Weekly Fishing Report 04/11/2013

PORT ST. JOE/MEXICO BEACH
St. Joseph's Bay is hot! Trout, Redfish, Flounder, Spanish mackerel, Pompano, and Sheepshead are all biting throughout the bay. Early morning anglers along the beaches are rewarded with pompano. Inside the bay, anglers are reaching their bag limits of trout and redfish. Spanish mackerel are hitting everything in sight. Why it's a virtual fishing bonanza! Even novices can do very well right now. For Spanish mackerel, throw small spoons, "gotcha" plugs or bubble rigs. Popping corks and Carolina rigs are working great along the grass flats in the bay for both redfish and trout, but baitfish patterned artificial baits are catching bigger fish. Try them in three to five feet of water nearer the head of the bay. Flounder are biting great all over the bay. Sure, bull minnows are working well, but here again small soft plastics like gulp and curly tail grubs are the ticket to quality fish. The offshore bite is good too! Cobia are becoming more numerous in their spring run into the area. Amberjack are hammering baits on high relief wrecks. Bottom fishing is great bearing in mind that key species are out of season right now. However, that does not mean you can't fill your box with others. Go fishing, now is the time!

NAVARRE
For the next week we will be living through the old saying “April showers bring May flowers”! The rains and the breezy weather will add numerous hurdles to each outing. The water clarity will be down and the wave heights will be up just to name a few.    

Inshore sheepsheads are still making a good showing for themselves along with trout, redfish, and the occasional flounder. The sheepsheads are on deep structure in the sound and bays. Live shrimp, fiddler crabs, and fresh oysters are the go to bait. Slot reds are on many of the deeper docks and on the flats in as shallow as a foot of water in the sound. Suspending twitch baits such as YoZuri’s Crystal 3D Shrimp in black, gold and chartreuse, MirrOlures’ Catch 2000 and MirrOdine in the gold and black or light green and silver sides were the top baits for me this week as I landed seven reds and about a dozen small trout in the Narrows on Wednesday. Because of motor issues I did not get out too early to try any top water baits, but baits such as Rapala’s Skitter Walk, Bomber’s Badonk-A-Donk, MirrOlure’s Top Dog and Live Target’s Mullet would have been my baits of choice. Live shrimp is still the number one bait for those who prefer natural bait. Fished under a popping cork on the flats or with just a split shot around the deeper docks will get you the bite.

The cobia bit is pretty good right now even though the water clarity is less than desirable. Jigs and live eels have been the preferred baits. The first King was also landed this week on the pier and at 41 pounds it would have been a fish of a life time for some of us.  Spanish, sheepshead, bull reds, black drum, whiting and pompano are also available. Got-Cha lures and Salt Slayer jigs have been to go to baits for targeting Spanish this week.  Sheepsheads are also available with most fish hitting live shrimp and fiddler crabs fished on the bottom near the pylons. On the beach the pompano bite has started to heat up, with most being taken on live sand fleas. Redfish, blue fish and whiting are also available in the surf with most being caught on live sand fleas or live shrimp.

Off shore cobia, king mackerel, snowy grouper, scamp grouper, yellow edge grouper, tile fish, amberjacks, triggerfish, mingo snapper, red porgy and sward fish have all been landed this week on nearshore and offshore reefs and wrecks. The cobia bit is shaping up to be much better than we had last year, with most of the fish being caught around the Navarre area. Most fish are in the 30 to 50 pound range and are inhaling almost any jig or live bait tossed their way. A few kings are also being landed on both inshore and off shore trips. Most heading south out of the pass are targeting jacks, flounder, triggerfish and red porgies on near shore reefs and wrecks. Large live baits are landing more keepers jacks these days than jigging. Scamp grouper, red grouper, trigger fish, red porgies and the occasional vermillion snapper are also on many of the near and off shore wrecks. Those with good numbers off shore are deep dropping for snowy and yellow edge grouper, tile fish and bull mingo snapper.  There have also been several reports of swords being caught at night towards the south east.

As the temperature heats up so will the bite so stop making excuses and get out there!

Until next week tight lines!