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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
July 12, 2006
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
A day off! Not planned but my folks had to cancel at the last minute so I'm putting it to good use getting all these chores done.
Been fishing out of Indian Pass for 11 days now and the Tarpon are starting to get right. The season started out kinda slow with a few fish around but not really feeding. The bite has steadily gotten better over the past few days.
Yesterday I ran a trip with a fellow who I have fished with for almost 30 years- not only that but he delivered 2 of my kids!! He had a son-in-law and 2 grandkids in tow that love to fish as much as he does. Good thing to 'cause we put 'em to the test. We left Indian Pass at 7:20 and ran down the beach for 30 minutes to where I had caught a tarpon the day before. Got set up and saw a pretty good school of fish feeding so we eased in to put some baits in 'em and LIFTOFF! There is as big a tarpon as you can dream about launching right behind the boat with one of my TLD 15's just a screamin'. All the other rods are brought in, the son in law and a grandson get belts on and the battle starts. This is one of those fish that guides up here call an "oh no" fish. That's 'cause as soon as you see how big it is your first thought is "oh no, we're going to be here all day". We had some fantastic jumps but the fish settled in to the deep tug of war and my client is wanting the line cut so we can chase some "small ones- 100# would be great". The son in law wants the fight so the decision is made to hang on- About that time the fish makes a decision for us by tailwhipping the line and breaking us off. No big deal, everybodys happy and we idle back to where we left the school of fish an hour ago.We all agree the fish was in the 250# range and we're a lot better off things worked the way they did.
This time it probably took 10 minutes to get the bite but we have launched another one! This fish is much more manageable and in the 80-90# class. The grandson gets this one and does a fantastic job with a lot of coaching and some help from dad. We finally get the fish to the boat, I grabbed the leader, the picture is made. Great day, everybody's fired up and we idle back to make another drift through what is now a very serious tarpon show.
As we're waiting and watching the talk turns to wishing we had pulled a scale, shoulda made the picture from another angle etc.. and AIRBORNE!! We have hooked yet another one!! This is a twin to the previous one and now the grandaughters turn. Once again with help from dad we get a great display of Tarpon jumps and some great angler training. I wired this one up and we pulled 2 scales- one for each grandkid as granddads allready talking about the plaques he is going to make with the hooks and scales and pics.
The tide has changed- the show has stopped and the kids are all talking tripletails since they have now caught Tarpon. I checked my watch and it's just 11 AM!
We went on and found 11 tripletails and landed 2. Not a great average but...... the grankids are 6 and 8... fantastic fisherfolk but you still have to wake 'em up from a nap when you find a fish to throw at! Now I'm quite used to trying to catch fish that are several times the line class we are using--First time for the fish to be several times the the weight class of the anglers we are using tho!!!!
With a Dad and Granddad like they have by the time these kids are teenagers I imagine they will be on the covers of all the big game magazines!
Take those kids fishin'!!!!!
Capt Larry Pentel
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