Destin, Navarre, Pensacola Beach Inshore Fishing Report

Well fellow anglers here it is in December 4th and we have a winter weather storm warning here in Northwest Florida. Although the weather is cold, the fishing is as hot as ever. Over the last two weeks it’s been mostly Bull Red fishing, with a little Flounder fishing thrown in for good measure. The Bull Red’s have been real consistence and making my job easy. There are big schools of Reds out in the Gulf along the beaches which makes for a lot of fun for sight fishing as long as the conditions will allow. Over in Choctawhatchee Bay you will be advised to fish around the bridge in east pass, this seems to be the best place to increase your odds of success for catching a trophy Bull Red. If you are fishing in east pass you’ll be fishing a fast current and on the bottom. Here you will have to tackle up to a fairly large outfit to handle both a big current and a big fish to keep it out of the bridge pilings. I prefer to find the schools of fish over in Pensacola Bay and light tackle them. For me – BIG FISH ON LIGHT TACKLE is the fun way to go fishing. I know that there are some schools of Bull Reds in Choctawhatchee Bay but there are not as many as to the west in Pensacola Bay. I think it’s because of the size of the pass. With Pensacola Pass being much deeper and wider it allows for a much larger volume of water to be moved on each tide change. The big Reds ride in on an incoming tide and start finding the big schools of menhaden that are still in the bay and then they get real happy.

When the conditions on the beach get to where you can get out there or if you like to beach fish then don’t hesitate to get out and try for some winter Pompano. There has been some real nice catches of these tasty fishes. Keep your eye out for a few other species that will be running the beaches also. You can see slot Red fish, False Albacore, Blue Fish and there are still some Shark’s out there. All of these fish can be caught sight fishing in the Emerald Green waters of the Panhandle.

The last good catch of Flounder for me was a week ago; we caught a dozen or so in about three hours. This is a little slow but as the day went on the bite was picking up. When I was cleaning the fish I found the female’s egg sacks were not good and formed yet. It’s a good possibility that these fish are just beginning to spawn. If so that means that it should continue for another three to four weeks. I can’t think of a taster dinner than a crab stuffed Flounder!

Nature is the art of God and we can never have enough nature!

There’s one thing for sure! You’re not going to catch’em sittin on the couch.

So get out there and take a kid fishing!

Have a blessed day, Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all.

Capt. Eddie