Fishing When We Can
Capt. Larry Pentel
October 25, 2017
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
I know it's been 3 weeks or so since I wrote but we have only been able to fish about 10 days of that time. Between Hurricanes that hit elsewhere but kicked the Gulf up and just regular old cold fronts and breezy days I have sure had to cancel a lot of fishing trips this fall. Before Nate came in and kicked things up the King Mackerel bite was as good as it gets. I had several trips with limit catches in 2 hours or so. Since Nate we have still been catching a few and finding some bigger ones but not near as hot a bite. Plenty of Vermillion Snappers to catch if you can get 5 miles or better off the beach. There have been several days where it was calm in close but way bouncy 5 miles out.... Not always a bad thing though, we had a couple of great catches up in close I never would have had if it would have been calm and we ran on out. That's fishing ! You never know just how the fish will bite till you go...
here's some pics from when we did get to go this month
A limit of Kings and a few Spanish in less than 2 hours... they caught and released Red Snappers for the rest of the 3 hr trip !
Long time regulars with part of a limit of Amberines and a pile of Vermillions
This group comes every fall and fishes 2 days in a row to fill the freezer for the winter. This first day was rough so we stayed in close and came in early.... With a limit of Amberines and some big Triggers on a legal Trigger day.
Day 2 was much calmer and they got a limit of Triggers, some more Amberine, Vermillions, nice Lane Snapper and big King
The afternoon trip with another limit of Triggers, Amberine, Lane and Vermillions
Yes Virginia, that young man really did catch that BIG King by himself....He practiced on 2 of the others first. The big one did him in though so he let his dad catch the last 2.
Our 10 day state triggerfish season kept opening on weekends that coincided with ROUGH weather... We only got to fish about 3 1/2 days of the 10 so the state gave us an additional weekend last weekend. That was too rough to fish again !! They announced today that Triggers will be open yet again November 4th & 5th. I don't know whether to be excited we may get to keep a few more or to be worried that there will now be a named storm in the Gulf that weekend......
The Flounders are just starting to show with a few reports of some being caught. It'll be another couple weeks before they get thick enough for me to be targeting 'em but I am getting excited already. In the meantime there should be lots of other finny critters to catch provided the Gulf lays down for a bit. The big King Mackerel run has yet to happen and I love a King rally !
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