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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
November 1, 2004
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Well, Snapper season and the "official" tourist season ended yesterday, the last day of October. The chamber of commerce couldn't have orderd better weather to end the season on. The past week has been just fantastic. Highs in the mid 80's, light winds calm seas and gin clear water.
I went every day for the past week and we had some great catches. I didn't have a trip one day and went lookin' for some of my wrecks that hurricane Ivan "dissapeared" on me. I'm pleased to say that I found several and they were packin'!
I've got a couple that comes every year at the end of Oct to get in on the end of snappers and try to get a box of other species as well. We went out and the fish were biting real good. I kept trying to throw the Snappers back that we were getting and the gal kept wanting me to keep 'em saying they were legal. I agreed but said we should wait for the bigger ones to fill the limit. They landed 6 keeper grouper ( and a bunch of "almosts"), some amberines, a BIG King, some trigs and I "let" her keep 6 nice snapper. With a half hour left to our 4 hours I ran to one of the moved wrecks I'd found and threw a handful of dead baits over the side. The wind was still, the water clear and the snappers and triggers swam right up to the boat so it was like looking into a giant aqaurium. My folks each caught a nice a snapper in the 8# class and had another on when my female angler suddenly realized why I had been throwing the 3 lb fish back all morning. " We can only keep 2 more!". She was enthralled with being able to watch the fish come up and chase her bait, pulling it away from the smaller ones and yelling encouragement to the bigger ones. With a limit in the box I let her catch and release a couple more before we went in.- I kinda like watchin' 'em right at the boat too you know-.
The end of snapper season will slow down the folks wanting to go but the fishing right now is such that one species off limits shouldn't matter. The trigger fish are so thick thats it's hard to even get a live bait to the bottom on a lot of spots untill you feed 'em up. I ran a "freezer" trip last week and we had 40 head of triggers in just over an hour before we went slip lead fishin'. They may not photograph that well but there is NOTHING out there that tastes any better. The water is still 78 deg. so the kings will probably be here thru Thanksgiving. While I haven't landed a huge one yet this fall we have been getting a lot of fish in the 20 to 30 lb. class and have had a little angler error on some around 40. The groupers are still here and are cooperating well on just about any bigger live bait. The amberines move around so much that you can't gaurantee where the big schoools will be on any given day but I don't think I've gone a day in the past two weeks without catchin' a few and have had to run FROM them a couple days to try to get other species. And the Black fins are moving thru as well.
To further confuse the mind of fishermen like me ( easily done) the inshore bite is happening too. I'm off to Indian Pass this friday to run trout and redfish trips for a week. All the reports I've had are that the trout are "everywhere". The biggest problem is moving around to find a school of the size you want. Lots and Lots of fish a little to small, some schools a little to big ( once you've got your 1 over 21") kinda sounds like Goldilocks and the three fishermen. "AND this school is juuust right!"
Enjoy this Indian Summer weather and go fishin'. It won't be too long before it's Feb., cold, rough and a some fond fishin' memories may be just what you need to pull you you thru till cobia season ( only 4 1/2 months away!)
Capt. Larry Pentel
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