Kings Make a Full Boat
Capt. Larry Pentel
May 10, 2009
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Whew, after the worst spring weather wise I can recall we are finally coming into summer. The water is turning that beautiful Emerald Green again and while it hasn't been slick calm we have had a lot of very fishable weather. The cobia run kinda got weathered out this year but there are still a few coming by. The bait has finally shown up on the beach and the kings came in close behind. With most of all the fresh water finally gone from the springs floods the fishing will just get back to being excellent again. the forecast has a weak cold front coming through tomorrow that should give us that "perfect" pattern of a light North wind in the AM and a seabreeze the PM.
I picked a couple of folks up on the beach the other morning (from Montana!) who were clutching flyrods. While it was quite fishable it was breezy and choppy and the water on the beach was dark. They wanted to cobia fish with flyrods and I had my doubts as to how productive we could be given the conditions. I quick conference and they decided that there was no way they could accurately cast to a fish form a bouncy bow with a stiff wind. We blasted offshore, did a little bottom fishin' and made sure we had enough in the box for a fish fry. Changed gears, ran to where I thought there might be some Kings and flipped a live cig out on a spinning rod. I think we had to wait all of 15 seconds before we were on. Fought and boated that fish, flipped out another bait and - launch ! A beautiful sky rocket in about the same amount of time. One of my anglers quickly said " We can catch these on a fly rod!". I said "yup- that's why we're here. let me put some steel in front of what you want to throw" . This fellow had not just tied the streamers he threw but had also built the rod, just for this trip. They took turns using the fly and we probably had 10 different fish crash the lure with a couple of very impressive strikes. I think we boated 7 kings, releasing one smaller one and keeping our limit of 6.
One Proud Angler
A cooler full, especially for fly guys!
While the bite has been good all week with the groupers chewing hard just ahead of the full moon we usually lose WAY more groupers than we land- It's hard to learn that timing and finesse thing in a 4 hour trip. Most days we come in with a couple and leave most of 'em a little wiser.
I ran one of my neighbors, an experienced angler, his son just home from law school and a possible, potential future daughter in law the other day. We went and chased kings right off the bat and they bit great for us. The gal had never been before but learned quick, had good aptitude for fishing and ended up landing the biggest king. With a 6 hour time frame I still had plenty of time to go bottom fishing so we went in search of grouper bites. Not only did we find 'em but my anglers won the majority of the battles. I expected my neighbor to shine but the young lady (all 105# of her) kicked butt. She figured it all out after missing her first grouper bite and put the guys to shame. Same baits, same tackle- she just had the knack. Not only did she land the biggest fish but the most also. I always say that gals just have a better feel for bottom fishing naturally.
Braggin' Rights !!
The funniest part is that they were supposed to all go trout fishing the next day in my neighbors boat- She said no, she'd go have her nails done. No need to catch "little" fish!
Okay- it's warm, fairly calm and the fish are biting- go catch something!
Capt Larry Pentel
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