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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
October 21, 2002
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
I love Fall. The temperatures cool in the early AM, warm in the middle of the day. The beaches are almost empty, no traffic jams and I've put my sunscreen up for the year. Oh yeah, the fish seem to bite pretty good too.
I've been real fortunate to have been booked steady this month as there doesn't seem to be too many folks here. Most of my trips have been regulars who expect a good bite and a limit of something but I got to run a couple of "new" folks this week that made realize how much fun I'm really having.
Yesterdays trip was 3 kids in the 13 year old range and one Dad. They thought me picking 'em up the beach was the coolest thing since the outboard motor. Once we started fishing they really got into it. A 13 year boy old has an attention span about the same as a New York minute so I've learned to give 'em a quick lesson and then try to tutor them as we go. We made our first stop about 10 minutes off the beach and gave the snappers a good free buffet before capturing several nice ones. On to the next spot and now everybodys paying attention. All of 'em got a good snapper over 5# on this stop and lost some REAL ones. Out a little deeper and time to give Dad a shot at a glory fish. The boys are steady catching short snaps with the occasional keeper when Dad gets the grouper bite. In the rocks, out of the rocks and finally in the boat. Much high fiving and yelling. Just a warm up though for a few minutes latter one the boys gets hammered reeling up to check his bait. After a lot of yelling and me trying to give a crash course in fish fighting I gaffed a 20# king that was hooked in the moustache. How he didn't bite through the mono I'm not sure but it was obviuosly the biggest fish these boys had ever seen and 'bout 3#'s bigger than our grouper. We ended up our 4 hr. with 19 snapper, the grouper, the king and a spanish. First trip all week where we didn't limit out on snappers but the crew couldn't have been happier. And i didn't even try to teach 'em how to catch triggers-next trip.
Remember, Snapper season closes in 10 days so get 'em while you can. The amberines and the triggers are starting to show up on the beach pretty good so they should be here in force to fill the box when snappers close. The flounders should start in the next week or so also. I love it when they stack up on the inshore wrecks. It takes a light touch to figure them out but once you do you can bail 'em.
Capt. Larry Pentel
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