Capt. Larry Pentel
August 27, 2005
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Back in Seagrove and back looking at yet another hurricane!! Katrina now looks like she is going to give the folks in La. a headache but yesterday AM the weather gurus had her aimed here so I canceled fishing for the weekend. Oh well, I'd rather miss a day or so than a week or 2----
Came back to South Walton Monday PM and ran my first trip here Wed.. family trip, mom dad and 3 kids who had never been fishing before. I told them thier parents had failed them in educating them to wait till the oldest was 13 to go fishin'! I made converts out of all the kids with a great trip on a beautiful day. The kids 2 hook fished and mom and dad got the crash course in slip lead fishin' and Kings. The kids tallied 18 triggers, 20 vermillion snappers and lots of throwbacks while the parents got 2 red snappers, 3 spanish and three kings. The kings were impressive too- one at 'bout 15# and the pair 'round 30#. The kids (and the folks) had a great time and I'm sure that next vacation they will pester the heck out of the folks to go again- I call that job security- get those kids hooked!!
Thurs. had more job security. 2 Dads and 2 small boys with a similar catch for the little guys and the dads had a pair of groupers and a big snapper. When we hit he beach at the end of our 4 hours the kids had allready started on wanting to go again.
Yesterday (Fri)was all grown up folks that got on the boat talking grouper. Didn't want to fish for kings, just groupers-. The wind was a little blowy to go far offshore but we pulled a rabbit out of the hat and had great catch for our 4 hours. 3 Red Groupers, 3 gag Grouper, 9 Red Snapper, a nice Black Snapper and 1 just legal king ( I convinced 'em that it would be delicious if they cooked it fresh).
Just coming back after being gone for 2 months I've got to fish the tried and true first and then go look around a little till i find whats happening with the fish. Only three trips and all of 'em inshore but this is what I saw. The hurricane (Dennis) moved about half the wrecks I looked for. The fact that a bunch didn't move makes me hope the ones that did didn't go far and can be found easily. The ones I found had very few fish om 'em and almost all shorts. The good fish I found were on natural bottom. I did not find any big shows of Red snapper, at least not legal ones. A couple of big stands of 12-15" fish. We caught a LOT of short grouper on the 3 little 4 hour trips. Yesterday we probably caught 50. With all these small fish up on the beach I think there will probably be a bunch of bigger ones out a little. With Katrina predicted to kick up a huge sea even over here the fish will move again. If she does go in over 'round La. we will probably get a movement of bigger Snappers back in. Hopefully all this will get through quickly and I can go "exploring". For me one of the best things about moving around to chase fish is it keeeps it exciting, always finding something new and different almost every trip.
Gulf Fishing off Grayton Beach in beautiful South Walton. Red Snapper to Cobia to King Mackeral to Grouper. No need to get up early or drive for an hour to a marina. We will pick you up on the beach and be on a reef or wreck in usually less than 15 minutes. Some of the Gulfs best fishing lies just offshore of the snow white sands of South Walton. We also offer Tarpon trips at Indian Pass during the summer run. July and August have large schools of giant Silver Kings feeding just off the beach.
