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Panhandle - Panama City, West Bay & Port St. Joe
Capt. Rob Womble
June 4, 2007
Panama City - Saltwater Fishing Report
Panama City Redfish and Trout
We have had some pretty good trout and redfish action this week. Thursday I went fishing with a good friend of mine Ronnie Lawson. We headed out in the afternoon around 4:30 and got to our spot about 10 minutes later. I changed my tactics a little this week. Instead of heading directly to the mouth of the creeks we decided to fish a stretch of water about 100 yards from the mouth. With the way the wind was blowing this stretch had a nice calm area. We shut down about 100 yards from the spot and Ronnie pushed us in the rest of the way. Once on there we could see a group of 5 or 6 redfish lying tight to the bank. I decided to use a Gulp sinking minnow rigged Texas style with a Gamakatsu 3/0 worm hook. I pitched it up on the bank and slowly dragged it into the area. One of the redfish caught the sent of the bait and hammered it. With all the commotion the other redfish started to move a bit. I landed the 21 inch red with little trouble and all the while Ronnie was watching the other redfish so we wouldn’t loose them. After we took a picture and released the fish we decided to not chase the school but instead stay still and see what they would do. Sure enough about 5 minutes later they started moving back in our direction popping a tail from time to time. They where out of range for the gulp so Ronnie threw a Skitterwalk just behind and to the side of the school so not to spook them. He didn’t walk the dog very fast, instead he used a slow retrieve and was rewarded with a very nice 26 inch red. We took a picture and released the fish. We followed this same pattern and landed a total of 6 redfish all in a 100 yard stretch.
Capt. Todd had two trips over the weekend that produced a good number of trout. His first trip was with two 9 year old twins Will and West along with their mother who wanted quantity more than quality so Capt. Todd took them out into about 3 foot of water and tied on a couple Cajun Thunder popping corks rigged with a 3 inch natural Gulp Shrimp. Now I said they were looking for quantity but ended up getting quality as well. They caught a mixed bag of 25 trout (7 keepers) several lady fish, a sail cat and one very nice Jack. Capt. Todd says that although a majority of the trout you will catch using this technique are smaller, you are almost assured a couple nice trout along with the surprise redfish, jack, Spanish, cat and so on. He also says that for those of you who are targeting the larger trout and redfish you need to get shallow and time your trip with the moving tide. His second trip on Saturday was a tough one. The wind was blowing hard and he had to look deep into the creeks for those redfish. They had several hook-ups but couldn’t manage to boat them so he once again headed for the 3 foot mark with the Cajun Thunders. Again he managed to scare up a nice mess of trout and a couple smaller redfish. I too fished on Saturday and only managed two redfish and three trout so I know the conditions were tough. Capt. Todd has a knack for catching trout in some of the toughest conditions.
Tackle Tips: This week was tough if you couldn’t get out of the wind. For those of you who have not fished with a popping cork I recommend you put one in your tackle box. It is a sure fire way to turn a day around. It is especially good as a youth bait. Very simple to use and you can attach any of your favorite jigs to it.
Be sure to check out this weeks photo’s on our website at www.backbayadventures.com As always good look on the water.
Capt. Rob Womble & Capt. Todd Jones
Back Bay Adventures
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