Florida Fishing Report for Panama City & Destin

Panama City Area The fishing lately is hot and cold with the weather. We have had several cold fronts in April which will bring everything to an abrupt stop when they pass and the temperature drops. When not fishing these conditions things have been heating up. In the bay, the growth of the grass flats has been slow which has kept a lot of the bigger trout in their winter haunts. The reds are starting to school the flats but have been hit and miss to get to strike. Most of the trout and reds are being taken on live shrimp. Throughout the bay and along the beach the spanish have showed up in big numbers. Limits can easily be caught using "Gotchas!" and straw rigs. Some of the bigger fish are in the four and five pound range. Mixed in with the spanish are blues. Along the beach we have been able to catch pompano with the spanish but pompano fishing has been mostly sight fishing to avoid cut-offs. The cobia run has been good this year with one fish weighing 90 pounds. Offshore, the snapper fishing has also been affected by the cold fronts but a lot of good fish are being caught.