Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
November 16, 2006
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

It's fall and the opourtunities are endless, let the weather tell you where to fish-

Snapper season finished out with great weather and perhaps the easiest catchin' of the year. lots of fish around and some good ones too! One of my folks caught a 12+ snapper the day after the season closed. I guess they don't get big by being dumb but I never really figured they could tell the date-We had a good pile of trigs and a couple Kings to clean so nobody went hungry.

The kings have thinned down a little but what they lack in numbers they make up in size. Lots of big fish with a good percentage in the 30#-40+ range.

I went over to Indian Pass for my yearly Fall fishing trips and to try get my oyster consumption levels back up to a nice high reading. I am happy to report that not only are the oysters as thick as ever they are plenty salty and flavorfull too! I think the bay dropped a few inches with as many as we ate.

Took a little time in between hoggin' and eatin' oysters to fish. The trout had not really started ballin' up the shrimp yet but the grade of fish was really great. We did not catch the numbers but had a lot more bigger fish than usual for this time of year. I went out one afternoon late after my anglers had left ( so I could fish!) and got half a doz. trout and a redfish in a hour and a half. Nothing to write about 'cept 3 of the trout were over 20". Spent lots of hours poling through the mudflats sightfishin' reds. They are still there and as much fun (and frustrating) as ever. We caught quite a few, put the fear of God in a bunch more and had hudreds that never saw the lure- When the guide tells you that it has to be right in front of the fish he does NOT mean 3 feet off to the side! I would rather sight fish than any thing else tho even if if means pushin' that skiff around with a pole---

Spent the last 2 days working on the new boat and will probably be grindin' fiberglass the next 3 or 4 more. I hope to be finished in time for cobia season next spring. Remember when you tell the guide what a great job he has - for every hour spent on the water there is another hour to and hour and half spent on land workin' on stuff!!

Capt Larry Pentel

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