Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
September 24, 2002
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

What should be the nicest, calmest and least crowded time of the year for fishing has all but been shut down the past couple of weeks. Hanna, Issadore and now Lily have kept the Dead Fish on her trailer for a while and for what looks like possibly another week.

We did have 4 "chamber of commerce" days after Hanna and before Issadore in the middle of last week( storms always seem to come on the weekend). I was fortunate enough to have trips booked on two of these days. While the previous rough surf may have kept the tourists out of the water it sure didn't hurt the fishing. On the first trip I had 4 gentlemen who got hammered so many times I was afraid we were going to run out of hooks. Every spot I stopped on we had a couple of "frieght train" bites that they couldn't stop. The big fish were definately on. We did manage to put a good mess of red snapper in the boat with the biggest at about 8#. After 2 1/2 hours tho the fish had wore out my folks! They said they had plenty of fish to eat and were hot and tired. So we went in- 3 hrs from the time I picked 'em up till I dropped 'em off. Not what I expected on a slick calm day but everybody was real happy with the trip.

A couple days later (fri.) I tried again. This time the groupers weren't on but the snappers were still chewin'. Our first stop put a dozen in the boat with half of those 'tween 5-10#. The bite probably would have kept up but a FINE sand tiger 'round 9 ft or so decided to stay right around the boat and shut down the fish. My folks were so impressed with watching the big fellow cruise around for 10 minutes they didn't mind at all. We went on to catch our limit of Red Snapper and some odds and ends pretty quick on some other spots. This was a four hour trip and these folks wanted to fish it all- my kind of trip., We put out the mackeral tackle and trolled live baits around some big bait schools for almost an hour before the trip was up without a hit. I was real glad we went bottom fishing first. I assume the previous rough weather had blown the kings around too much.

With Issadore back over water and headed toward La. it will probably be a while before I can get back to work. I hate having to cancel trips but there is no point in even trying to go when you KNOW it's not going to be fun. Folks, if the Capt. ( who is the man getting paid) tells you it's rough and not safe you need to listen to him. I am always amazed at the people who will get upset ( not many but always a few)when I cancel a trip do to high seas. Sam Clemons once said "everybody talks about the weather but no ones does anything about it". The man running the boat sure didn't order bad weather- if the boat doesn't run the dollars can't either but the last thing I'm gouing to do is deliberately put anyone in a potentially (seriously)dangerous position. We all love repeat business-it's hard to get your customers back if you kill 'em on the first trip.

Capt. Larry Pentel

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