Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
July 18, 2004
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

A blowy and rainy day at the "Pass" so I'm finally typing a report.

It's been a pretty good Tarpon season so far this year.Have had multiple hook ups several days and got 2 big fish to the boat within a cpouple hours of each other tues.. Lots of big fish tho which is one of those good news/bad news deals. Eveybody wants a big fish but when your tied to a 200# Tarpon for several hours and it starts jumping (again) a lot of anglers realize they may be out gunned.The longer they fight the more chances they have to get off. The bigger they are the longer they fight. I have yet to hook a fish under 100# so far this year and have only seen a couple. We have hooked several in the 200#+ range tho. Biggest we have got to the boat so far has been around 160#. With the number of big ones around I'm sure we'll get a double mark to the boat before the seasons over.

Some of the locals from Grayton hve come over to Tarpon fish with me and one of 'em had a great show the past 2 days. The fellow that helps me launch at grayton most mornings is here with his boat and sons chasing 'poons. They hooked one in West Pass that they fought for over 4 hours before it dumped the reel and broke off on a run. They estimated it at "over 180#". The son who had fought it said the fish deserved it's freedom. The next day ( in the same spot) the other son hooks up. After a 3 hour plus fight ( including riding out a lightning squall) he brought his "tarpon" up to the boat- He had a sting ray in the 200# range! Much ribbing on the radio yesterday evening and on the porch this morning. If the rain dosn't stop soon and the beer comes out early I imagine he is going to be hearing about it untill bedtime,unless his brother wakes him up just to mess with him in the middle of the night.

Quite a few tripletails around with several spotted that would classify as "huge" one of the locals had one at 23# this week, caught, landed, confirmed. I had a charter last week that liked to triple tail fish and we brought in 5 that totaled over 50#. Smallest was 8 and the biggest 14.

For those that like to shark fish this is still the place to be. Any body out there says sharks are in trouble or over fished can get on my boat for free and go fishing behind a shrimper in the AM for an hour if they promise to jump in when the hours up. After watching the toothy critters school up like mullet I doubt I'll have any takers. I have run several shark trips this month with the action so fast that my anglers had to quit in 2 hours just from being beat down.

Weather forecast looks MUCH better for tommorrow- guess I'll get chore done today

Capt. larry Pentel

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