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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
June 2, 2001
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Surfs Up! So after spending the last week running trips I get a day off. The way the fishing has been I would have rather got to go today. It seems there has been a movement of fish the past few days as the bite has gotten a little better each day. I picked my trip up Thursday on the beach at Grayton and ran to a little wreck just 10 minutes offshore. My anglers went down and everybody got slammed imediately. Nobody was quite ready for the bite so three of 'em missed but the man that was quick with the reel handle got to put a 8# snapper in the boat. Not bad for a first drop 15 minutes from stepping on the boat! We went on to catch 4 more snapper over 5# on the stop and several smaller ones before they shut down. On to the next rock and before we can get the snappers rallyed the jacks take over. Nothing to work folks out like amberjacks. I might start a new excercise craze with all the jacks around this year. Sure is a lot more fun than areobics. About the time the jacks slowed one of my anglers hooked a either a real big grouper or a nice one with a bad attitude. The angler did everything right but the fish finally won after a protracted battle by diving back into the reef and shutting down the bite. On to the next stop and lots of snappers, just a little undersize. No problem, I figure we'll weed through a bunch of shorts till the big ones bite. Right after we caught a keeper we get a BIG bite. After 5 minutes of fight I'm sure it's a shark and ask if we should cut it off or do they want to see it. A unanimus "catch 'em" came up so I got a gut bucket on the angler and tightened up the drag a little. Once again the angler did everything right and 20 minutes latter we released a 200# dusky at the boat. They got it all on video and the shark was even kind enough to open wide and smile at the camera as I cut the leader. All right, on to more snapper. Except this time when we stopped there are school dolphin all over. Gotta catch a few of them first, right? And finally back to bottom fishing. A few more snappers in the boat and it's time to go. Just about the time I say bring 'em up we get another slam to the rail bite. The same fellow that lost the grouper earlier learned a few things and got this one to the boat. At 16# he wasn't the biggest of the week but the best "last fish" and probably couldn't have made anybody any happier. We ended up with 11 Red Snapper, 2 Lane snapper, 4 Dolphin ( mahi), 2 triggers, 6 vermillion snapper and one grouper ( and a 200# release) pretty darn good for a 4 hour trip !
The pelagics have shown up inshore pretty good this week. On monday we had a 14# mahi eat a bait on the bottom in 85' of water! I didn't know what it was untill it started jumping. Looked real good hanging with the 14 Snappers on the board. Tuesday the Kings fired up and we had 7 of them to go with the snappers, 3 of 'em right at 20#!! I cleaned fish for an hour and a half that day.Hopefully this little bit of weather will be over by tomorrow and I can get my folks out. It can't get much better but I'm willing to Try!
Still some pompano around but not in the numbers of previous weeks. The june grass started to show before it got rough so surf fishing may be over in another week or so if the "green slime" comes in. Still Some nice trout around but they're not as hot as a couple weeks ago either. My son got a 3.5# last night off our dock on his fly rod though. That kid is going to be hard to impress with a fish by the time he's 18. maybe he can start teaching me some tricks soon.
Come on down and lets go!!! I've still got a couple of days left open in July for Tarpon Fishing.
Capt. Larry Pentel
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