Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
June 5, 2002
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

The weather this past week would make any chamber of commerce proud. The gulf has been slick untill after lunch the past several days and the temps have been in the high 90's. It's great to live here when you can't complain.

The snappers seem to have slowed a little. It's been a week since I had a limit on the boat. Now wait a minute, before you think I'm slipping let me explain. Two days this week I had "kid trips" mom, dad and three kids or 2 dads and three kids. One day the kids were 5-7-10. We went and put a hurtin' on the triggerfish and vermillion snappers both days. After catching a dozen or more good fish even the most exited young angler starts to wear down. Then we can go and get the big folks a few glory fish. One trip with little guys we had 2 dozen trigs 14 big BB's and a few pinks in the boat before I went snapper fishing. On my first snapper stop I had two kids holding a rod and the 3rd turning the handle. They outfished mom and dad by 2 to 1 before the kings turned on and put us on plan B. Mom and dad caught 4 kings to 25# in the time left we had on our 4 hr trip. The kids were so wore down by then I think they were glad all they got to do was cheer on the parents.

We also had a couple of "big fish" trips. One day we had a limit of Amberjacks and 2 nice (to 20#) groupers in the box before we started snapper fishin'. And the black snappers have been making a good showing too with a lot of them in the 7-10# class. They don't count towards our limit of reds so-- I don't feel to bad about not fillin' the box with red regulars since last Thurs.

There have been several good weed lines showing up the past week. The biggest mahi we've caught was about 8# but I've heard of quite a few bigger ones and lots of wahoo from the serious trolling crowd. Sounds like the tunas have been doing pretty good offshore also. The Dead Fish does just fine staying within sight of land. We'll leave that for the "big" boys.

Tarpon season is rapidly approaching and I'll be leaving for Indian Pass in about 3 weeks. Still quite a few open days in July( August has almost filled up). so--- give me a call if you want to launch a silver rocket, the most adrenaline you can get (legally).

Capt. Larry Pentel

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