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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
August 29, 2001
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
What a week! The chamber of commerce needs to figure out how to patent the conditions we've had here. The winds have been light, the skies sunny, the big tourist crush is over so you can drive around easy and there is no one on the beach. Oh, and the fishing has been incredible too. Every day for the past week I've thought it just couldn't get any better and the next day I'd be proven wrong. I love it when I'm wrong like that.
We've had limit snapper catches every trip ( including the 4 hours) with lots of other species thrown in also. Sunday was the only dayI I didn't limit out on snappers. My client for the day didn't want any ! Said he really didn't care about even bringing any fish back. He had his teenage son and a couple of his sons buddies and wanted "big pulls" for the boys on a 4 hour, he suggested King Mackeral fishing. I took 'em to one of my inshore Amberjack spots and they caught 3 to 10# Jacks for an hour as fast as I could bait their hooks. We ran out teenage boy energy just before we ran out of pinfish. I figure they caught a dozen fish each. Then we went and trolled for a few hours. The first couple of kings were small and I flipped 'em back but when the bigger ones started to bite they decided we might want to keep 'em at least for pictures. The cooler ended up with 5 kings and 5 spanish with one king at 30# and the next at 26# . And they ended up wit some nice bags of fillets for diners.
Mondays folks wanted to do it all so we bottom fished our way to a snapper limit and caught a couple of kings on the fly pole, one of 'em 'bout 16#. We had little bit of time left when the last snapper hit the box and the couple asked if we could try for another king. Sure, I ran to one of my favorite king rocks and put 3 baits out with about 15 minutes of fishing time left. In 3 minutes flat the biggest bait got hit and the reel is screaming. I got the rod into the gentlemens hands and went to crank the other poles in when all of a sudden there's a 20# king 6 feet in the air with another of our baits in his mouth. I got the lady in position with the rod and went to take in the 3rd line when still another king sky rockets on that bait ! Now I've only got 2 anglers and they both have big fish on so I made the quick ( and probably smart) decision to cut the one I'm holding. After some wonderful pandemonium and a little yelling I gaffed both fish and added 'em to the snappers. The bigger one went 37# !!!
Yesterday I had regulars. They want big fish and prefer groupers. The fact that one of 'em had fished with me last week and caught a 15# snapper in 50 feet of water had the bar raised pretty high for a 4 hour. I shouldn't have worried. We made it back to the beach not only with a 10# snapper in our limit (same guy) but with 6 nice grouper and a big black snapper too! And even better was the fact that all 3 of 'em got "freight trained" by some big grouper. They were allready booking next months trip before we were off the boat! Nothing like having shots at the big one to keep folks wanting more.
I took today off to to do chores ( like this report) and to change gears. I've got a couple of days a Tarpon fishing booked and have to get my act together and get over to Indian Pass. I hate to leave with the fishing so good here but with the posibility of a 200# + Siver Rocket just a few hours down the road I'm willing to gamble.
No crowds, cooler weather and lots of fish. Now is the time I really love living here!
Capt. Larry Pentel
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