Florida Fishing Report for Panama City & Destin

Panama City/ Florida Panhandle School is back in session which means the amount of fishermen on the water is substantially less. This is the time of the year when the fishing starts really getting good. With the exception of some windy days that will come in September and October you can look to catch just about all species. I encourage anyone who reads my report that has either fished with me before or would like to fish in the Panhandle to come on down between now and Thanksgiving if you want some good action. I will continue to give the $20 dollar discount to anyone mentioning this when you book a trip through the end of the year. The water has been stained all summer. With the exception of a few days here and there the big spanish have been harder to catch. My opinion is that the continuous flow of freshwater into the bays has been the cause of the spanish staying along the beaches. With that happening I have had to resort to trout and reds all summer and have basically beat their ass all summer. Lots of big trout, many over 24 inches were caught with a 26 incher caught by a seven year old last week. We pretty much catch reds whenever we want. There are a lot more mangrove snapper in the bay a this year than I have seen recently, most of which are big enough to keep. One really fun fish that is also very good on the smoker that has been everywhere this summer is sail cats. Not to be mistaken by their nasty cousin the "hard head cat" sail cats are a lot of fun to catch and make a great meal. We have had some good luck with black tip sharks in the evenings. A good trip for this time of the year is a black snapper/redfish trip that we run late in the afternoon and into the night. In a few weeks the flounder should start moving and gigging will make for a nice adventure. Offshore the kings have been thick within just a few miles of the beach. Snapper and grouper are still being caught by the charter boats in large numbers. We also look for the blackfin tuna and mahi mahi to start showing up in large numbers this time of the year. In the store we have some new clothing and have dropped our shrimp price to $2 a dozen. This is the cheapest in town and we will continue to keep selling shrimp at this price unless our wholesaler goes up. Don't forget duck season starts in a month with the early teal and wood duck season dates set for September 20 thru 24. As always, only take what you need and save the rest for another day, good fishing. JP