Opening day trout bite competes with Amberjacks
Capt. Larry Pentel
March 4, 2008
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Trout season opened in Northwest Florida to a beautiful spring day. I took a couple out at Indian Pass to see if the fish were in a cooperative mode after all the recent rains. The tide was pouring in and the fish just happened to be in the first spot I tried. We caught about 30 or so keeping 7 and then went looking around to see if we could get some oysters. The tide had come in too much and all the good bars were under water so we went back to throwing jigs and got a repeat on the action finishing out our 15 fish limit. No big fish but lots of 'em. Every fish we caught was in the 14 1/2 to 17 inch range with most of 'em about 14 3/4. They seem to know when to stop growin'!
A keeper!
The fruits of opening day.
we went out again the next morning (early) and picked up our oyster limit while the tide was low. Threw a few times for trout but only had a couple bites. I think the water was still a little too fresh for 'em to feed- my folks didn't want to keep any more anyway so we went back to the fish camp and had oysters for lunch!
Out in the Gulf the Jacks are still doing thier thing. This was part of a fine box of fish from a week ago. We caught a couple fine grouper (one over 25#) while Jack fishing in Federal waters that had to be released along with a 17# Red Snapper. After everybody was beat down from the Amberjacks we moved up in shore and found some groupers to bite where it's legal to keep 'em along with 8 Triggers and this small shark. The trigger bite seems to finally be improving a little.
No excuses now- Trout are back open, the sheepsheads are thick at any big inshore structure- the AJ's'll hit anything that wiggles and a triggerfish fillet is one of the best things you can put in your mouth. Get out there and fish!
capt Larry Pentel
Target Species:
Speckled trout, Amberjack, Grouper, Trigger
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