Lots of Fish- Lots of Species
Capt. Larry Pentel
May 9, 2008
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
All the skinny kids with surfboards are out today so I get a day off to fix all that tackle and write a report. The only "bad" day of fishin' this time of year is the day the surf is too rough to launch the boat----.
The cobia run seems to have wound down. The last couple days we went and looked I did not see any. I have heard a few reports of fish being caught but the big push of fish seems to have come through. I'll keep a rod rigged with a big jig and another with a mono leader and a big live bait hook for the next few weeks still. You never know when you are going to come across that wad of a dozen just milling around. It seems like it happens to me at least once every May!
These ladies had a great time catching these bottom dwellers and then got to tussle with a fine cobia. Unfortunately the angler got out horse-powered and gave out before the fish did!
All the other species are right on schedule and more than willing to play. We are catching Red Snappers darn near everywhere we fish and releasing most. The nice thing about the smaller limit is we can be a little selective and just keep a few bigger fish. I had one group last week that said they figured they came out with the same weight in snapper fillets as they would have had the limits not changed-- We just kept fish that were twice as big as the past few years!
The kings are here with a lot of the fish being a good grade. Being Kings they have that on/off switch that gets flipped fairly regularly but when it's in the on mode there are a lot of 20#-30# fish ending up in the box. We quit bottom fishin' with about 45 minutes left on a half day last week and my client said I was being optimistic to chase kings in that time -- We quickly boated 3 and missed 2 more before heading back to the trailer. He was quite pleased and took one straight from the boat to the kitchen-- said those snappers would freeze just fine and he was looking forward to fresh fried mackerel for lunch!
Snappers, Groupers, Triggers and Kings. Not much time to do anything but wind!!
Another species that has shown back up are the triggers. Kind of conspicuous in their absence this winter the past week they have shown up right back on the beach. Three days ago I had a fellow run a 3 hook rig and catch 6 keepers and a bunch of shorts. Two days ago we came in with 19 keepers, about half were in the "large" grade. Yesterday we had one that was pushing 10 pounds. I was calling it a 15# snapper from the way it was fighting!! They should stick around 'till the water gets hot in July or so. A few of those tasty critters are a welcome addition to any box of fish!!
Those triggers will be might tasty after marinating in hot p-nut oil! The lanes and the big vermillions sure make some great "bonus" snappers as well!
The hardtails have shown up on the beach this past week as well. While this make it WAY harder for me to have a tank full of live cigar minnows and herring in the well in the morning it should bring a push of amberjacks in close. Most years the jacks show up in force a week to 10 days after the 'tails. If there is a better bait to get an AJ to eat than a hardtail I sure haven't found it!!!
Fishing is great, the forecast is just for it to get better with more options in easy reach of the beach as the water warms. Get on out there and catch something!!
Capt Larry Pentel
Target Species:
grouper, snapper, triggerfish, king mackeral
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