The Story of On The Rail Tackle

I'm 4 years old taking refuge in an ice chest play pen at the end of  Dauphin Island Pier. 
Waves crash violently over the sides of the pier.
My dad and fellow anglers land sharks that seem bigger than cars to me. 
That's my first memory of fishing and the conditions couldn’t have been worse. 
Yet, I was hooked.  

-Sonny Hovatter, Owner and Founder of On The Rail Tackle

I lived for the days I'd hear my dad's El Camino pull up at school. It meant I was leaving early and going fishing. I grew up fishing Dauphin Island Pier and all over that area. As a child, I'd stay up all night before a fishing trip working myself up into such a frenzy that I almost missed the trip. As a teenager, my weekend revolved around fishing. I was so consumed with fishing that I was actually hesitant to participate in extracurricular activities that might interfere with opportunities to fish. As I got older, my interests expanded to include offshore fishing but my first passion continued to be pier fishing. 

After graduating and taking a job, I relocated to Gulf Shores where I met my wife. She shares my love of the beach and I introduced her to the saltwater fishing experience. Life changed, as it tends to do, and work and family moved me away from the water. While my love and passion for fishing never changed, my accessibility to the tackle and resources I needed for fishing trips proved to be more and more difficult. And it is this that inspired On The Rail Tackle.