Report for Destin, Florida - Nearshore

A New Year!! I rang in the begining of another year of chasing finny critters over at Indian Pass. I can gladly report that the redfish are there and hungry. I had several days of great weather conditions and low tides letting my anglers and I toss imitation temptations in front of hundreds of fish. Had 2 days where we saw over 300 fish each day and my anglers had shots at over 100 daily. The most memorable fish was a 32" red (12#?)that was caught on a fly- dang fish fought for 20 minutes and was still spunky when released. We caught fish on traditional 12# spinning tackle and on down to ultra lites with 4# as well as flies. Alas the weather is warm again ( 75 in Jan. !!) and the wind has swung back South so I came home to Seagrove till the next cool snap. I did trout fish 2 days over there when conditions weren't favaorable for sight fishin' with good success. Fished Appalchicola Bay one afternoon and found a school of fish eager to bite- 'bout half of 'em legal-only a couple a "good' ones tho with the biggest at 20". Spent an afternoon "up the ditch" and found lots of fish- get a bite every cast for 5 or 6 casts and then that many casts to find the school again. These were all smaller fish with one out of 7 or so being keepers The Grayton gang only had 2 days that were fishable offshore while I was gone. The boats I talked with found their share of grouper but said they had to run around some- glad there are still some left! Unless you can get one of these picture perfect winter days for the Gulf the best bets for the next 2 months will be reds on the flats- trouts in the holes and deep pockets ( ditches) and of course, sheepshead around any large structure. Go get 'em !!!! Every day you miss is one you can't replace !!!!! Capt Larry Pentel