Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

Capt. Larry Pentel
January 8, 2008
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

Mother Nature isn't sure if it's winter or Spring. Record cold for a few days and then back to the 70's and sunshine. In between the wind blows a bunch- At least it keeps life interesting!

I have not been running many trips lately as the bad weather days seem to coincide with when I have anglers booked! Oh well, like old Sam Clemons said --

"Everybody talks about the weather but nobody ever seems to do anything about it"

I ran a "shopping trip" right before Christmas for my Yankee relatives in Indiana. Took a couple regulars out to help fill a box full of Christmas presents. I overnighted a box full of fresh fish for Christmas dinner for my Sister and all her kids and families. The fish cooperated with the spirit of giving and we got 6 nice Black groupers and 7 Scamps to wrap up and ship. Had a handful of triggers that stayed here for my pullers. We were the only boat out on what turned into a beautiful day

I had trips booked from the day after Christmas till a couple days after New Years but the weather ( which had been beautiful till Christmas) turned. Sunny but to much surf to get off the beach and I had to cancel trips, The weather man said New Years eve was going to be great but I had trips starting at Indian Pass then for a few days. I spoke with a couple captains who fished off Grayton that day. They said it was beautiful and had good catches tho the bite wasn't hot everywhere. Some really nice groupers made it to the shore though.

100 miles away at Indian Pass the wind blew 20 knots straight down the bay all day. We were supposed to sight fish redfish on the flats but the conditions made it tough for first timers to connect or even cast in front of a fish. Plenty of reds but with a fast drift, muddy water and a slight overcast I saw pretty soon that it wasn't going to be productive so we changed gears. We ended up trout fishing which at least got some lures and fish connected with each other( and anglers) but it wasn't the usual hot trout bite of the area. The fact that it blew 30 knots the next couple days and got down below freezing probably had some effect on the fish as well as causing me to cancel a few trips.

I heard that the weekend prior had the trout chewing real good. We fished Mon. and capt Pete White said he ran Fri and had a limit in an hour and a half releasing a bunch of fish. My son had fished Saturday and caught lots of fish as well. Pete ran again Sun. afternoon and said they had 7 but after fishing hard the fast the fish just shut down.

The weather has come back around to warm again and I ran up the ICW yesterday with one angler looking for a trout bite. There were plenty of fish up the "ditch" tho most were short of legal "keeper" length. But at 75 degrees and a sunny day in a spot where the wind doesn't blow catching a bunch of anything was sure fun. We had probably half a dozen redfish as well spaced in along with a couple white trout. I got to keep the whites-those are going to be real good marinated in some hot butter this evening!

Plenty of fish- if you draw a good weather day get out there. You seem to be able to appreciate the nice days a lot more this time of year!

Capt Larry Pentel

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