Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
October 4, 2000
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

OFFSHORE

The King Mackeral have been rather sporadic inshore but seem to have taken up residence out on the edge. Not only have the kings been there but quite a few blackfins and even some stick fish have shown up. There were several white marlin and sailfish hooked up by charter boats trolling live baits for kings this week. One boat claimed to have had 6 billfish up just offshore of the edge on lures.

Back to closer in waters ( where I prefer to fish)the bottom fishing remains quite good. While neither of the two storms we had amounted to much it seems a few groupers have moved back in closer to the beach. I've ran three trips this past week and wev'e had some good grouper bites each day mixed right in with the snappers. Yesterdays trip was one of those days that was just fun. I took a couple fishing who had"never caught a fish in the ocean". I promised them we would change that and maybe even get 'em a big bite. Our first stop had 9 fine snappers in the box and the anglers were excited. I changed gear over and we caught a few triggers but the gentleman who chartered me wanted a shot at a big fish. He wanted something over 20# to put on the wall. I hooked him up with some grouper gear and we in search of the bite. He had several big bites and caught one nice one that had him smiling. In the mean time his wife went back to snapper fishing but quickly out did her husband. She set the hook on what she thought was a 5# snapper only to have the the rod slammed down and the drag peel out. After a mini lesson on how to fight a running fish I gaffed a fine 20# King. She had caught it on the bottom with a mono leader ! She sat down to rest while her husband went back to grouper fishing to try and get a fish bigger than hers. He had one on but wasn't able to keep him off the bottom on the third run. He caught a couple more snappers on the grouper gear and we about had our limit. His wife decided she wanted to catch the last snapper so she picked her rod up and ran it for one more fish. History repeated itself as the 3/0 started dumping line as soon as she set the hook. This king was even bigger than her first! She sat down exhausted and her husband went to catch our last snapper. He ran a light rod down and got another grouper! Still not as big as his wifes second king though and he had to admit defeat for the whopper award. He may not have got his mount but I guarantee his wife will make him take them both fishing on all their vacations from now on!!!!

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