Red Snapper Decision
Capt. Larry Pentel
May 3, 2012
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
The announcement of the "official" Red Snapper season finally showed up in print yesterday. In keeping with thier God like control of us mere mortal fisherfolks the powers that be have set a 40 day (and 40 night) Red Snapper season for 2012- Sounds kinda Biblical, dosn't it ?. As expected, the season is set to open on June 1st. Also, as we expected , we are dealing with the shortest season ever on one of the most abundant fish in the Gulf with the closure coming July 10th. The Feds actaully increased the quota to make it look good but once again used the reasoning that since there are so many Red Snapper and the average size has gotton so big they need to shorten the season as they will be so easy to catch. This being brought to you by the same folks who ran the BP oil spil...........
On a MUCH brighter note the fishing is fantastic with just about every species that ever swam along the beach showing up. We have had quite a few Mahi coming by and caught 2 nice ones while looking for cobia ( that we didn't see)Sat. morning. The cobia have started to make a showing though (finally !) and there were probably more caught alongthe beach the past week than all season combined so far. Late is WAY better thamn never! These folks were actaully happy that the cobia are late---
The perfect afternoon trip !
I've seen several Sailfish swimming down the bar the past week as well but have not been able to get one to eat a (rigged & ready) cobia bait. The Kings are here and the Amberjacks have made thier journey up in close following the hardtails as well. We have started catching them in the middle of nowhere just on big flat hard bottom on the short trips.
The perfect morning 1/2 day trip !
Plenty to catch and quite a few to keep in between releasing Red Snapper & Gag Grouper. With Gags set to open on July 1st we will have 10 days to be able to keep both species on the same trip this year. Amberjacks will close June 1st this year (through July) so the old "grand slam" of bottom fishing looks to be a thing of the past. A quick beach launch trip to fill the box with whatever is legal at the moment is looking better all the time !
Still plenty of Pompano in the surf and the Trout and Redfish reports are staying strong as well. It's one of those times where you can fish pretty much anywhere other than the bathtub and have a good day !
Capt Larry Pentel
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