Time to go back to work.....
Capt. James Pic
March 28, 2010
Panama City - Saltwater Fishing Report
I sat on my front porch Friday and yesterday watching the southeast wind blow across the bay. Water temps around 63, that will change a degree or two with each new southeast blow. The full moon is tonight. Prediction for the spanish run; April 4 or 5.
For those of you that are new or need a little help with the spanish I will tell you the best couple of ways to catch them that I know. Of course, the number one way is trolling. I troll when I have children or when it's to rough to drift and cast. The best recipe for trolling is an 00RBS Clark Spoon tied to ten feet of 50lb mono...to a leader to a led weight. Your weight size is determined by your line weight. I troll with ten or twelve pound line so a one ounce weight is normally what I prefer. The most important part of this rig is to put your weight away from your spoon so the spanish don't hit the weight and cut you off. Another way to prevent this is to paint your weights with flat black paint. My second, and favorite, way to catch spanish is with a bubble rig. Drifting and casting, ripping these rigs across the water, will produce some killer strikes and a lot of action.
Cobia are showing up to the west but that is common for early season. Back int he 80's we caught cobia all winter long in the oil field around the platforms. A lot of these fish will winter in the deep water like that around Destin. The true migratory fish that are caught in numbers and seen in big schools are still a couple of weeks away.
April is a great month for trout and reds. When the bite for sheeps and reds in the pass slows down there is no shortage of action for my clients. Truthfully, we get on so many redfish during the summer I had to invent a new slam a couple of years ago called "The Quadfecta", which is a trout and red early then some spanish and blues later in the morning. I always like catching the trout and reds on live bait but we have great success with redfish magics, DOA and popping corks, Gulps and a various sampling of topwater. Everyone has thier favorite, those are a few of mine.
Look for fishing to start picking up and me on water over the next few weeks. I had a great hunting season, lot's of ducks, three deer (two with the bow and a nice 7 point with the gun) and I have been invited by one of my clients on a turkey hunt this Wednesday morning. Been a great winter, took a little time off the last couple of weeks now it's time to get serious.
As always, you can submit some questions as for technique and strategy for catching certain species and I will try and answer. Seems like only yesterday, 1972 when I was 12,
catching that first big trout. I finally got that trout over 30
inches a couple of years ago with the odds against me of getting one bigger. With that said, I enjoy all that comes with watching my clients catch a six or seven pound trout on light tackle. One thing, forty years of fishing these bays...East Bay to West Bay and everything in between, you never know where you will see me because we are always looking for that big fish.
Panama City Fishing Forecast:
It's coming!
Target Species:
Watch for the Southeast to blow a couple more days....
More Fishing Reports:
