May 9 2013

PANAMA CITY OFFSHORE AND INSHORE
Fishing on natural bottom spots and around the outer edges of wrecks for Red grouper has been pretty productive. Generally speaking, by targeting a “natural bottom” and around the edges of a wreck you can expect to catch fewer Red snapper and Gag grouper. It won’t be long now before we are allowed to keep the Red snapper and Gag grouper (June 1^st for Red snapper and July 1^st for Gag grouper in our area). Also I should mention that when Red snapper opens Amberjack closes and when Gag grouper opens Trigger fish closes (both for a two month period). You can also expect to find White snapper, Black snapper and some Trigger fish in these same areas on or near bottom. Closer to the surface and over a taller wreck or bridge span, Amberjack have been fairly easy targets, jigs or live hard tails have landed more than a few in the ice. Trolling around a wreck or between spots has been productive for King mackerel and once in while a school of Bonita will cross your wake and provide you with some fresh bait.

Surf fishing has slowed a bit with the cooler night time temps but you can still count on some action most days. Pompano, Blue fish (some rather large), Jack crevalle and Spanish mackerel were reported. The same can be said for the piers and throw in some Tarpon, a few King mackerel, Redfish, Sheepshead and some Flounder. Now you cannot count on all this all the time of course, but this is a run down of what we have seen and heard. Lately the live baits they are finding at the County pier were hard tails, a few Ballyhoo, but no cigar minnows. And you can expect some of the same at the City pier, but you can add Cigar minnows to the list.

ST ANDREWS BAY SYSTEM
There is not much difference this week from last in regards to what is out there, Trout and Reds on a falling tide up in the grass flats, Spanish in and around the shipping channels and Flounder around the larger docks and seawalls. Big Redfish, Mangrove snapper, Black sea bass and a few Black drum are still getting picked up around the Hathaway and Tyndall bridges as well as in the pass. We are coming up on a new moon and we have a front coming this weekend too, these together should create the conditions for a bunch of hungry fish! Maybe Mom would like some fresh fish for mother’s day!!!

DESTIN

Kings----Trolling near the pass, around the broken bottom and southeast roks is doing good.

Spanish----Trolling the pass and along the sand bar or casting Gotchas or spoons from the jetties and the pier.

Pompano----Fishing the surf with sand fleas or us pompano jigs from the jetties and pier.

Ladyfish and blues----Use artificial lures form the pier or jetties

Mingo Snapper and Trigger fish---Fish 60 to 200ft with cut squid or northern mackerel

Red Grouper and Scamp----Use live or frozen cigar minnows over natural bottom 100 to 250ft

Amberjack----Fish the large wrecks in 150 to 350ft and use live minnows or butterfly jigs

Reds---fish the bridges with live shrimp or pinfish, also fish the flats with gold spoons and Berkely Gulps.

NAVARRE
Hopefully this last front that flew through the area will be the last we will see this year. It sure did mess the weekend for most of us. The last couple of days have been a complete 180 making it a lot easier for folks to get out on the water. 

Inshore, the trout and redfish bite didn’t suffer a bit and is still about as good as it gets. Santa Rosa Sound and East Bay are seeing some of the hottest trout action in our area. And with little to no moon the fishing at night around lighted docks has been off the charts. Early morning and late afternoon is the best time to target the trout, but plenty are still being caught through out the day. MirrOlures Top Dog, Heddon’s Super Spook, Rapala’s Skitter Walk, and Bombers Badonk-A-Donk have been the go to top water baits. The go to suspending baits have been MirrOlure’s MirrOdine in 17 and 27MR in black and gold for when the water is muddy and chartreuse and silver when the water is clear. And let’s not forget the old reliable live shrimp under a popping cork presentation. It is and outstanding presentation with only one drawback and that is that pinfish are also on the flats and its tough to keep them from cleaning you out of bait in very short time.. The same baits are also working for reds on the flats, but I would also like to add a ¼ oz to ½ weedless gold spoons to that arsenal. Slot reds are also around the deeper docks in the sound and bays. Around the docks the go to presentation is live shrimp with just a split shot to get it to the bottom. Flounder are finally starting to make a showing in greater numbers. White Berkley Gulp on a 1/4oz jig head and bull or tiger minnows have been the top baits. 

On the pier the king bite has slowed down some and the cobia bite is pretty much done fore for the year. Although I think there are still a few that will be landed before its all over. There is plenty of live bait as well as Spanish, bull reds, black drum, pompano, blue fish lady fish, and the occasional sheepshead. Got-Cha lures and Salt Slayer jigs have been to go to baits for targeting Spanish and blue fish. Although I’ve received several reports of redfish and pompano being caught on both lures. The reds, black drum, pompano, and sheepsheads are really keying in on live shrimp. I thought the pompano bite had pretty much peeked, but the last few days it has gotten even better. Most of the bigger fish have come on pompano jigs, but plenty of legal fish are being caught on live sand fleas and live shrimp. The redfish bite has also picked up, however most of the fish landed have been to big to keep.

Off shore I’m still getting plenty of reports of cobia being caught, although most have been caught when folks have been bottom fishing. So be prepared and have a couple spinning rods ready. One for a pitch bait and the other with a jig just in case a cobia shows up. The King mackerel bite remains strong with most fish in the 20 to 40 pound range fish being landed. Most are being caught by trolling around the large schools of bait that have shown up along area beaches or around nearshore wrecks. Wahoo are also starting to show up as close in as the edge with most fish running in the 20 pound range. Large deep diving plugs such as Mann’s stretch 25’s and 30’s have been producing the most strikes. Trigger fish, red and scamp grouper, mingo snapper, red porgies amberjacks are what’s available to bottom fishermen right now. Amberjack are on almost any large wreck right now, but most of the bigger fish being caught are in water deeper than 150 feet. The reports for blue water this week were few and what I got was not to motivating. Hopefully it will improve as the weather improves.

Until next week tight lines and get out there!