Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
June 2, 2006
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

Today was my first day off(the water) in 2 weeks- can't really call it a day off 'cause there are all these land based things I had to do!

The weather has been fantastic, the gulf calm and clear and the June grass has even dissapeared (for now). The fishing has been great too!

The kings showed real good the past few days and we had limits of them along with our snappers and groupers on several trips. Been some right nice ones mixed in too. The big news though has been ( drum roll please.....) COBIA!!! After a rather dissapointing April I am suddenly finding 'em at the end of May and 1st of June. The weather pattern changed about 2 weeks ago and the west wind that had blown for 2 1/2 months stopped. The current changed a few days latter and bingo ! We have landed 6 fine fish the past week and I know of several others caught by other boats also. The biggest we got weighed right at 50# and we found a pair one day that we not only got both of but got the smaller one (17#) on a light 12# test spinning rig- quite the battle. That pair shared the board with 15 Red Snapper, 6 Groupers and 14 triggers. It was supposed to be a 4 hour but we came in almost an hour late. We were done with the day and runnin' in when I saw the pair of flatheads swimming on top about a mile offshore- needless to say nobody complained about the delay!

The most heart stopping fish followed a hooked king to the boat. I saw 'em, hooked up a live hardtail and cast. Now normally I'll trim the tail off a 'runner so the target species can catch up-In my haste I didn't and watched as the cobia chased the blue runner all the way to the boat and then turned back to the still hooked king. This happened on three consecutive casts with the cobia doing everything he could to eat the bait! I finally swatted the bait on the deck to stun 'em and flipped it in front of a very frustrated cobia. Major explosion and finally we hooked up!

Back runnin again tommorrow- Hopefully with just as much exitement and fish as the past 2 weeks!

Capt Larry Pentel

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