The calm before the storm
Capt. John Rivers
September 4, 2008
Pensacola - Saltwater Fishing Report
What can I say about the fishing this past week? Not too much as we just had Hurricane Gustav come through about 175 miles to the west of us, which still brought high winds and rain for 3 days. I haven't been out since, but I'm sure the water is very murky and the fishing won't be too good for a few more days until the water clears up. The week before the storm the fishing was very good.
I was on the water 4 days last week and we had some great trips. My last trip we were hooking up with some nice 4 – 5 lb Spanish mackerel on top water plugs in the middle of the bay. The Spanish were working large schools of blood minnows, and mixed in the schools were 3 ft sharks, and one of the sharks hit my top-water plug and broke me off! It was a cool fight, but I hate losing a $5.00 plug to a shark. Luckily, the plug broke free and we saw it floating near by a few minutes later and we scooped it up. Along with catching some hard-fighting Spanish, we were also catching some nice bluefish and some of the biggest ladyfish I've ever seen.
Ladyfish or Skipjacks are a lot of fun; these powerful fish jump out of the water just like a tarpon, in fact a lot of people call skipjacks the poor man's tarpon. The shark bite has also been very good, with most of the sharks running 3 ft, but a few topping 5ft.
When the weather allows, and you're looking to catch some slot reds, check out some docks early in the morning along the ICW. It's hit and miss on the docks, but when you do find the fish it's well worth it. Trout fishing has been decent enough, and I've caught a few nice fish in the 17 – 20" range early on top-water and then as the day warms up, I've switched to a jig with a silver and chartreuse mixture.
I don't know much about the offshore bite, as I've stayed inshore mostly the past few weeks, but usually after a big tropical storm, the fishing is spectacular. I think we're going bottom- bumping on Sunday so watch for my report.
Tight Lines.
Capt. John Rivers
850-341-9816
Mega-Bite Inshore Charters
Thanks to my sponsors:
Mann's Lures, SPRO Fishing Tackle
Gamakatsu Hooks, Pure Fishing - Berkley
ABU Garcia, Shakespeare
More Fishing Reports:
