Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
June 6, 2000
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

OFFSHORE

Bottom fishing remains strong with lots of happy anglers enjoying the ongoing bite on the "DEAD FISH". I took 2 fellows from Tennessee today who brought thier fly rods but told me " We just want to catch fish". I made a couple of snapper stops and then made my way to some Amberjacks. We got 'em all fired up on top of the water at the boat! After they had put a couple in the boat with 50# class rods I told them to get the fly rods and they could really have a fight. They declined and said they had all they could handle with convential tackle. We went on to fill our snapper limit using bass tackle ( 20#class). So they got some good sport fishing in while filling up the cooler. Final tally-- 3 Amberjacks ( kept, we released a dozen) 12 red snappers a black snapper and we were back to the beach by noon. I made three other 4 hour Gulf trips last week and we had comprable catches with groupers or kings in place of the jacks. I don't know how much longer these snapper are going to stick around but it sure has has been great the past 2 months.

The kings still aren't dependable catches yet this summer. One day nobody catches any and 2 days latter they bite great but only for two hours. Hopefully they'll get into their usual summertime pattern by July. I allways have some folks who enjoy catching a limit of kings over anything else. There really is a lot of excitement in a mackeral rally.

INSHORE

I went to our fish camp at Indian Pass with my family for a day this weekend but couldn't talk the girls into Tarpon fishing. Our neighbor, Capt. Randall Jones said he jumped 3 last week and caught lots of big sharks. Randall, my son and I did get to try out my new xpress flats boat in St Joe Bay for two hours and caught some fine speckled trout on artificials. This new boat was great running the flats in St Joe. and will be dynamite sightfishing redfish in the lagoon this winter.

The trout in Choctawhatchee bay seem to be slowing down some at my end. I'm hearing some good reports from the North side so I guess I'll have to start ranging a little further. I heard the bull reds have started early under Destin Bridge. They usually don't show up till July but one of the other local captains caught 10 on a trip this weekend.

Come on down! Well see just how long your arm can hold up !

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