Weekly Fishing Report 6/13/2013

NAVARRE
The weather forecast for the weekend is looking a lot better than what we went through last week. That means there should be no reason for anyone not getting out on the water and taking advantage of the great fishing and beautiful water we have in our area. 

Like last week the inshore there is great action to be had early in the morning or late in the afternoon once it cools down some. At night though fishing around lighted docks the bite is about as good as it will get. In the morning and evenings suspending twitch baits or jig and Gulp can’t be beat for the trout and reds on the flats. Slot reds are also on the deeper docks along with the occasional flounder. Live shrimp fished or live pilchards fished around the pilings continue has been the top producing presentation. Although jigs tipped with a Gulp or Trigger X shrimp is a great presentation for those of who don’t want to mess with live bait. At night the trout and redfish have been swarming have been feasting on the small baitfish and shrimp that are attracted to the lights. Live shrimp and finger mullet fished without any weight and allowed to drift through the light has been an outstanding presentation. Fly fishermen are probably having the most fun fishing size 4 or 2 solid white or black clouser minnow. 

On the pier the king bite remains slow and probably won’t improve much until the water clears up some. The Spanish bite has also slowed down due to the poor water quality and the lack of bait. Hopefully the calmer weather will clear things up. The water quality has not affected the shark bite much; if anything we have seen an increase in hookups this week. Tarpon hookups have also seen an increase this week. Although in most cases it usually takes longer to tell your war story than the actual fight lasted. Bull reds are also available along with the occasional pompano. Live shrimp and sand fleas fished on the bottom will catch both. The reds are also hitting on cut cigar minnows and cut mullet.

In the surf the pompano bite has slowed some due to the water quality and those that are being caught are biting early in the morning and again in the evening just before sunset. The redfish bite in the surf remains strong with most of the fish landed being picture takers that are way outside the slot. The reds are hitting on both live and dead bait. As with the pier the shark fishing is pretty good right now. The sharks have not been very picky and almost any live or dead bait will work.

Offshore the snapper bite is about as good as it can be with most fishing averaging around 10 pounds. Finding live baits outside the passes has been the biggest problem so load up on pinfish before leaving the pass and have a box or two of frozen squid and cigar minnows in the cooler. Red and scamp grouper, mingo snapper, and red porgies are also available to bottom fishermen, but amberjacks and triggerfish are off the menu and will not open up again until August 1, 2013. There’s also been a pretty good cobia bite this week especially around bottom fishermen, so be ready for when one shows up with a rod rigged for a pitch bait. The king mackerel bite has slowed some this week due to the lack of bait near shore, although the bite out around the edge remains steady with most fish being caught by slow trolling live baits or deep diving plugs around deep water structure. The Wahoo bite is still pretty good near the edge and out around the Nipple 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. Blackfin tuna and mahi are also available in the same area. I’ve also received a few reports of white marlin hookups our near the squiggles on blue and white Islander ballyhoo combinations.

Until next week tight lines and get out there!

DESTIN
Fishing is very good now that the weather has decided to be better. Lots of red snapper being brought in, fish live or frozen cigar minnows on reefs in 80 to 160ft of water.

Trolling for kings is steady in the southeast rocks, broken bottom and timber holes.

Wahoo are very good along the edge, nipple and 131 hole. Troll ballyhoo rigged behind a Islander or Soft Head lure.

In the surf mostly blue runners, ladyfish and blues during the day and quite a few sharks at night.

Trout and reds are biting along the grass flats in the bay early morning and late afternoon fishing a live shrimp on a popping cork.

Holly Capt. Eric's wife with her first Red Snapper!

Capt. Eric with Redfin Charters and his family First day of Red Snapper season!

PANAMA CITY BEACH
Running offshore was great last week, plenty of big Red snapper, Red grouper, and those sweet Bee liners on the bottom. With all of those being red, maybe you will enjoy the Mahi-mahi that have showed up along with lots of King mackerel and quite a few Wahoo. Some nice specimens are hitting the scales at the local docks just about every day. Go down to the docks around 4pm and watch them unload. If you don’t have the fishing fever now, you will then. A lot of these fish were brought in trolling but a good many were taken flat lining a live bait behind the boat while bottom fishing! Good numbers of Bonita are around too and make great bait as well as a fun run on medium heavy spinning outfits. We are also hearing of a few sightings of Sailfish in the area, you just never know what you’ll catch out there.

SURF AND PIER
The surf fishing crowd is still reporting a lot of Ladyfish and hard tails, some Blues and Spanish, Jack crevalle, some Pompano and a few Whiting. And they are still finding some Bull reds occasionally. The best bite in the surf has been early and late, really no surprise here as the foot traffic and Jet skis etc. are not around.

At the piers you can expect the same as above but add in Tarpon, King mackerel, a few Chicken Dolphin and maybe some Flounder around the pilings. At night, there are plenty of Sharks getting caught on Ladyfish and Bonita. Still not a lot of bait around, maybe today will be the day.

Below are Blake Hornsby and Jerrie Mathias with their Trout catch a few days ago!

ST ANDREWS BAY SYSTEM
Speckled trout and Redfish can be found at dawn working the grass flats looking for finger mullet, LY’s and pin fish. If you are after them you will have to keep the noise down, they are easily spooked when in skinny water. We have heard of some nice fish being found up near Deer Point Dam and up near the West bay creeks. May be the recent rains had something to do with it and if that is true I am sure places like Sandy Creek, Watson and Callaway Bayou would be good too. We are in somewhat of a Flounder run, some nice fat ones have been gigged at night approaching the 30 inch range! Now that is a fine meal. Not much out there that has a better flavor than a Southern Flounder. I am sure you would just about have to stand on the gig to hold one that size down, but I would sure love to hook into one that size. I believe my personal best is somewhere in the 24 to 25 inch range. If you want to target these hide and seek pros, use a short leader with a live bait and “fan cast” an area un till you feel you have covered it pretty well and then move on to the next spot. They have a subtle bite, more like a tap than a bite most times. Seawalls, deep water docks and on the down current side of drop offs are usually good locations.