Panhandle - Panama City, West Bay & Port St. Joe

Capt. Rob Womble
July 4, 2007
Panama City - Saltwater Fishing Report

TROUT! TROUT! TROUT!

The trout bite is on...... and folks we are catching good sized trout.We checked our log books and have caught 17 trout over 5 lbs.in June alone,not to mention the Gators we caught early this spring!



The winds are down the water is up and the bait is in. Most of our larger trout are being caught in 1 foot of water or less. The lure of choice is just about any topwater plug that will give you that “walk the dog” action. We have been targeting several different patterns for these guys. The first is any large point of land that has a good grass flat around it. The reason a point is so good is the trout will hang out on the down current side and wait for the bait to wash by with the current or wind. The second pattern we have been using this week is fishing the transition from shallow (1 foot or less) to deeper water ( 1 to 3 foot). This transition works well because the trout usually stage in the cooler deeper water and make excursions into the shallows to feed. Try looking for those openings in the sea grass and dropping a soft bait in on them.



The best time to target the trout is early morning or late afternoon. Try timing your trip to the moving tide. I have found that the absolute best time is the falling tide in the evening. I like to throw my lure as far up current and or wind as possible and work it back with the current. Have a soft bait at the ready for those trout that short strike the plug. Leave the plug in the water and toss the soft bait right on in behind it. This technique will usually produce.

For those of you who like to fly fish….now is a great time to take a shot at one of those large gator trout. I like to use a popping fly dressed with white feathers and maybe a little pink crystal flash. Remember if the fly is too big it can be a little harder to cast and if it’s too small it may not tempt the fish. If the fish are a little spooky try a longer leader with a softer presentation. Look for the bait and lay the fly in on them. Short quick strips will normally produce the desired action.



All the trips Capt. Todd and I have run this week have produced good sized trout in the 3 to 5lb range. On Thursday morning I took Jay Smaistrla fishing up in North Bay. He requested we target trout…and so we did. We kinda had problem getting a limit because most of the trout were over 20 inches. I tried to move deeper hoping we could catch a couple smaller keepers but they all ended up to small so we pushed back into the shallow and managed a good limit with our biggest at 4 lbs.

Capt. Todd has been nailing the big trout as well. He likes to fish the transition between the shallow and deeper flats. Tuesday morning Capt. Todd’s customer limited out early and landed several trout over 20 inches with the largest coming in at 5 lbs.



For you redfish hunters out there don’t worry the bite has been steady for the last couple weeks. They are still holding tight to the grass on a high or incoming tide and pushing further from the grass with the falling tide. We have noticed that they are spread out a little more and not grouping up at the mouth of the creeks as much as they were a couple weeks ago. There are several good ways to locate them. If there is a little wind on the water I will use a topwater plug. If it is slick calm I like to use a gold spoon or a sinking minnow. Both will allow you to cover a good amount of water. As always good luck on the water, safe boating and remember to give other anglers their space.

Capt. Rob & Capt. Todd Back Bay Adventures www.backbayadventures.com

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