The fishing is red hot in Pensacola, Navarre & Perdido Key
Capt. John Rivers
April 20, 2011
Pensacola - Saltwater Fishing Report
This is your weekly fishing report for April 17th. The annual sheepshead run is still going on; we're still catching fish in the 5 –8 lb range. So far, the biggest sheepshead on the boat this year went 9.75 lb-- that's a big one.
The sheepshead run is starting to wind down as they finish their spawn, and will probably be over in about two more weeks. Over the next few weeks, I'll be taking my clients out on the flats to stalk reds and trout with light tackle and using top-water plugs and soft-body jerk shads. If you love top-water fishing in the early morning; then May and June is your time for big gator trout. I have to say tossing a Mirr0lure Top Dog Jr. across the flats is one of my favorite things to do.
Back to what's currently going on in our area fishing wise. Last week we had a few very breezy days with winds over 25 knots, which kept me at the dock. The days I was able to get out we hooked a lot of big sheepshead, a few short grouper, some nice big redfish and even a few out of season red snapper. Yesterday my client Tim landed a nice 17" red snapper on light tackle and as he was fighting it, I could tell it was something different than a sheepshead. We took a quick picture and threw the red snapper back.
I was off the beaches a few days last week when the weather was calmer searching for cobia and jacks. I saw only two Cobia, but they wouldn't eat, so I changed plans and began looking for big jack schools running the sand bar. I didn't see any so we headed back in to fish the ledges for more sheepshead.
We've had little rain the past few weeks and the waters are very clear which makes for perfect sight fishing on the sand bars. I'll be out again this week scanning the waters for ling and jacks. If you want to see if your tackle is tough, just test it out on a Jack Crevalle; I call them tackle busters or hour jacks. I'm using all new Penn Battle and Penn Conquer reels, and with their HT100 drags and full body construction, these reels should have no problem handling these big jacks. They handled the March reds we found off the beach with no problems; some of the reds topped the scale over 25 lbs which is a trophy red in anyone's book. This week looks to be another great week along the panhandle. I'll be running most every day this week searching out Sheepies on the ledges, and I'm also going to hit the flats a little to see how the trout bite is. From what I've heard from fellow fishermen, the trout bite has been very good the past 10 days. The key to catching these spotted critters is to hit the water early and toss a top-water like a Mirr0lure Top Dog Jr. or artificial shrimp on a popping cork. Try Bass Assassin's Pearl White Shrimp or their Electric Chicken; these two colors have worked wonders for me in the past years. Summer is just around the corner and if you are wanting to have some great light tackle fishing, give me a shout and I'll teach you how to fish for gator trout on the sandy grass flats and show you the art of sight fishing the flats of the ICW in Santa Rosa Sound.
Till Next Time.
Tight Lines.
Capt. John
Thanks to my sponsors:
SPRO Fishing Tackle / Gamakatsu Hooks, Pure Fishing - Berkley
ABU Garcia, Penn Reels, All Star Rods & Mann's Lures
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