Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
April 23, 2004
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

Fishing is in full swing once again. The cobia run has hit in Force this past week with LOTS of Fish being caught. Everybody is seeing fish and I heard reports of some wads being seen today. I had a bottom trip today so didn't get the chance to go looking- We had a couple groupers and our snappers tho and the folks were happy-

The opening day of Snapper season in State waters had more boats out than I have ever seen before. The gulf looked like a parking lot around the bigger rocks and wrecks. The 1st 2 days even had 9 trailers on the beach at Grayton each day.

I did get to run a couple of cobia trips this past week and we got 'em from just legal to 60# every time we went out for them. Even got a few on the way back in from snapper fishin' a couple days. Wed. my folks wanted to cobia fish but had to be back on the beach before noon-and couldn't leave till 9--- We went out found one at 48# and got'em in the boat. 1st planned 2 1/2 hr trip I ever run! The bad news was I heard from every body else that the fish REALLY popped up in the afternoon.

The cobia should keep coming on for another 2 weeks or so before they give out. By then the kings should be thick as the bait has showed up enmasse this past week also. I have heard some folks on the radio talking about catching a few kings but have not got one myself yet this year, probably because we haven't tried yet!

I ran a 6 hr. cobia trip on Monday and in addition to the cobias and turtles and rays and bait we saw I found the biggest Mako I ever seen on the beach . This fellow was right on the surface just barely paddling along. We pulled up along side and he about waked the boat when he realized we were there. One of my anglers called him 16 ft. but I guessed more like 12-13. We all agreed he was in the 1,000# range tho. We got to watch him for 5 minutes or so and after he spooked on of the folks asked why we didn't try to catch him. The resounding reply from everyone else at once was "We need a bigger boat"!!

Capt. Larry Pentel

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