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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
September 11, 2005
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Northwest Florida in September. Just another day in paradise. The weather is great, hot but not sweltering. Clear high skies, no lines at the grocery and the beach is back to us locals, even on the weekends. Fishin' aint bad either.
There are still a few visitors around and luckily for me some folks want to fish. Ran 2 couples on a half day today from Kansas (isn't that one o' them "square states" ?)who had never been saltwater fishin' before.
We did a lot of training ( no you can't yank, yes that was a bite etc. ) and they had a blast. Not the best catch of the year but they'll do a lot better next time, and as much fun as they had I know there will be one. We caught a lot of "shorts" we recycled but brought in a king, 3 red groupers, one black grouper, 4 snappers and 10 triggers .
Yesterday I ran 5 14 year olds as a birthday party. I know the b-days boys parents so I was sure to put 'em on a stand of triggers from the get go for mom's freezer. I don't think I've ever had to bait hooks that fast (or often) till they got it figured out. The triggers on that reef won't have to eat for a week! They tallied 16 triggers, a king, 3 red groupers, 2 black grouper and 13 red snappers along with dozens of throwbacks. I figuured I had done my job pretty well when I had 3 of the 5 sittin' down and wore out before our 4 hours was up. Course they were back to skim-boarding while I cleaned the fish. Wish I could recover that fast!
Katrina kicked up a big sea but didn't seem to move many fish around offshore. The flounders had just started showin' up on the beach but are now MIA after the storm. I hope they show back up. The triggers are showin' up good and should just get better for the next couple of months. There don't seem to be a lot of snapper around but there are quite a few groupers. Ran a couple of 5 hour trips where we targeted 'em a little more and had 9 nice uns along with 8 snapper on one and 6 ( 3 big blacks)with 14 snappers on another. The pompano should be showin' but haven't really appeared since the storm.
All in all we lucked out and dodged a bomb. My heart goes out to my friends and clients from the storm ravaged areas. The ones I've talked to are upbeat and planning on rebuilding. Hang in there guys- you can't fight mother nature. As long as the families ok everything else is just "stuff". We can make lots more fish pictures!
Capt Larry Pentel
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