Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
November 12, 2004
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

It's been almost 2 weeks since I've been in the Gulf! Done plenty of fishin' just haven't been offshore. We came back from Indian Pass yesterday and I'm happy to report that the redfish are right where I left 'em last year.

My first trip was under great conditions and the couple I had fishin' got 7 reds to the boat and pulled off probably 2 dozen more from right at the bite to after a 15 minute fight and right at the boat. As always there is a "learning curve" in sight fishing and as I had the same folks for the next day I had great hopes. As expected we did even better the next day, not quite as many fish up on the flats but my anglers were seeing 'em better and the lures were landing right in front of the fish. They boated 11 ( all released) and decided it was lunch time. I ran back out in the bay to a big oyster bar and we shucked oysters till we were full. The birds were starting to fly , giving away the trout schools locations so we switched gears and tackle to speck fishin.

The first 5 schools we hit were all small fish. Lots of bites but only an occasional hook up and then to a throw back. After about an hour we found a school of good size fish that were starvin'. A bite (or 2) every cast and they quickly put 15 trout and a big spanish in the boat. At the end of the rally we tried to figure out just how many fish they had to the boat. Three figures but they ranged from 65 to 80 trout- In any case it was a great day.

Several other days of great fishin'. Sight fishing in the AM and schooling trout in the PM finished out the week. Of course I also had several days that it rained and blew too hard to even think about putting the boat in but on those days I went to the boat ramp and threw the cast net to get enough shrimp for dinner. The only way to starve down here is to be REAL lazy.

The fellows that stayed at Grayton and fished reported good fishing on the calm days but not many of 'em. Seems I picked a good 2 weeks to leave. I'm off to the frigid ( I heard you had to wear shoes, socks and coats in Nov.) North to visit relatives for the next week so no boats for me.. I wonder, will a Yamaha even crank if the waters is only 50 degrees?

I've got lots of Gulf trips booked Thanksgiving week so if it's calm I should have a report at the end of the month.

Nows the time to start dropping hints about that new flats boat or express fisherman to santa- don't want to wait till you can't get the right size or color!!!!

Capt. Larry Pentel

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