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Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore
Capt. Larry Pentel
August 19, 2006
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report
Back to Grayton! Ran my first trip off the beach today after 7 weeks of chasing Tarpon at Indian Pass. My Mom, daughter and new son in law anglers were first timers and the fist couple of big grouper bites caught 'em by surprise but they came through in the end. Our 4 hour trip tallied 2 Red Grouper (one 'bout12#)6 Red Snapper 1 big Black Snapper 6 triggerfish, a shark,,a king and a mahi.
I started out trolling live baits for kings as I'd heard the mackeral bite has been hot. We found 'em pretty quick but the school I located was all small fish. We released several shorts and missed a lot of cut-offs before I changed gears and went bottom fishing.
Speaking of shorts--- The new size limit on triggerfish went into effect last month and will have a BIG impact on 'em. While the size is still 12" it is not overall as it used to be . The measure is now a "fork length" to the inside of the tail. As trigs have those long swept tails this effectively raised the size 2 to 3 inches longer. I know we threw a bunch more back today than we kept and I was having to measure 'em all. It will take a month or so to get my eyeballs calibrated to the new size.
We also threw back a lot of "just" short snappers. I started out inshore and didn't really find any bigger ones till we got past 85 feet. I'm sure this hot weather has even the snappers looking to stay a little cooler.
This years Tarpon season was a good one. Plenty of fish still around over there but I had to get back to the old stomping grounds. The biggest fish we got up to the boat was around 200# and the smallest was about 50#. It was odd this year that there were all these different year classes of fish mixed together. I kinda like seeing all the smaller ones up here- means they like it and will come back as they get bigger, A lot of years you never see a fish under 90#.
I think my final tally for the season was 23 tarpon launched for 21 days run. Pretty good unless you were on one of the days that we din't get one- you probably think it was a slow year--- The shark trips are another story- we ALWAYS get them over there. I am happy to report that it is great season on tripletail too. I ran several days of just looking for 'tails and we got 'em every time. ( now if I could only say that about Tarpon I'd be somebody!!!) Maybe next year !!!
The boys at the Gulf Coast research lab in Mississippi have started a tagging program for tripletail. I know we tagged a couple dozen on my boat this year from shorts up to 10#-12#. I can't wait to see where they get recaptured. As these are true pelagics it wouldn't surprise me to see 'em turn up on the other coast. I also am curious as to just how fast they grow----.
Booked pretty good back here in the "crowded" country so I should have an in depth report on bottom fishing next time.
Capt Larry Pentel
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