Hot at 55 Degrees
Capt. Larry Pentel
December 29, 2009
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Back in SOWAL from visiting daughter and son-in law on the coast in Maine. To all those who witch about the cold here (including me)-I now see why all these northerners want to be on 30-A. When the edges of the bay are solid ice, the high temp for the day is 15 degrees and it takes an hour to get dressed to go outside, 55 degrees would be GREAT!
We came back and had a great Florida Christmas but missed a few pretty days that some of the other grayton boats went out on and played with the finny critters. The 27th looked to be a nice day so I put a crew together and we went to see what we could find. While the temp never even broke 60 I was happy to be on the water with just a couple layers of clothes !
Fishing was great and catchin' was pretty good too. We didn't fill up the box with keeper fish but released the majority of what we caught. The bait bit well for us and we started off with a livewell full of pinfish and small rubylips. I thought there was enough bait for a days fishing but the bite on the second place we checked had us burning through the wiggglers at a fast pace. I rounded up on the spot, everybody dropped and everybody got slammed within a minute. Lots of yellin' and grunting with a couple big fish hooked up that had us thinkin' a grouper rally. The big fish turned coppery colored when they came to the surface though as the spot had a school of big Redfish living on it. We fished through our baits in about an hour getting bites as fast as we hit the bottom. We released 3 reds over 30#, most were in the 15-20# range. Interspersed in were quite a few grouper, with 3 of 'em being above the magic size.
Great Fun !
As fast as you could bait and drop !
The bite shut down and we were out of live bait so we went and looked around a bit. Still big Red Snappers on just about any spot we checked. We released one pushing 20# and the front 2/3rds of another that the "landlord" got to as well as a few dozen regulars.
Got to pay the rent---
Just about every piece of bottom we checked had a good bite of Pink Snappers on it and we found a nice school of Vermillions as well. I 2 hook fished the B-liners while the others slip leaded, keeping 5 of the "legal" snappers to bring home to the table. We didn't find another rally but rather a lot of groupers that really didn't want to commit, they would chase the bait around, play with it and then eventually the snappers or triggers would eat it up. I think we caught another dozen groupers with 1 more being of keeper length.
A great dinner in the making ! The fellow on the right knows what to do with 'em too!
Amberjacks reopen on the 1st of Jan. and the 2nd looks to be a pretty day. I hope to have some folks that want to go chase 'em. I should have a report on them and on the redfish up in the skinny water next time I post.
Enjoy these warm sunny days ! It may seem cold to us but it sure beats the rest of the country!
Capt Larry Pentel
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