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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
January 20, 2001
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
OFFSHORE
Luckily there are more fish wanting to play this time of the year then there are fishermen. I have only run one gulf trip so far this year. Of course there have only been about 4 other days when it was warm and calm enough to be fun. I took two local folks out who wanted groupers and didn't have any trouble keepin' em happy. We caught our 10 groupers without having any live bait and never fishing more than 50# test line. The biggest fish landed was about 18# with some big ones lost. We even had 2 break hooks!! Kind of a disapointment when you've managed to keep this big fish out of the bottom for 10 minutes only to have the hook break 20 ft. under the boat-Any Daiichi or Owner reps out there ? We broke one of each. We also had what one of my anglers was calling a 30# grouper only to have it turn into a 15# Red Snapper when it came to the boat. Those "charter boat sows" will kick even the most experienced fisherman when you catch 'em in short water. And probably the biggest kick we all had was when both my anglers loaded up at the same time to a great tug of war that acted a little different from the groupers in the box. I put the gaff down and released a pair of redfish that went over 30#. I'm looking forward to some pretty weather next week to take some more locals out. I don't know who'smore anxious, my trip or me.
INSHORE
As I had hoped I got to spend the first 10 days of the New Year at Indian Pass. The weather was record cold and the redfishing was record fantastic. I ran one trip with some folks from Destin who I don't think believed me when I told then what to expect. One fellow was an experienced angler and the other one held his spinning reel upsidedown for 3 hours( he still caught 3 fish sight fishing!!!) In 3 hours we had 27 fish eat our artificials on 6# test. Now mind you this is sight fishing in a foot of water with me on the poling platform and one angler at a time on the bow throwing to individual fish and watching 'em eat. You get more worn out from all the adrenalin pumping than actually fighting fish! Our biggest fish that day was about 14# with the average size being around 8#.
I got to "play fish" myself and with Capt. Randall Jones several days that were just incredible. Seeing 500 fish or more on a 3 hour tide. We caught fish on spinning tackle, fly rods and ate oysters till it just couldn't get any better. One of the local guides from St. Joe Bay cornered us one evening and asked if were catching any fish with all these days we were on the water, he'd heard that the trout were slow. "C'mere bud, buy me a beer and I'll let you in on a little secret". The most unbelieveable part of the whole trip was my boat was the only one up one the flats the whole time!!!
Oh yeah, lots of sheepshead around from what I've heard. I just get so caught in sight fishin' and grouper diggin' I just can't find the time to chase everything thats out there.
Stay Warm and keep fresh washers on your drag ,there is plenty of fish to pull 'em
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