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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
April 30, 2001
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Surf's up! The wind is blowin' and the weather service says it's going to be ROUGH by noon so I guess I need to sit down and write a report, I apologize for skipping a week but the fishing has been great and I've been busy running.
Red snapper season opened up with a bang but I think there are probably more fish around now than 2 weeks ago. The spring movement of fish is in full swing and it seems the fish are still in the process of coming in to short water. There were some HUGE schools of bait coming right down the sandbar a couple of days last week. All different kinds, speedos, cigar fish, rain minnows and hard tails. As a general rule right behind the bait migration comes predator fish. It looks like it may be an easy year to be a charter capt.
The cobia run is still on with quite a few fish being seen every day. I only had one day where we didn't catch a cobia last week. It was a 4 hour bottom trip and they wanted snappers. We had our limit in 3 hours so we got to look for cobias for an hour, only found 1 and he wouldn't play. We did find a big school of Jack Cravelle though and spent 15 minutes fighting a pair of them at about 20# ea.. We also hooked a smoker king on the fly pole that day while bottom fishing. Unfortunately the hooks pulled after about 10 minutes of fight. My three anglers still came back to the dock with about 60# of snapper. The day before I had a regular client and a buddy of his on a 6 hour. They wanted to do it all and the fish were obliging. We went out and they got a limit of fine snappers on the light rods. Got the heavier guns out and they each caught a good grouper after getting frieght trained a couple of times. Then we ran back in to looked for a cobia. The wind was out of the North and all the boats we talked to said it was slow. My regulars guest had never caught a flat head and wanted one bad after listening to all our stories. I found a fish on the offshore side right up on top that Ray Charles couldn't miss. My angler flipped an eel in front of 'em and the fish dang near broke his neck spinning to eat that wiggler. A half hour latter we had a 40# cobia in with the groupers and snappers and I had another cobia addict. Sight fishing for anything is a hoot but when the average fish is over 30# and the water is gin clear it sure is easy to stay excited. Even for those of us that have done it for all these years.
On the inshore scene the word is Pompano. The run seems to have really picked up in the last few days with lots of limit (10 fish) catches. While the traditional "set rig" style of fishing catches a lot of fish pompano offer a great sight fishing oportunity also. On the North wind mornings when the beach is slick you can usually catch more by walking the beach and throwing a jig or a sandflea directly to fish. And don't forget about that old ladder in your shed. If you wade out to chest deep water and climb up on top of a 6 foot ladder you have your own private pier and great view of those big schools coming down the beach. Just don't do what one of my buddies did this week. He was so intent at looking to the East for incoming pompano that he missed the 7 ft. bull shark that slid up to his perch from down current to the West. His heart seems to be okay now but he lost his stringer of 7 pomps to the hungry critter. You gotta pay attention.
If your looking to catch Tarpon at the fish camp this summer call and lets talk dates soon. I already have 14 days booked in July. The usually popular 1st week with the 4th in it is still open tho
Why are you reading this? get a rod and some sunscreen and GO FISHIN!!!
Capt. Larry Pentel
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