2016 Pensacola Fishing Report Forecast
Capt. John Rivers
January 28, 2016
Pensacola - Saltwater Fishing Report
2016 is already shaping up to be a good year for fishing.
Let me break down what the year has in store for us.
February can be a very good month for specks, but you have to find windows in between the cold fronts and windy conditions, plus we had a lot of rain at the end of December and the at the start of January that messed up the conditions a bit so February might be a little more tricky than I like. But February is a short month, and then we go right into March and that means Spring Break and sheepshead and red fishing in Pensacola Pass. Starting around March 12th give or take a few days, our annual sheepshead run starts and lasts about 6 weeks. This is a really unique type of fishing, and it is a lot of fun. It's one of the only times I put live bait on the boat, as I normally use artificials the rest of the year, but these sheepshead are live shrimp connoisseurs, and hold out for the real deal. April is some really awesome fishing too as the first two weeks we're still catching sheepshead, but now we're also going after Jack Crevalle off the beaches along with big redfish.
A few weeks later the Ling, (cobia), show up and they are a ton of fun. You just have to find a window between the windy conditions to get out along the beaches. May is one of my favorite times to fish, because of the great fishing for speckled trout and it's a great time to catch one over 5 lbs. Not only is the speck fishing outstanding, but so is the slot red fishing. June is all around a great month; we're still on the flats catching big specks and reds all month but around the last two weeks of June we're chasing bluefish, Spanish mackerel and ladyfish that have showed up.
Let's talk Red Snapper fishing for a minute, I do run these trips, but it has to be slick in the gulf or I don't venture out. I do not like getting beat up or having my clients get beat up, so if the gulf is bouncy, we're staying inshore tossing lures on the flats for trout, redfish and a variety of other fun inshore species.
July is another fun month as all species are here and the fishing is good, but just one thing, make sure you got to bed early as my trips start at daylight (5:30 am) so we're usually off the water around 9:30 to 10am. I do run afternoon trips, in both June and July, and on these trips we're catching skipjacks, aka (ladyfish), and sharks; it's too hot to try to catch trout and redfish on the flats, so I go after fish that will bite and pull some drag so you have fun and possibly get to see some big sharks. Make sure you drink your protein shake for these shark trips, as they don't come to the boat easy.
I'll stop here for now but as you can see, the next six months is going to be some great fishing. If you're heading to the Panhandle for vacation and are looking for a fishing trip and want to know what's biting, give me a ring and I'll let you know what's going on.
See my Facebook page for daily updates; I post on there almost every day and most of the time it's real time while I'm on the water.
www.facebook.com/megabiteinshore
Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great day.
John
www.megabiteinshore.com
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