Options and Pricing
- Conservation: Catch and Release
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Short Version
If you are staying in Orange Beach and you want a guided beach shark trip, we meet you a short drive away. Perdido Key, Florida is normally 2 to 10 miles east, under 15 minutes from most Orange Beach condos, and from the east end of town it can be a few hundred feet. It sits in a different state with a different rulebook. Fort Morgan is to the west and is a separate jurisdiction with its own rules. We run the same two-guide, kayak-deployed, land-based trip in both places. Your group drives 5 to 15 minutes, fishes the same water for the same sharks, and drives back to the condo afterward. Nobody has to cancel a vacation over a city ordinance.
If you want to fish Orange Beach on your own, you can. Alabama's state rules apply, the city bans chumming for sharks, and several of the public accesses are Gulf State Park property where shark fishing is not allowed. All of that is below.
What Changed for Shark Fishing Orange Beach Alabama in 2025
On April 15, 2025, the Orange Beach City Council adopted Ordinance 2025-1506. It added a new Section 50-80 to the city's business license code, titled Commercial Activity on Beaches, Shorelines, and Waterways, and it took effect the day it passed.
What the ordinance says
Section 50-80 prohibits a list of commercial activities on, in, or around the beaches, waterways, shorelines, and water access points inside the city limits and the city's police jurisdiction. Item four on that list is the one that matters to us: guided activities including fishing, gigging, crabbing, or any other activity where the main purpose is interacting with or observing wildlife. The same section bans taking payment, booking reservations, or soliciting business from the beach, and it bans overnight events and fires of any type.
The exclusions are narrow. Permitted weddings and events, commercial vessels covered by other chapters of the city code, bait boats, and on-beach chair and umbrella rentals. None of those landed on that list by accident. Guided fishing is not on it. A guided shark trip on Orange Beach sand is a commercial activity the city has said it does not want.
What the ordinance does not say
It does not ban fishing from the beach. The city's own FAQ page says fishing from the beach is allowed as long as you respect other people when you set your rods, and the Coastal Resources department told Gulf Coast Media in May 2025 that the rule was aimed at businesses, not individual anglers. The state of Alabama does not close any beach to fishing either. If you have an Alabama saltwater license and you follow the state shark rules, you can put a bait in the water in Orange Beach on your own.
It also does not reach across the state line or into the next town over. Perdido Key is in Escambia County, Florida. Gulf Shores has its own city regulations. Fort Morgan is unincorporated Baldwin County. That is why our answer to Orange Beach guests is a short drive, not a no.
We would rather tell you this straight than have you show up at a beach access and find out from a city officer. Blaine Kenny and I run a business we plan to run for a long time, and that means fishing where we are welcome.
How We Handle Orange Beach Guests Now
Most of the families who used to ask us about Orange Beach are still calling. We fish them from one of two beaches, and we pick based on where your rental is, the wind, and where the bait has been.
| Where We Meet You | Drive from Orange Beach | Why We Like It |
|---|---|---|
| Perdido Key, FL | Normally 2 to 10 miles east, under 15 minutes | Closest option, and Florida rules mean we can run whenever we want. Long, quiet stretches of sand and a bar that holds bulls and blacktips. One of our favorite stretches of shark fishing water on the entire Gulf Coast. |
| Fort Morgan, AL | 20 to 40 minutes west | Quietest beach on the coast, lots of sand, and the closest sand to the Mobile Bay outflow. Our pick for a serious bull shark trip. |
The trip itself does not change. Two guides, all the gear, fresh bait, chairs, and a kayak that carries your bait 200 to 800 yards past the second sandbar. You fight the shark from dry sand, we handle it in the wash, you get your photos in the water while we work the release, and it swims off. We ran the Navarre version of this trip in our Navarre Beach post. Orange Beach guests get the same trip a few minutes from their door.
One more thing on logistics. Because the Orange Beach ordinance also bans booking or taking payment from the beach, we do not hand out cards or take deposits on Orange Beach sand, period. Everything is booked through our contact page or by phone before the trip.
Fishing Orange Beach on Your Own: The Rules That Still Apply
Plenty of you own your own gear and want to soak a bait from the beach in front of your condo. Here is the rulebook as it stands today. Alabama's saltwater regulations live at outdooralabama.com, and the Marine Resources office in Gulf Shores (251-968-7576) will answer questions about anything current.
License
Anglers 16 and older need an Alabama saltwater fishing license to fish from an Alabama beach. Non-residents can buy a short-term or annual license online through Outdoor Alabama. Alabama does not have a separate shore-based shark permit the way Florida does. Each angler handles their own license.
No chumming, from the city or the state
Alabama Administrative Code 220-3-.77 makes it illegal to fish for or target sharks by chumming or blood baiting within 300 feet of the shoreline or from any public pier. The City of Orange Beach repeats that in its own beach FAQ: it is illegal to fish for or target sharks by chumming. A whole bait or a chunk on a hook is fine. Fish parts thrown in the water to draw sharks toward the beach are not.
Circle hooks
Alabama requires non-offset, non-stainless circle hooks when you fish for sharks with natural bait. That is the same hook we run on every trip anyway, because it pins the corner of the jaw and comes out clean at the release.
Places you cannot shark fish in Orange Beach
Gulf State Park owns several of the public beach accesses inside Orange Beach, including Romar Beach, Cotton Bayou, Alabama Point, and Shell Beach. State park rules make it illegal to fish for sharks or use any shark fishing gear on any Gulf State Park beach or on the state park pier, and illegal to land a shark on a line cast from park sand. If the access you are parked at has a park pay station, assume the shark rule applies. Condo beaches and private accesses fall under the state rules and the city chumming ban, not the park rule, but you should still keep baits well away from swimmers.
Prohibited species
Alabama follows a prohibited-harvest list that includes white sharks, dusky sharks, sand tiger sharks, and sandbar sharks, among others. Anything on that list has to be released. We go further than the list, and we will get to that below.
Shark Species Off Orange Beach
Orange Beach shares water with Perdido Key to the east and Gulf Shores to the west, and Perdido Pass pushes bait and current through the middle of it. The species mix is the same one we fish from Pensacola.
Bull Sharks
Bulls are the target on any serious trip along this coast. They handle the lower salinity that pushes out of Perdido Pass and Mobile Bay, they hunt the trough behind the second bar, and a 6 to 8 foot bull on a beach rod is the fish most of our guests came for. If you want the details on how we work them, read our post on catching bull sharks from the beach.
Blacktip Sharks
Blacktips are the action fish. They run 3 to 6 feet, they jump, and when the bait is on the beach in summer they show up in numbers. On a family trip, the first shark on the sand is usually a blacktip.
Spinner Sharks
Spinners look like blacktips until they clear the water and corkscrew. Clear summer water off this stretch of coast makes a spinner going airborne 100 yards out one of the best things you will see all vacation.
Atlantic Sharpnose and Bonnethead
Two to four feet, common, and a good fit for younger anglers on lighter rods while the big baits soak. Every one goes back.
Prohibited Species
Hammerheads, tigers, lemons, sandbars, and great whites all swim the Alabama coast, and some of them will eat a bait meant for a bull. We do not target them. When one shows up, it gets unhooked in the wash with the cutters and released without leaving the water. The first great white landed and released from an Alabama beach came in winter 2023, and that shark went back the same way.
Best Time of Year for Shark Fishing Orange Beach Alabama
Whether you fish this coast on your own or with us from Perdido Key or Fort Morgan, the calendar is the same. Water temperature drives everything.
| Months | Water | What Is Biting |
|---|---|---|
| May to October | 80+ degrees | Bulls, blacktips, spinners. Peak numbers. June through August is the busiest window for Orange Beach and Perdido Key guests. |
| March, April, November | 65 to 78 degrees | Migrating blacktips and spinners in spring. Bulls and empty beaches in the fall. |
| December to February | Under 65 degrees | Bulls stay active. Extended 24 and 48 hour winter trips have produced our biggest sharks. |
Summer gives you the most bites per hour. Winter gives you the biggest fish and the emptiest sand. If you are already booked into an Orange Beach condo for a summer week, a 6-hour trip from Perdido Key fits between breakfast and dinner.
Our Land-Based Setup
The gear that makes a beach shark trip work on this coast is the same setup we built for Pensacola. We wrote it up in full in our land-based shark rig post. The short version:
- Reels. Okuma Makaira LBS reels, which we helped Okuma design for land-based sharks and which have been field-tested by Coastal Worldwide on hundreds of trips. About 85 to 90 percent of every reel is 200 lb braid for backing, topped with a short section of heavy monofilament for stretch. The braid is what lets us drop baits far past the second bar and push heavy drag, and heavy drag is what keeps fight times short and sharks healthy.
- Rods. Okuma LBS Shark Series rods, built to stand in a sand spike for hours and then lift a bull through the wash.
- Leaders. Terra Firma Tackle Leaders with non-offset circle hooks that meet the Alabama and Florida rules. Long enough to keep a thrashing shark's skin off the main line, and built to be cut fast at the release.
- Bait. Fresh local bait we bring with us, rigged whole or in big chunks. Nothing goes in the water as chum, in Alabama or Florida.
- Kayak. One guide paddles each bait out 200 to 800 yards and drops it past the second bar. That is the difference between a beach shark trip and a surf rod in the wash.
- Handling gear. Cutters and a tail rope, because Alabama and Florida both expect you to carry one. Every shark stays in the water and gets released without being dragged up the beach. We do not tape sharks. After twelve years we can call a length within a few inches, and those seconds matter more to the shark than the number does.
Trip Options and Pricing
Pricing is the same whether we meet you at Perdido Key, Fort Morgan, or Pensacola. Every trip includes two guides, all tackle and gear, fresh bait, kayak bait deployment, beach chairs, shark handling, and photos. You bring sunscreen, water, and your crew.
| Trip | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| 6-Hour Beach Shark Trip | $1,200 | Families and first-timers. The trip most Orange Beach guests book from Perdido Key. |
| 8-Hour Beach Shark Trip | $1,500 | Groups that want the afternoon bite and more bait cycles. |
| 12-Hour Beach Shark Trip | $2,100 | Dusk to dawn. Serious anglers chasing the biggest bull of the season. |
| 24 and 48-Hour Winter Trips | Contact for pricing | The extended winter window. By request only. |
The price is per trip, not per person, so a family of six pays the same as a couple. Groups larger than about 10 anglers should call us so we can bring more rods and a third guide. Full details are on our trip pricing page.
If you are fishing Orange Beach on your own, we teach the whole system, rigs, bait, reading the surf, and setting drag at home, free at catchmoresharks.com, which is our free shark fishing course and community.
Conservation: Catch and Release
We practice safe catch and release shark fishing for conservation. Every shark we land stays in the water, gets photographed in the surf while we work the release, and swims off under its own power. Heavy drag and a short fight matter here. A shark played on light drag builds up lactic acid and may not recover after the release, so we set the drag hard, get the fish to the beach fast, and get it back in deep water fast. Prohibited species are cut free in the wash without a photo session.
Fishing this coast the right way, in the right places, is how we keep doing it. A beach full of families watching a 7-foot bull swim away is better for this business than any shortcut, and it is the only version of this we are willing to put our names on.
Frequently Asked Questions About Shark Fishing Orange Beach Alabama
Can I book a guided shark fishing trip on Orange Beach?
Not on Orange Beach sand. City Ordinance 2025-1506 bans guided fishing on the beaches, shorelines, and waterways inside the city and its police jurisdiction. We meet Orange Beach guests at Perdido Key or Fort Morgan instead, usually 5 to 40 minutes away.
Is it legal to shark fish from the beach in Orange Beach on my own?
Yes, with limits. You need an Alabama saltwater license if you are 16 or older, you cannot chum, you need a non-offset, non-stainless circle hook, and you cannot shark fish at Gulf State Park accesses like Romar Beach, Cotton Bayou, Alabama Point, and Shell Beach.
How far is Perdido Key from Orange Beach?
About 12 miles east along Perdido Beach Boulevard and Perdido Key Drive, under 20 minutes from most Orange Beach condos. It is in Florida, so Florida license and shark permit rules apply on that side of the line.
Do I need a Florida license if you take me to Perdido Key?
Anglers 16 and older need a Florida saltwater fishing license and the free shore-based shark permit to fish from a Florida beach. Both are available online through FWC. Our Florida shark fishing regulations post walks through it.
What is the best month for shark fishing near Orange Beach?
June through August for the most bites. Bulls, blacktips, and spinners are all in close. December through February for size, on an extended winter trip.
Do you run boat trips out of Orange Beach?
No. Every Coastal Worldwide trip is land-based. The kayak carries bait out and comes right back. Your group never leaves the beach.
What to Bring
Sunscreen, water, snacks, a hat, and the right license on your phone for the state we are fishing that day. Wear clothes you can get wet to the waist, because the photo with your shark happens in the surf. We handle everything else, including the chairs. Our what to bring page has the full list.
Book Your Beach Shark Trip Near Orange Beach
If you are headed to Orange Beach this season and you want your group on the sand with a real shot at a bull shark, contact us with your dates and the name of your condo, or call (251) 689-0309, and we will tell you which beach we would meet you at. We run the same trips on Pensacola Beach, Navarre Beach, Perdido Key, and Fort Morgan. You can watch how these trips go on our YouTube channel, @CoastalWorldwide1, before you book.
Dylan Wier and Blaine Kenny, Coastal Worldwide
