Capt. Vlad Moldoveanu

Captain Vlad Moldoveanu runs offshore out of Fort Morgan, Alabama, where he has built a reputation for reading electronics better than almost anyone in the fishery. He came to saltwater fishing after moving to the United States from Romania, sharpened his instincts as a tournament kayak angler, and now owns and runs MSC Fishing out of Fort Morgan, fishing a Freeman 37 for red snapper, amberjack, grouper and tilefish on the reefs and wahoo, swordfish, and yellowfin tuna in the deep. His In The Spread courses break down how he uses his sounder to find and read structure before a single bait ever goes down.

Instructor's videos

Vlad Moldoveanu did not grow up on the Gulf. He came to saltwater fishing after moving to the United States from Romania, and what started as a way to spend time on the water turned into something closer to an obsession. He cut his teeth as a tournament kayak angler, which is a hard, unforgiving way to learn, because a kayak gives you no electronics to lean on and no room for error. You learn to read water, structure, and fish behavior or you go home empty. That foundation shows up in everything he does on a bigger boat today.

What separates Vlad from most captains running the same water is how he reads his electronics. Off Fort Morgan and Orange Beach the bottom is mostly flat sand and mud, and the fish stack on the artificial reefs, wrecks, and hard bottom scattered across it. Everything else is a desert. Vlad treats his sounder as the most important tool on the boat, ahead of the rod and the reel, because finding the right piece of structure is most of the battle. He reads bottom composition off the return, separating hard bottom from sand before he ever slows down, and he can tell from the marks whether the fish he wants are actually home or whether he is looking at an empty reef. He marks his spots with detail and keeps scanning while running, building new numbers on the way to the ones he already trusts. That habit is why his bottom fishing is as consistent as it is.

Vlad found In The Spread the same way many of our subscribers do. He was an angler trying to get better, and he studied the courses to sharpen his own fishing. He got good enough that we came to him. Filming with him, what stands out is not just the skill but the patience. He explains what he is seeing on the screen and why he is making each call, and he wants the person next to him to actually understand it, not just watch him catch fish. That is exactly the kind of captain In The Spread is built around.

Vlad owns and runs MSC Fishing out of Fort Morgan, where he fishes a Freeman 37, working the artificial reefs for red snapper, amberjack, and grouper on the shorter runs and pushing offshore for wahoo, swordfish, and yellowfin tuna when the trip calls for it. The MSC program has put together a serious tournament record out of that boat, including a first place red snapper finish, a first place swordfish at the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, a 104 pound wahoo, and a 228 pound tuna. He fishes the full water column, from reef structure in a hundred feet of water down to the deep shelf and out to the pelagics on the troll, and he brings the same electronics-first discipline to all of it.

His deep water bottom fishing is where the electronics discipline pays off most. He drifts the shelf from 400 to 1000 feet with electric reels, working a mixed bag that shifts with depth: golden tilefish, yellowedge grouper, and snowy grouper down deep, then scamp and other reef grouper higher in 200 to 250 feet. Holding a drift across that kind of uneven bottom, keeping baits in the strike zone as the boat moves over structure, is one of the least understood skills in the fishery. It is exactly the kind of decision-making Vlad works through out loud on the water, and it is what makes his deep dropping consistent instead of lucky.

His In The Spread instruction starts with the reef fishery off Orange Beach, breaking down how he reads structure on the sounder, how he rigs for snapper and amberjack, and how he adjusts to conditions through the day. The deep water drift and the wahoo trolling come next. Whatever the target, the lesson underneath it is the same. Find the right bottom, read what is on it, and present your bait where the fish actually are.

Personal Website: https://www.mscfishing.com/