Flounders For Fishmas
Capt. Larry Pentel
December 17, 2017
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
That time of the year when two of my favorite seasons collide, Christmas and Flounder ! I have always been a big fan of Christmas time, decorations, family, gatherings & presents always gets me happy and engaged. The fact that this is when the Flounder bite is at it's peak just off the beach at South Walton only makes it better. While we catch lots of bigger and harder pulling fish through the year I always get that feeling of accomplishment when I can trick a Flounder into eating my jig head and getting him in the boat. Sort of like sight fishing, there is an art to jiggin flounders. The fact that they not only taste so good but hold up in the freezer so well only makes them more desirable.
As always, the weather this time of year makes it so you can't get out as often as I would like but we have been able to take advantage of some really pretty days between the rough ones to fill the box. Last week had a couple of flat calm , sunny days that we still couldn't fish because the tide was so low ... no way to launch a boat. Just makes the go-able days that much more a treat in the winter I guess.
Along with the Flounder we have found the Amberines pretty thick and the Vermillions are still up in pretty close for winter time. Yesterday I ran a 5 hr trip and we were never more than 5 miles from the truck, we limited out on Vermillion Snapper and Amberines in 80 ft of water after catching Flounder up on the beach !
Yesterdays trip with local regulars. They had 2 dozen Flounders ( some BIG ones too), a limit of Vermillions and a limit of Amberines along with that nice Black Snapper in the middle. The box would barely shut... I was told I need a bigger board...
Another box full of Flounders... this group got a pile and then went release fishing Red Snappers and greater Amberjacks the rest of the trip.
These guys didn't want to hang fish as they were in a hurry to catch a football game.. But they had plenty of time to get a limit of fine Flounders on a half day trip first.
These guys "just wanted hard fighting fish". So we caught and released red Snappers for a while and then caught a limit of Amberines for the box. I had three of 'em put down their rods and say " you got me, I'm fished out"
Nice and warm today but the breeze is already blowin' from the SE this AM and the surf is coming up. With a couple groups of locals standing by I'm looking forward to the next calm sunny day to get back out there after those flatties !
Capt. Larry Pentel
DeadFish
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