Everything but Marlin
Capt. Larry Pentel
June 15, 2008
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
The weather has turned to full on summer but the fishing is still as hot as the air. The King bite remains as good most days as it ever gets and there are still quite a few pelagics up in close to the beach.
I ran 2 dads and 2 boys who had never been with me before last week and we had "one of those days". Luckily it was one of those GREAT days. We had the usual assortment of bottom fish and Kings but we also landed a Wahoo 'bout 40# while King fishing. Quite the surprise as we were only 3 miles off the beach! An hour latter we were fishing for some (big) Black snapper and landed a 34# cobia, right after a pair of 12# Blacks! I think these folks will be back----
One of the best and most assorted 4 hour catches of the season-
As I said- the Kings are still HOT! I love a good Mackerel rally and it's even better when I've got kids on the boat. A young teenager and a hot bite has everybody yelling and scrambling and learning how to fish real fast! Great "on the job training" when they bite as fast as you can get the bait out. Plus we can fit a LOT of catchin' in a half day!
This group caught 17 kings (we released several that were not hooked bad)before going bottom fishing. The boys caught 'bout all of 'em.
These folks fish with me several days every year. They said they had 22 to feed and wanted a box full for a couple fish fry's. Mission accomplished!
Still some Grouper around as well. Just smart ones though-. We lost several fines ones yesterday and a REAL one today. If you are not ready when that bite happens or you make one mistake, it's all over quick. catchin' 'em in "shallow" water is way harder than deep. My crew 2 days ago had a couple anglers that did everything just right on some good bites tho and added 4 nice Gags to an all ready great 1/2 day catch.
Check out the "partial" Grouper- A bull shark almost got 'em all!
The kings will stay good till we get a different batch of water in from a weather change. The snappers will probably start to move off a little pretty soon as the water temp is up to 86 on the beach now. Probably be having to fish more in 80 feet plus 'stead of less pretty soon-. As long as we keep getting these pushes of Sargasso weed in the mahis and other offshore critters will be in on the beach for a while.
Less han 2 weeks and I'm off to chase Tarpons. As great as the fishing is here I'm looking forward to launching some fish over 200#! Not to mention tripletails. With the possible exception of sight fishing cobias tripletail fishin' gets me more excited than anything-. My son (capt William Pentel) called 2 days ago and said he had a 15# tripletail at the end of a trout trip in the bay- said capt Dan Davis went huntin''em in the Gulf and came in with 4 that were pushin' 60# total!!!!
Did I mention I'm excited?!!! Last year I had anglers land quite a few 'tails over 20#. If the "grass" keeps pushin' in the big fish should keep stackin' up over there-
I still have a few days in July including a couple 'round the 4th-. Give a call if you want to see "old Florida" at Indian Pass!
Capt Larry Pentel
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