Weekly Fishing Report - 06/06/2013

MEXICO BEACH/PORT ST. JOE
Fishing is great throughout Gulf County waters. St Joseph's Bay trout and redfish are turned on and the bite is good. Especially for anglers tossing top-water lures in the early morning hours. By late morning, you should be changing over to soft plastics like the DOA shrimp, or Berkley Gulp in the "Flats Worm" series. Small plastics like Mann's "Hard nose" swim baits are taking Flounder from all over the bay. Offshore anglers are enjoying catches of King Mackerel, Wahoo, and Dolphin. Bottom fishermen, are also enjoying great catches of grouper, snapper of all kinds, and trigger fish. Amberjack action is hot on many of the high relief structures and they are not fussy, so anchor up, throw a big-skirted jig (white or glow) or a live pinfish and hang on. A variety of live and dead baits will work on snapper this time of year. A live croaker or pinfish cannot be beaten, but large squid or cut Northern Mackerel fished a few cranks up from the bottom will fill your box too.

DESTIN
Snapper season finally open!! Opening weekend was a little rough on Saturday but that did not stop most everyone from getting a nice limit of fish.

Kings
Trolling in the southeast rocks, broken bottom and timber holes has been very good.

Wahoo and Dolphin
Start trolling the southwest and work you way to the nipple and you should find some good action on the color changes and grass patches.

Marlin and Swordfish
Fish from the nipple out the spur for white and blue marlin, after dark set up drift baits on the north wall or the canyon for swordfish action.

Mingo, Trigger, Red Grouper and Scamp
Fish the south edge, Nicky Grounds and Funnels and you should have a nice catch for dinner.

Trout and Reds
Fish the grass flats just outside the bayous close to the channels with live shrimp for some good action

Surf Fishing
Take you some sand fleas and fresh shrimp for pompano, whiting and reds. Toss spoons or Gotcha lures for Spanish, ladyfish and hardtails. After dark fish cut bait for sharks and some really nice size bluefish.

NAVARRE
A lot of fish met their maker lat week especially red snapper. The weather was up and down some, but for the most part it was no problem for most anglers. 

Inshore, with the temperature getting up in the low 90’s most anglers are fishing the early morning and late afternoon bite.  Suspending twitch baits and Berkley Gulp or Trigger X shrimp fished on a 1/4oz jig head have been the most productive baits this week.  There are plenty of trout and reds on the flats right now, but for slot reds the deeper docks seem to be producing the best. Live shrimp fished around the pilings continue to be the most productive presentation with the added benefit that you may hook up with a decent flounder.  Flounder are also on the flats around potholes patiently waiting to ambush their next meal, but targeting them around deeper structure is still the most productive method of targeting them on hook and line. White Berkley Gulp on a 1/4oz jig head drug along the bottom and bull or tiger minnows have been the top baits.

On the pier the king bite was pretty slow last week. Even though we had great weather and the water was clear only a few kings were caught most days. The lack of kings was probable due to a lack of cigar minnows and sardines around the pier. The Spanish bite also saw a decrease this week. Although the bull reds, pompano, blue fish and lady fish bit remained steady. The reds, black drum, and pompano are still keying in on live bait with live sand fleas the top bait and live shrimp coming in a close second. On the beach the pompano bite remains strong early in the morning and picks up again in the evening just before sunset. The redfish bite in the surf remains strong with most of the fish landed picture takers that are way outside the slot. The reds are hitting on both live and dead cut bait right now.

Rob, Amber & TJ went out over the weekend, below are some shots of their catch!

Great catch guys!

Offshore the snapper bite is about as expected. OUTSTANDING!!!! Although many anglers are reporting that it has been hard to find bait near the pass and when you do find them they have lock jaw.  The king mackerel is pretty steady with most fish being caught by slow trolling live baits around schools of bait or deep diving plugs just out side the passes and around most of the near shore wrecks.  The Wahoo remains strong, with deep diving plugs, such as Mann’s stretch 25’s and 30’s as well as the new YoZuri Bonita the top producing baits. Red and scamp grouper, Mingo snapper, and red porgies are also available to bottom fishermen with the right numbers. Black fin tuna and Mahi are also available, although the weed lines are making it taught to troll near them. One last reminder for you bottom fishermen, amberjacks and triggerfish are off the menu and will not open up again until August 1, 2013.

Until next week tight lines and get out there!

PANAMA CITY BEACH OFFSHORE
If you have not had a chance to go yet, you need to try to find the time. The Red snapper are plentiful and large. Last week the morning bite was slow but if you hung around kept the faith you were rewarded, it was as if someone threw a switch and it was game on! Eight to ten pound fish are common and they really put up a fight on twenty to fifty pound tackle. There are also plenty of other species to round out your days catch like White snapper, Bee liners, Red grouper, Black snapper and Trigger fish. I should point out the Trigger fish close on June 9^th at midnight so just a couple days left on them. On the trolling front, some Wahoo are getting caught on high speed lures. Mahi-mahi, King mackerel and Bonita are also showing up. Sargasso weed is starting to come in and you know what that means, (well besides you will have to clear your baits of the stuff every half mile) Triple tail, Mahi-mahi, Wahoo and King mackerel are back on the menu.

SURF AND PIER
The surf fishing crowd reported a lot of Ladyfish and hard tails, some Blues and Spanish, Jack crevalle, some Pompano and a few Whiting. There were also some big reds patrolling the bars and plenty of sharks at night.

From the piers you can expect the same as above but add in Tarpon, King mackerel, and some Flounder around the pilings. Also there have been some reports of chicken dolphin around, no reported catches at the piers but some kayakers have had some luck. We are still not seeing much for cigar minnows or herring. Maybe this near miss with tropical storm Andrea will push in some bait.

ST ANDREWS BAY SYSTEM
We have had some good reports from up in the northern reaches of the bay system. Evidence of a healthy Speckled trout population can be found using top water plugs or suspending lures at daybreak, after that switch over to live bait. Don’t be afraid to use larger baits, you will be surprised how large a bait a hungry trout will swallow. Fish around drop offs, prop scars and any other hole you can find without a lot of traffic. Reds can be found in these same areas but they also like to root around in the grass right at the edge of the water. We are also still hearing of some good Flounder being brought in both at night by spear and during the day by hook and line. There are also still a lot of Ladyfish around plaguing those that are targeting something worthy of taking home, but do not despair they do make good cut bait. A Redfish will readily take a chunk of Ladyfish. You by now have heard the saying “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.