A Fishy Thanksgiving
Capt. Larry Pentel
December 1, 2009
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
The Thanksgiving holidays have come and gone but, boy, was it great week. The Gulf stayed calm up on the beach and while it was cool a couple days there were a few days with t-shirt weather. A few of our visitors were even swimming while I was cleaning fish a couple afternoons. From 45 degrees at daylight to 75 at 2PM it was perfect fall weather. Oh yea, the fish bit great too!
I got to run 5 days there during the holiday break and one right before. The first trip was a couple regulars who wanted some fresh grouper and a shot at the Fall Flounder bite. We targeted the flatfish first and did well, putting 14 in the boat. They were on their game and we had a great start. Hit a jack hole and got a limit of amberines pretty fast, all-right things are good, now for the grouper. I mentioned these boys are regulars, usually pretty good with a 4/0. When I say we missed a few bites I mean it was getting scary- The grouper bite had not been that great prior to now and I amazed at how many bites we were finding. Not catching mind you, just finding! We did land several Kings on the fly pole thru all this so the box was getting fuller. Finally, on the 2nd to the last stop all the stars aligned and they boated a big Red Grouper, quickly followed by another pair of keepers. Whew, i was worried for bit!
A great board with a bunch more flounders and ambers in the box.
We had a front come through right before the start of the holiday week and drop the water temp a few degrees. I ran a trip the first day after and found no bait on the beach. Oh well, that time of the year. My folks had a great catch with amberines, a gag, some triggers and double handful of snappers we can still keep ( black, lane, pink) even with no live cigs.
Most the species of Snappers accounted for
Next day I'm still out at daylight looking for bait (just in case!) but only found a handful. No problem, my pair of anglers had never been off the beach before and were astonished at the bite they had. Once again we limited out on Amberines, had some nice triggers and a pair of Kings (the 4 baits I did catch paid off!).
Not bad for first timers
All-right, it's the day before Thanksgiving and I've got a family scheduled that has fished with me a lot. I go out at daylight to try to catch a minnow or 2 and Wow! Bait everywhere! I don't know where they had been but the live well is full and I just know that the amberines are going to eat 'em up. I pick up my folks and we blast to the jack spot. Sure enough, bites right away. Only today they ARE jacks. We fish for over half an hour and only land 1 amberine- everything else is an AJ (currently closed). No problem , my folks say they don't need much fish to keep, just enough for a couple dinners and can we go big Fish fishin' instead of tryin' to fill the box ? Ok, I've got the best well of bait in weeks so I figure I'll at least keep a fly pole out while we bottom fish-----. Here we go-- Big fish on ! You can see from the pic below that the plan worked out great, we even stopped on the way in for a quick hit at a flounder hole and boated 6 of them.
The kings weighed 22# and 35#- the Black Snapper over 12#
The day after Thanksgiving and I try the jack spot again. What a bite ! We limit out easily on the amberines and go on to catch another pair of Kings (normal size) a grouper and some Triggers.
What a jack bite ! Still more in the box
My last trip booked for the week was the daughter and son-in law ( with their buddies) of one of my "hard core" regulars. She has definitely inherited the fishin' gene from her Dad as she was showin' the boys up for most of the trip. We hit the jacks hard and then went triggerfish fishin' (she caught 3 of the 4 we kept and most of what we threw back). On to grouper diggin' and she put 2 keepers in the box pretty quick ! Luckily the boys each answered with a BIG grouper so they had braggin' rights. Her husband put his second grouper in the box before our 4 hours was up so he saved face to even the "kept" score. I think she still outfished him tho----
Fine Groupers, Those are 6-7# jacks in thier mouths !
Lots of weather coming this week with Gale warnings already up for tomorrow. I'm just glad the holidays were so pretty and we got to fish so much. Probably be a bit before I write another report. The fishin' will stay good if the weather cooperates but I don't have any trips booked for a while. If it gets back nice and pretty again I'm going to head over to Indian Pass for a bus drivers holiday and try to wear out the trout and redfish. In between picking up and eating oysters of course !!!!
What a year to be thankful for !!!!!
Capt Larry Pentel
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