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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
November 7, 2000
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
OFFSHORE
The wind is howling and the Gulf looks like a washing machine so I better get responsible and write this report. I apologize for being lax but we have had the best weather imaginable the last 2 weeks and I have fished everyday with no thought to computers other than my loran.
As I said the weather has been great and the fish cooperative. Even though snapper season was winding down I spent most of last week fishing for Kings. The bite was almost scary at times the fish were so ferocious. There were a couple of times I had to hide the hook and bait before I flipped 'em over in fear the fish would jump in the boat to eat! Seriously, lots of bites right at the boat as the baits would drop back and lots of skyrocketing fish. A few times it looked like the 4th of July behind the boat with 3 or 4 fish in the air at a time. We caught 3 fish over 30 lb.s last week with one right at 40#. Lots of fish in the 25-28# range also. The bite lasted till friday when I couldn't seem to find any kings. We trolled for 2 hours and only had 3 kings on, landed one. Not that it was slow. We caught 3 bonitas, 2 amberjacks, an amberine, a red snapper, a mahi and sailfish!!. Thats right a sailfish. Not a big fellow, about 25# but he put on a fantastic ariel display on the spinning tackle before I released him at the boat unharmed. We then went on to bottom fish for an hour and bring home dinner. There have been lots of pelagics in close lately. I caught 4 Dolphin last week and have heard of lots more.
A lot of people are shying away from bottom fishing since snappers are closed. Don't, there are lots of other species in the gulf and they have been anxious to bite. Saturday I ran a 4 hour trip with some folks who had fished with me 2 months ago. They had wanted snappers but were exited to go as I assured them we would have lots of action . The tally at the cleaning table 4 hours later was 28 triggers, 10 amberines ( a type of jack that fights like it's on steroids) 2 grouper, 3 king mackeral, 2 bluefish, a flounder and a pile of vermillion and white snappers. One of the party counted fish ( i was too busy filleting) and said we kept 70 head and threw back about 30 more. They decided itwas probably a good thing red snapper were closed or they never would have known about all the other fish out there. Sunday was another 4 hour only with locals so they wanted triggers! The fish obliged again with a similar haul only instead of kings we a had a fine (8#) black snapper to hang in the middle of the board for pictures.
INSHORE
Inshore bay fishing is a tragedy right now. The red tide bloomed in the bay last week and killed fish by the thousands. It was amazing that there were all those fish out there and very sad to see them all floating dead. The bloom seemed like it started in the Ft. Walton end of the bay and slowly came East over several days. I have still seen some pinfish and lots of mullet since the kill so it did not wipe out the entire bay. From the number of trout, reds and flounders I saw dead tho I would avoid bay fishing for a while. The good news is the current weather system is dumping much badly needed fresh water into the bay and will probably do in the red tide algea that seems to bloom during droughts. Hopefuly we wil getback to normal waether pattern and the bay can heal.
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