Pensacola Fishing Forum / Offshore Fishing / Offshore Reports

Bottom Fishing from Destin

Capt. Delynn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:27:28 GMT

Just like everyone else the bottom fishing has been pretty good for us lately as well. I don't usually post do the bashing that often goes with it, but my good friend Capt. Rog has made some good friends from his reports so here goes. I don't have pictures from the two trips last week so I will report those in a few days. The weekend of the 12th and 13th was good for two trips and lots of laughs. Friends Rick, Dennis, Tommy, and Jerry had a good trip that ended in some nice grouper, limit of AJs, and limit of snapper. Weather was great and the friends were even better. Rick got top prize with a

nice grouper and biggest of the day. These guys are great, I will fish with them anyday.

Next day was Jim and Bart Carey and the seas kicked our butt the first two hours. We could not get out of the storms. Kept beating it till we finally got out in a clear spot and licked our wounds. In less that an hour seas were flat calm and the boys finished the day with a limit of snapper and Aj's, mixed with a handful of grouper, scamps and Almaco jacks. Jim thought he had the fish of the day with his grouper till Bart pulled up are really nice Aj.

Jims grouper has the best story thou. I think this story is so good, it could not be made up. He hooked it on light tackle while snapper fishing. It cuts him off. 5 minutes later he hooks it again. It rocks him but does not cut off. We play with him for like 5 minutes and I become to impatient to fool with him anymore. Those that know me know that I am VERY impatient. I put the boat in gear to break the line and 5 seconds after the line should have already broke, he comes out. We wrestle him off the wreck and Jim is stoked. I keep telling him how big this one is going to be. He is going to pop to the top like a 50 gallon drum. You are going to catch your biggest Grouper to date. Way to go Jim. You deserve it Man. Jim fights him like a champ. Nice and easy with a good tight line all the way. 30 feet from the top the hook pulls. I Kid You NOT! @^%**^ and a few other really REALLY ugly words later, I walk back to the controls and say man it would be nice if he would pop up. I put the boat in reverse and look behind us just in time to see him bust the surface. We back up to him and gaff him. I'm telling you that is a honest to God, True story. Notice our leader from earlier still in his mouth. Also the rock scratches on his sides. LUCK LUCK LUCK. The good Lord is looking out for us fools. Good fishing and great friends but man I hate those storm. Lighting makes me wine like a baby. Fishing is really good right now. Just get out there. Be careful and watch those storms. If you hear someone crying during a storm, that is just me. I have never got along with electric very well. Especially that much juice. I am very fortunate to have some great friends that are excellent fisherman. You guys are the best. I am off this week but have a few trips next week. Tight lines and good luck.

RF Tuesday Destin

reelfinatical — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:15:14 GMT

Got caught in the rain at 7am while getting bait near the bridge. Nothing like being pelted in the face by rain drops. :) Found loads of threadfin, blue runners, sand perch, lizardfish, and sardines by the channel buoy. Went to a rocky bottom less than 20 miles out for some bottom dropping. Put down the homemade chum pot off the downrigger and the screen started to LIGHT UP. Floated out a live blue runner and got a 18LB King. On the bottom caught 1 14" Red Snapper, triggers, sharks, and lots of undersize AJs. Winds picked up and seas were capping. Back on the hill at 3.

Quick ADSFR report

brnbser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:07:26 GMT

Made it over to DI Thur about 2 PM, got the boat in the water and to a friends house/dock where we were staying and prepped for the tourney.

Capt's meeting Thursday evening and our plan for Fri/Sat set...looking at a run to the SE, fish all day, go deeper and swording and maybe some rig jigging a bit that night, back in to shallower water the next morning for kings and to the dock Sat evening.

Early Fri we head to some deep spots about 60 SE of DI, beautiful seas. Bite was slow at the start with only a few of the targeted kings coming aboard. Changed for some bottom bumping with dropper rigs......several nice mingo and this critter that was released.....found out that evening that it took the ugliest fish award last year

move to another close by spot and play with a few more kings along with a double on aj while trolling, the smaller one was just legal but the biggest king we could manage for the day was 24 and change

it's about 4:30 we go to crank the stbd motor and it won't stay running, it immediately shuts down, scratching heads for a bit, finally crack it get the rpm's way up in nuetral, drop it down and in to gear quickly to get us going, make the decision to not over night and head to try and repair it instead of overnighting, boat runs fine at rpm all the way in. get to the scales, weigh the fish we have and talk with Jack Holmes (SKA president) and he hooks us up with the Yamaha rep that's on site. he plugs in his pc to the engine, checks some things and says put it on the trailer.....:banghead we get the boat unloaded and hauled and back to his service trailer, after quite a bit of troubleshooting and checking stuff out he gets us running again about 10:20 PM, this is a photo my daughter took going to the dock late Fri

we make a change after talking things over and head out Sat morning about 65 SW of DI, we stayed in the kings all day, boating some 25-30 but again the best we could land was a 36.20. Caught several other species as well, another aj while trolling and even several rainbow runners

we didn't fish Sun, the two days was enough for us.....

I did get some things solved with our rigs that I had been working on, not one single lost fish or broken wire king rig the entire weekend although I did break one of our tournament rods and stripped the gears in another spinner (bait rod).

Destin 7/23/08

lobsterman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:16:55 GMT

We had a pretty good day on the water yesterday. Overcast almost all day and slayed some fish. Got caught in 3 storms on the way in with a little electric in them fun fun. After getting soaked it was certainly cooler for the ride home. Here are a few pics sorry for the quality the humidity fogged up my lense with just alittle inside also I believe. $ man limit on snapper and red grouper

just off the beach

Matt09 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:46:32 GMT

chris troy and i left sherman cove bout 600 caught bait and headed out, one of the engines ran outta oil half way out, after we handeled that it was a great day, sharks were stealin bait all day but when we didi get it to the bottom it was drag screamin action. and after we ran out of bait chris put on a big jig, and got a small aj and two big snapper.

all were caught on spining reels, it ws a blast

haul- 4 legal snapper kept 2

about 10 ajs kept 3

and about 20 sharks, all relased

great day will post pics later

Edge trip

floater — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:06:22 GMT

left out of sherman at 10:30 to nice seas 1-2 with a little wind chop,arrived at edge at 11:30 went to our usually spot and wasn't marking anything so we decided to head to deeper water and drift we drifted in 290 feet of water for a few hours with nothing but a few nibbles, so decide to try another spot drifted it for about an hour and marked a nice ledge that had my fish finder blowing up so threw anchor and fished it,first drop on the 5 hook fishfinder rig was football size mingos we caught probally 50-60 but on kept 20 of them to eat,while fishing for the mingos something was hitting them so we decided to put down some live 12" mingos when the first one hit the bottom it was an instant hook up with a little fight 40 pound aj in the boat,hooked another one and same story 30 pound in the boat for the next hour we would get hook ups and a fter a few minutes they would break line or hook would pull,as the sun was coming up the one that had been down all night started screaming after a 20 minute fight we had a 50 pound aj in the boat when the sun peaked over the horizion the fish quit biting,for the next few hours the bonito were everywhere so we decided to throw gotchas and catch a few to use for chunking and sharkbait, started chunking and at the back of the boat pops 5-6 ,3 foot blacktip sharks that we were teasing with gotchas tipped with little chunks of bonito damn they can really fast had a few hookups but all were released waiting on the big one.had one on the bottom with a slab of bonito that took off after a short fight we had a 6 foot blacktip in the boat and decided to call it a day and headed in to smooth water with no wind blowing looked like a huge lake out there. good day fishing with a few friends

7/20 yellow gravel decent day

shanester — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:51:33 GMT

left out 6 am shermans cove fella that took me out wanted to test a new prop. tried it out had to put the stainless back on the boat stopped at sand island to change it out we were welcomed by a whole army of jelly fish. i stood guard while the prop was changed. and we were on our way called the bait boat he said there was a line already. so we hit the pass and caught cigs they were thick and we had 40 to 50 in the well in about 15 minutes. headed to the yellow gravel made great time the seas were perfect 1 to 2 with a little wind chop. bite was a little slow but a great time was had by all. heres a few pics of fish and the little boat that we ran 40 PUS MILES IN. thanks darren had a great time thanks darren looking forward to fishing with you again some time soon.

oh yea ill bring the cooler back tomorrow.

the sea chasher is an awesome boat it has a 130 honda we burnt 34 gallons of fuel for the day at 28 mph

Friday July 18th

GULFFISHER1 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:21:49 GMT

Left for the Edge on Friday morning from Orange Beach. Saw lots of fish in the water and even saw a few jump out of the water (dolphin I think). Did some bottom bumping for a few hours and caught one little Mingo. We started to troll a bit and heard a boat calling sea tow with no response so we jumped in and relayed the coordinates, the captains name and all of his info. The guy had broken hydraulic steering and was anchored up not going any where. Finally got sea tow on there way to the disabled vessell and went back to fishing. We didnt have much luck at the edge so we picked up and went to another spot (seas were non existent). We got to the other spot and started dropping lines to the bottom and we still werent having much luck so I told the guys, "lets troll a while". Just as we were letting the lines in the water we got a call from the skipper in the disabled vessel that sea tow had arrived and he was on his way back. Well it wasnt 2 minutes later and our fishing day changed from bad to great. I have to say that this was a pretty good day. See pics

1- Ling/Cobia 27 llbs, 5 king 24-30 lbs

Friday night and Sunday

Ocean Man — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:55:39 GMT

My Uncle James had his brother Larry and his son Larry Jr in town from Mississippi to do a little fishing. So we decided we would head out Friday night to due a full moon trip, clean and eat fish on Saturday and then head back out on Sunday morning to due a full day trip.

We loaded the boat Friday afternoon and made it out to the Anteres just after dark. My buddy Duayne drove the boat while I relaxed on the bean bag on the way out and took this pic.

We were looking to get on a good Mangrove bite under the full moon. We anchored up and dropped down but the current was very strong and the fish were not biting very good. We put a couple Red Snapper in the box and I missed one very nice one due to a broken hook.:doh After a while we picked up anchor and ran to a different spot hoping to get out of the current and into some fish. The plan worked out OK as there wasn't near as much current on this hole and the fish were biting a little better. Jr was doing good for his first trip in the Gulf. Here he is bowed up on a nice Snapper.

We ended up with a 5 man limit of Snapper and one nice Mangrove.

The bite could have been better but overall it was a good trip. The sea's were calm and everybody had a good time.

We cleaned fish on Saturday and cooked up a good meal of: fried and blackend Snapper, fried okra, pickles, french fries, and fried green tomatoes. We all went to bed early to prepare for a long day Sunday.

We got up early Sunday morning and got the boat ready with the same crew minus Duayne. We fueled and baited up and made the first hole by around 7:00am. The plan was to hit a hole on the way out to try for some Triggers and get some bait for the Yellow Gravel. There was bait galore at this stop but only managed one Trigger that wondered a little too close to my jig. Once we baited up good we continued on to the Yellow Gravel. First stop was my AJ hole but no AJ's were home. We put some nice quality Mingo's in the box before we left this spot.

From there we picked up and moved to a spot close by that I marked a long time ago but never fished. We were once again catching lots of football Mingo's and Jr added a nice Red Grouper to the box.

While we were fishing we heard a noise turned and looked in time to see a Wahoo skying 10-15ft straight up with a fish in its mouth within casting range from the boat. It was a very cool sight. I dropped down a jig and James threw out a livey on the flyline. As soon as James bait hit the water he was hooked up. We knew right away that it wasn't the Wahoo as it wasn't taking line like it should have. It turned out to be a small Shark. I took a few pic's and then sent him on his way.

We went back to fishing after releasing the Shark and continued to put Mingo's in the cooler. Larry with 2 he caught on one drop.

We got to 39 Mingo's before I decided to pick up and move one last time to try to get some AJ's or Grouper for the box. Instead we ended up catching some nice Red Snapper. Here is a pic of Jr with a Snapper he snaked from his dad.

We went on to catch a few more Snapper, finished off the Mingo limit and I missed an AJ bite. Final talley: 40 football Mingo's, 4 Red Snapper, 2 Scamp, 1 Red Grouper, 1 Trigger, and 1 Almaco.

We had a great time. The sea's were flat, but there was enough breeze to keep us from getting too hot and we caught a bunch of fish.

Sunset on the way back to the dock.

Orange Beach 07-19-08

skullworks — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:16:42 GMT

We left OB at 6:30. Headed out 20 miles, not sure where we were. Found some endangered red snapper. They were pretty tight lipped but managed a limit of keepers. Had good fish get cut off by some toothy critter. Then I hooked into something larger than the rest. Got a fighting belt on my son and put the pole in it. The fish proceeded to walk him to the side of the boat where I grabbed the back of his belt to make sure he didn't go swimming. The fish managed to get into some rocks or something and broke us off. Ran back to the pyramids and did some trolling and managed a limit on Kings and a few Spanish. Had a big king but he threw the hook at the boat. Fun day overall, nothing like building memories!!!!!! Enjoy!

[IMG]http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c154/Skullworks02/ByeByeLand.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c154/Skullworks02/Jds3RedSnapper2.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c154/Skullworks02/Jds3King.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c154/Skullworks02/Jds3RedSnapper.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c154/Skullworks02/Jds3Spanish-1.jpg[/IMG]

7/20 edge/yellow gravel good day of fishing

sail7seas — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:27:57 GMT

went fishing this morning with my father-in-law and two friends. got some cigs from the bait boat and left perdido pass around 630. headed out to the edge in great seas. the water was good and green but figured we could troll for a little while and see what happened. trolled the edge for about 45 minutes and the flatline with dolphin colored bonita goes off. hand the reel off to my father-in-law and he brings in a nice 30 lb wahoo. a nice start given the water conditions. fished the edge for a while and caught several scamp, a nice red snapper, couple of king and i got a nice gag to the boat. bite slowed down and we headed to the yellow gravel and found some lively bottom dropped down and the snapper bite was on. got our limit and also caught scamp, triggers and beeliners. my father-in-law pulled up a 25 lb amberjack that about whupped him. types of bait varied throughout the day. live cigs worked well for a while, then pinfish were getting lit up and butterflied baits for a while. caught a number of juvy aj's jigging as well. total for the day 30 lb wahoo, 8 red snapper, 2 king, 1 gag, 4 scamp, 25 lb aj, triggerfish and couple of beeliners.

Newbie in Destin Scores

Chet88 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:43:42 GMT

Guys thanks for all your help on this forum. Everyone has been very helpful. Caught these with 4 of my buddies last Friday on some public numbers out of Destin. Thought these were supposed to be near extinction.:moon I definitely have the fever now.:toast Caught them on live cigs about 4 ft off the bottom in 120' of water. Boated 4 nice Kings as well.

[IMG]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/Bama96/securedownload-1.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks Again
Chester

Just a little bottom time on Recess saturday 7/20

recess — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:18:14 GMT

The day started at 6:00am at sherman cove , we were meet by glass calm waters with a 1/2 ft leftover swell . About 45mins later we reached our first hole it took 2 tries to get right on the spot at anchor.Rob started the day with the first extinct red snapper followed by gene and tim . The snapper limit was taken care of so to the grouper holes we went . We caught our scamp right off the back but no big grouper to speak of. So we pulled the hook and made our way to another rock, got on anchor gene went down and came right back up with the gag in the pic. Rob and I werent that lucky we couldnt get a grouper up lots of lost fish today , but thats fishing I guess well around 3:00 we called it a day but ran over some new rocks but no takers. Our grandaughter with her fish...raising her up the right way. All in all a good day with some good friends.

Destin 7-18

Rampage — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:16:17 GMT

We decided to go out Friday since my wife wanted to do some fishin'. We put the boat in the water right at sun up and headed to the pass to load up on live bait. We had the well full within about 30-45 mins with three of us catching bait. The plan for the day was to anchor up and throw over a chum bag on some spots and see what we could catch with some live bait. The first spot we stopped on maybe 2 miles off the beach. We threw out the anchor and waited. After about 30 mins of nothing both reels went off on back. We set the hook and the fight was on! My brother-in law grabbed one rod and i handed the other to my wife. After a good battle he pulled up this big bull red. I estimated it at 30lbs or so but my dad said by looking at the picture it is bigger. Wish we would have weighed it now but was trying to get it back in the water quick. Any of you guys that have experience with these big reds whats your guess on him. The picture really doesn't do him justice.

[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l151/SpedJunkie/100_1534.jpg[/IMG]

My wife was still fighting a hard pulling fish that just would not give up. After about 30-40mins of fighting ( and us joking at her expense) she finally got him boat side so we could grab him up. It was a big jack he was definitely full grown and had some shoulders.

[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l151/SpedJunkie/100_1536.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l151/SpedJunkie/100_1535.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l151/SpedJunkie/100_1538.jpg[/IMG]

We didn't have too much more luck after that caught a bunch of small sharks, and had three cobia chasing baits but would not eat. Why i don't know the would turn chase and then just break off. One chased a live threadfin and still wouldn't eat. It sure is funny watching a bait try to get the H#!! of of Dodge when something is after it. It was slick calm and we seen probably 7 or 8 big sea turtles hanging out. We also seen one HUGE shark. Thew a live bait in front of him but he would have none of that. All in all it was a fun day on the water

6-19 fishing trip

Fifty-Fifty_2 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:27:57 GMT

We got to our spot and got our limit of snapper decided to call it a day, but when we started in we ran over a spot that lit up, so we made a down and I reeled up my biggest trigger yet, it turned out to be quite a honey hole.

7/17 Offshore/Bottom bumpin report

true-king — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:50:46 GMT

Went out to some wrecks 20+ miles out today. East wind made it pretty choppy on the way out. Caught short AJs at the first couple spots on the williamsons.

The cudas had to eat too!

Anchored up on another spot later. Cudas were there too, and stayed by the boat the whole time, eating everything live. Managed to get a scamp passed them, which I had to sling into the boat. Also managed some snapper.

This bonita lost his tail to a cuda. Kept him for bait.

There were a bunch of little jacks busting all over the place, decided to play with them on the fly rod.

After that, we headed toward the pass. We saw some bonita on the way in and couldn't resist.

Take for the day: 1 scamp, a few snapper, and a bonita.

Night trip 7/16-17

Get'n Wade — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:24:52 GMT

Left out Wed. night and came back in Thursday morning. David(left) and I anchored up on a wreck and wore the fish out. We caught so many Red Snapper it was stupid, Black Snapper, mingo, almico jack, barracuda and a Blacktip at least 150lbs. Below are a couple of the Big red and black Snapper we caught. The Reds were 15 & 17lb. the biggest one ate a Finger mullet the size of your pinky and the biggest Black snapper ate a freelined cigar minnow off the top of the water.

me and Matts last trip 4 a while

bluffman2 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:44:36 GMT

this was me and Matt aka (choclabs) last trip for a while as he is moving back to Oklahoma,,

we left pascagoula @ 11am and the seas were awesome...you could look in the water and see your reflection...0-1,s is a understatement...it was ZEROS

ran about 35-40 miles trying to jig a AJ no luck so came back in to a little reef i found and it was on....Matt brings up a 22" flounder and i put him back over the reef and another 20" flounder then i told him to swap hooks and bait and then he proceeded to catch snapper.....after a few minutes i dropped a line over and pulled up a 19incher and that was our limit ....we threw back a whole bunch of snapper.........NOT A GRAMMY but it was a nice day with my friend and a few fish for the cooker!!!...heres a few pics of the fish
[IMG]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd94/bluffman2/P7200371.jpg[/IMG]
heres Matt..
[IMG]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd94/bluffman2/P7200372.jpg[/IMG]
this is the founder and a few snapper fillets
[IMG]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd94/bluffman2/P7200378.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd94/bluffman2/P7200377.jpg[/IMG]
heres one of me and matt...

[IMG]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd94/bluffman2/P7200374.jpg[/IMG]

the rest of the snapper i gave to my "almost blind uncle" he really appreaciated it....
GREAT TIME HAD WITH MATT and Matt if you read this get you AZZ back from Oklahoma and lets GO FISHING

Destin 7/19/08

lobsterman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:50:36 GMT

Had a fair day out on the water today and couldn't have asked for a better day to take out my son and 2 nephews. Here is our reward.

MY BEST FISHING DAY EVER 7-16-08

Private Pilot — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:55:22 GMT

It all started bright and early at 4:45AM. Loaded the kayak and headed down to the grassflats with a buddy of mine. We were on the water at 5 while its still pitch black. It was a little spooky casting for the first time since I couldn't see what I was doing. The skitterwalk hits the water and Im ready to work it back in. Since I couldn't see where it was, I was just wishing for an explosion to occur. Then my wish comes true after 5 walks of the skitter. I hear an explosion and then my reel starts to scream. Got him to the yak and he was about a 23-24in red. No pics on this one. I go try again at the docks and within seconds another red hits. Missed him. One more cast to about 4in of water and then another explosion occurs. Got him in and it was a 18-20in speck. I try one more cast to dock at about 7AM and a little pop hits the skitter. Crank him in and it was a cute 6in Red. My buddy got 4 reds also. We pack it up and head home.

A few hours after that, my neighboor Trevor says, "lets go king fishin in your boat." I agree and hook it up. We get out to the pass at around 10AM and drift some hardtails/cigs. 20 min later, my 850 gets a nice smack. Rod starts to bend and drag starts to peel. 10 sec later, comes off. King. I throw out another hardtail and it gets slammed within minutes. Now the drag is absolutely screamin and I cant stop him. Trevor cranks the engine and chases him down. 20 mins go by, then 30, then 60. Now I know its a shark or one smoker of a king. After one long a$$ battle, he comes to the surface and its a big 5 foot blacktip. Cut the line and we go back to the pass.

Now my arms are throbbing in pain but I dont care. We throw out some more cigs and wait. 1/2 hour goes by with only one good hit on Trevor's 704. Then Trevor spots a school of white fish at about 10ft. He says, "Chris, look at those fish. What is that?" I know exactly what that is. I grab my closest rod which happened to be a Stradic with only 10lb Power. Its the same rod and lure I got the little reds on earlier. Throw it out and within seconds, the jack kills it. FISH ON! Then my 850 with a cig starts screamin. Trevor grabs it and its a DOUBLE HOOK UP!

His is heading one way, while mine is heading the other. I'm about spooled and his is getting close.

After a good 30-45min battle, he muscles it in. He just got his biggest fish of his life!!

Now we can go chase mine which is about 150yards out. A little inshore rod with 10lb isn't really the correct tool to use when your going after JC's. He took the drag out so fast, he burnt my clicker to nothing. Now after a pain staking hour and thirty mins, he is boatside. I tailgrab him and its finally over.

Total count for the day: 2 Reds, 1 speck, 5ft Blacktip, 2 Jacks around 20lbs. All released

:hotsun:hotsun:hotsun:hotsun:hotsun:hotsun:hotsun:hotsun:hotsun

Went out for the afternoon.

$$2fish — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:56:28 GMT

Left out of Sherman cove around 1 o'clock to head to one of my fav snapper holes. The seas were calm and we were able to make about 25 mph on the way out. Another story for the way back in though. Anyways got over my spot after trying to anchor about three times and finally got some lines in the water. Started to catch some lane's at first but then the red snapper started to bite. So we were catching some nice red snapper and filled our limit rather quick considering it was just my wife and I. So we hung around a little longer and tried to pick up some more Lane's and vermillion snapper but all we could catch were those endangered Red snapper. Huh!!! So since all we could catch were red snapper we decided to pull anchor and head back in near shore and troll for some kings. Ruff ride back in the chop. Trolling for kings didn't happen because we got flagged down by another boater in destress. The guys batteries were dead and neither of us had jumper cables. So I ran his son to big lagoon were his mother was waiting with two new batteries for them. Ran them back to his father, anchored in the pass and got them back on there way. My good deed this year. Just kidding, would do it for anybody, just hope someone would do it for me. Total talley was four red snapper, one lane and one vermillion. Also had a short aj in the boat as well.

Hell of a trip!!!

grouper22 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:25:57 GMT

From a few years back. Miss ya John, hope the lines are tight and the motors are running strong up in heaven......

Destin Report 7/17

Offshore-911 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:16:57 GMT

Had a pretty good day, put got to the Destin Marina a little before day and loaded up on pinfish. Got out to the pass and baitman had no bait so sabikied up a few cigs and headed SE to a try a couple holes around the 20 mark. Got the anchore set and the bite was on, my Bro put the first fish in the boat 16 in Lane and then I caught 4 Shore AJs back to back, our Buddy Kyle and OffshoreRN added 4 mangroves to the box and the we started catching some snapper up high. Zach hooked up to an AJ that was finally legal. Got our limit of Snaps pretty quick and started getting alot of king bites deep ended up getting broke off about 10 times on big fish of the unknown. It was some good 4 ft rollers till around 1 which made it hell to fish but thats why you gotta love it I guess. About 4 it slicked off and we headed her to the hill.

got fish!!!

reelhappy — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:39:56 GMT

got a little late start over slept flat on trailer. storms rolling thru. but got in the water for 6.am found some hard tails in the bay. the cigs were harder to find after checking every bouy out the pass and mass. we found them about 5 miles offshore on the bottom. sabikki them up from 65 feet of water. watching lighting coming down the strom paased to our nw got a little rain. with the bait on board it was time to break out the bean bag chairs and settle in for the ride offshore (2 hours due south). was a nice ride 2 foot chop thanks to the storms. capt. rog monkey boat handles it just fine (24' cat) we had walt k. rich s. and the duke of earle on board. first stop aj's. got our limit 5. from 29 to 46 inches long mine being the biggest, my best yet 50 pounds nice fight all caugh on hard tails.

oh we were in 350 feet drity green water out about 45 miles , man could not see what you had till the weight hit the rod tip. next stop scamp was a short ride but a nice break after fight the aj's always good to get first while you still have the arms. put 9 scamp in the box biggest being a nice 26 inch 9 pounder caugh by rog.

its right there looks like my 50# aj is eating it! oh we also got 2 nice almoc's jacks one just above the scamp. we were still in 350 feet of water using live cigs for bait. popped one bonita, he will come in handy later for bait. also i caugh one nice gag while we were there. 31 inches 12 pounds nice add on to the box.

the duke and rich ( rookie as he was called all day ) caugh to of the biggest mingo's i've seen they weight in at 5 pounds each 22 inches long those will be nice eating

heres rookie with his first keeper aj nice fish weigh was 28 pounds and 34 inches long

walt not to be out done brought a nice one to the boat to!

and heres capt. rog with one.

the dukes was a good show coming in at 29 1/2 inches but he caugh the only shark, i give him a hard time all the time buts its all in fun. if you don't know the duke take him fishing awesome sportsman and a great guy to fish with! well we finished off our box with red snapper we caugh in 270 feet of water using what was let for live bait and that bonita. rog caugh the best weighing in at 9 pounds and 24 inches long hes on the table some were. we tryed not to keep anything under 20 inches! in our rush and now we found a friend of flipper we missed counted and only caught 9 red snapper. oh well was a great ride in. had a awesome time fishing with friends can't wait for the next one. heres some more pics. fish on everybody!!!!

the dukes shark!!!

thats me all most going over when that 50# aj decided to pull back man that was nice fight, wore my old ass out!!!!

the crew from letf to right me rich (rookie) walt, and the duke!

and the catch! good bye y'all see you out there!!!

JULY 12

Lickety-Split — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:28:07 GMT

Planed a long range trip sw but the way the t-storms were forming on the beach and pushing south looked a little spooky. So we stayed in close enough to keep an eye on that crap with radar. Turned out to be a good call as we were able to barley beat that high lighting storm from the east into OB pass. We dodged storms all day and got some really good fish. The Jack weighed in at 50lbs, 2 good snappers, and a stud red grouper. Also got a handful of scamps mingos and whites.

Aleahs B-Day off-shore trip

allen_perkinson — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:02:59 GMT

Well one thing is for sure, if you need to find fish on short notice, there is one Captain out there who will surely take care of you. Capt Gary O (Team Go~n~Mo) is soley responsible for making not only an unforgettable B-day for my 8 year old, but also hooking her on fishing! I called the Capt up at 830pm last night to see if he would take me and the girl out for an off shore trip and he was gracious enough to oblige. We started the morning out running down the bait guy (joe, i believe) to get a net full of bait, then ran out to a spot where we would start slow trolling for whatever was hungry... So to make a long story short, check out the pics. Aleah was the angler behind all of the fish. So much so that eventually she was turning them away when there was a hook up. Thank you again Capt, yet another memory you have provided for my family! Tight Lines!!!

Aleah Fighting her first Amber Jack!

Same fish different angle

And here it is!!!:hotsun For a small package, they sure do pull hard! Boy they are fun!

The octopus was an innocent victim. Must have snagged him on the retrieve, but he was released alive. Octopus have 7 tenticles right?

This is what we took home. One of those almost extinct things (the red one) a fat spaniard and his little brother, and a barley legal king. All in all i think the toll was 4 AJ's, one Scamp, one snapper, one king, 3 spaniards and an octopus with seven legs. Not a bad day for her first time fishing the gulf, thanks again Gary. (oh and if i forgot any, let em know!) Tight lines all!!!

took my mom and the kids fishing

bluffman2 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:32:12 GMT

trip was out of pascagoula..

went looking for some new bottom to start fishing and marked plenty of new stuff..

so it is the first trip out in the boat since having work done on it at Emerald Coast Marine(thanks Kenny)..boat ran perfect and i was able to put my mom on a decent grouper and the kids had fun with the snappers.....nothing to really brag about but thought i would at least share....

i would guess the weight of the grouper @ 15-18#......all i had was POS scales and 1 read 18# the other read 16#..

[IMG]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd94/bluffman2/P7160369.jpg[/IMG]
mom had a blast
[IMG]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd94/bluffman2/P7160367.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd94/bluffman2/P7160370.jpg[/IMG]

pff member took me fishing

shanester — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:23:39 GMT

destin last sat 830 am lest go fishing

fish on the bottom left is a lane about 16 17 inches.

Did anybody else fish the floating bush?

Empty Tank — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:32:52 GMT

My wife and a friend found a floating bush several miles outside of pensacola pass. It was loaded up with chicken dolphin. It looked like a giant witch doctors head. Was wondering if anybody else fished it this week-end. Here's a photo of the catch.

Just cathing up on the forum!

rodfather — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:51:30 GMT

:clap:clapWell it was time for me to finally get off my butt and get some fishing in. I was with my buddy, Jason "Gatorbait" Street. We set off about 6 A.M. and launched out of Eglin Air Force Base. And boy was it nice out!

We got the "Rodfather" in and took off to the Destin Pass and boy did we slaugter the live bait! We hauled in about 35 to 40 live ones. :clap

After we got our taste of live bait we took off to what I like to call "Spotone". On the way we noticed lots of Blue runners on the tops of the water, by the 1000's. Sounded like rain there are so many out there. :takephoto

Thinking that we had enough live bait we continued to head out to my fish whole of "Spotone". Along the way "Gatorbait" decided to check on the live ones in my well.

Once he checked the livewell he noticed that all of our livebait was dead. :doh. Reason was we had so many of those little guys that one of them knocked out my drain plug!:shedevil

Let's just say I learned my lesson on that one. Well at least we had the dead ones we could use for cut bait. Now we are at "Spotone" and threw the buoy over to mark the spot. Once anchored we started to fish and right away "GatorBait" realed in a Snapper.

It was the usual, 15 inches, but being 1 day before snapper season we couldn't keep any of them anyways. Funny thing is, I came to this spot for a reason and it wasn't "RED" snapper I was looking for, it was Vermillian Snaps! And boy did we start catching them! :clap:clap

Things were going pretty good until my rod that I was free floating a whole "dead" bait got taken to the bottom of the ocean. Yes that is right, my 80 dollar Abu Garcia Ambassadeur was taken by either a big Amberjack, or a small Cobia. I had just taken the rod out of the placeholder on the boat and layed it on the deck. Then not a min. later "WHOOSH" FISH ON AND ROD GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :banghead

BUT, what can I do. Me and GatorBait laughed as the big one got away. Well we were still determined to catch more fish so we put a baby Amberjack off the back of the boat to see what we could get as we were getting tired of realing all of these verm. snaps. All of sudden----- FISH ON, FISH ON!!! IT WAS A COBIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COBIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COBIA!!!!!!!! I KNEW IT, IT WAS TO FAST FOR A SHARK. So I grabbed the rod and started to yell at Gatorbait to get my harness. "Get it out, Get it out" I yelled, but this only confused Gatorbait, He He. The drag on my rod was screaming and I felt like the fish was getting away, so I tightened my drag and the line snapped! :looser

Now before I get all kinds of replys on how I should of handles the COBIA, BELIEVE ME I knew what I did wrong. But oh well, I got exited and messed up. Next time his a&* is mine.

Well, after a while Gatorbait decided to grab his spoon and toss his open bail over the side and fight some blue runners. He said it was "the fight" that was fun, even though we couldn't eat them.

Well overall it was a good trip. We had several ver. snappers and food to eat. That's what I like, to be able to bring home some good eatin fish. MMMMM.........mmmmmm.....yummy.

Lots of fillets for the family!:clap

June 13 king

gocatchfish37 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:53:32 GMT

Bill Hargraeves tournament winner, sorry a little late but, i just started on here so here it is.

Heading out in 30 mics.

TBonds — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:23:46 GMT

Not sure where we are going to go, but hopefully we catch some stuff.

Late report from 7-9

REEL MAGIC — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:13:56 GMT

Made a trip to the I-10 rubble Wednesday. Caught a pile of nice snapper and 5 or 6 short cobia along with one about 45 pounds. Tons of break offs so we decided that the next time one of us hooked up with something big we would run it down. Well, as luck would have it was me. On a 302, we chased it for about 30 minutes and it finally came to the surface. A big shark maybe 8 or 9 feet long. Well That sux. The good thing was it had 4 cobia with it. We had to catch 2 shorts before we got the largest one to eat. So while Jimmy Holler fought his cobia on one side of the boat I fought that stinking shark on the other. Luckily they ran in oppoisite directions. When It came time to gaff the cobia I stuck my rod in the rod holder and just kept tweeking down on the drag of the 302 until the shark finally broke off. We figured the cobia was a much better prize than that shark. We had several break offs that just pulled straight down and I'm guessing ran into the rubble. Don't believe they were were sharks.We released at least 20= fish in the 22''t0 24'' range aftr we got our limit. Will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to reduce the size

Destin July 4th weekend

Kobia — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:38:58 GMT

I got to do some bottom bumping with Jason (bombtosser) and his brother Kevin and friend Mike from Kansas last weekend. We arrived at the boat ramp before first light and made our way out the pass. We loaded up our livewell with cigs and little bonitas and headed out 25miles to some live bottom spots we had found.

Bite was red hot with our first drop producing a nice 12lb gag and a 20 inch snapper. Just as we were getting pumped up about the fishing a thunderstorm pulled over us and the 3 of us jumped in the cuddy cabin leaving Jason to man the wheel. We suffered through the shower crammed in the small cuddy with 3 large smelly men and the gay jokes being tossed down from Jason above.

Luckly the shower didn’t cool off the bite and after I bait up our biggest live bait I give the rod to Jason so I can check our location and he procedes to catch his personal best Gag. :banghead

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/Jgrouper.jpg[/img]

Soon after Mike is bowed up big time. We thought he was gonna get whooped but he droped down into sumo stance and took charge of the fish.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/mikefighting.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/mikegrouper.jpg[/img]

Kevin finally got his turn and hooks into something nice... Turns out to be a fat snapper.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/Ksnapper.jpg[/img]

We decide to leave some fish on our lucky spot and go out and do some trolling. We get a little beer in us and one of the bonitas take off! We get super excited at the prospect of a potential wahoo bite but we are let down to see it was only a king.

One of the funnest days I can remember on the water with good fishing and great friends.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/catch-1.jpg[/img]

-Koby

july 13 edge report

sail7seas — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:46:02 GMT

ran out to the edge this morning to bottom bump since all the nasty water is around. it was a little rough heading out with a strong nw wind. got out there and we were the only boat on the edge all day. had trouble anchoring up cause of the rough water and finally got it anchored but we were hung this time. oh well, time to fish and worry about the anchor later. immediately hooked into a king on the freeline with a hardtail. got the first one to the boat and he was a nice one at 26 lbs. the bottom action was kind of slow throughout the day. i did find the scamp hole and caught three nice scamp in 10 minutes time on small live pinfish. also caught a few beeliners. caught our limit of kings and released several more. the big fish were not hungry on the bottom. tried big live baits, butterflied baits, bonito and some jigging. no takers though we still had plenty of fish to take home. looked at the xm weather on the chartplotter around 230 pm and saw the line of storms heading south. got the anchor unhung from the rocks and started cruising in. we watched the storms on the chartplotter and saw they were heading roughly southeast. we were about 18 miles from perdido pass and knew we would get caught so we head due west for about 10 miles and found a whole between the storm hitting orange beach and the one off mobile. got a little windy but we avoided the rain and lightning. thank goodness for xm weather.

Tims Destin Report -- 12 July 08

timl74` — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:49:40 GMT

Planned on heading out at 630 with bill and his daughter, me and my daughter and her two friends and Shanester, but I running a little late, anyway I launched, and found out i didn't have any power steering. Had to go get fluid, got back at 8, put 2oz in and headed out. Storms were a brewin all in the gulf, and bait boats were at noreaga point, so we just stopped off for a shot, and then sabikid up a few hardtails, a couple spanish, and let the girls catch a king before we headed out Off to the SW we were going, but we were heading right into the waves so we turned and headed due south. Got out to our hole and caught 14 snapper before the storms rolled in on us. Man that squaw line was nasty with lightning. Seas didn't blow up huge so we ran about 25mph through the 7mi heart of the storm. Lightning struck within 100 yards of us and that rain stung. anyway, got to the other side, stopped off to check on a couple of other closer to shore holes picked up a lane, but xm weather was showing another squaw line coming down and lightning was everywhere, so we headed in. Back in at 330.

fishwerks 7.12

wishiniwasfishin07 — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:30:30 GMT

11 miles from the pass. Back at the ramp at 11.30ish. the pictures dont do the big snapper justice, it was 27"

prfa annual trip on the entertainer

reelhappy — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:08:13 GMT

was a great day on the water. Capt. Jerry Andrews was able to find those rare red snapper which we caught our limit on (66 fish all over 20 inches) then turned the Entertainer (65' fishing machine) and headed for Mingo's and grouper. had a great time, we put some really nice Mingo's and scamp in the boat. one really big triggerfish some bar jacks a nice aj that won the big fish pool caught by bob vander walle nice fish ! he also caught a small shark. the bonita came by made a mess of everybodys lines but that is party boat fishing and it is fixed in no time and back to fishing. if you have never been on the Entertainer it is a awesome fishing machine 65' long, ac cab, 12 bunks down below , hugh fishing area, great crew, sun deck, and Capt. Jerry will put you on the fish! all you have to do is bring them up! thank you capt. jerry for a great day on the water we are looking forward to the next one on you boat! oh and cliff (cobia killer ) caught this funny fish see pic below. here are some pics enjoy we did!!!

Destin Report 7/11

Offshore-911 — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:23:14 GMT

Me, OffshoreRN, My Bro and some friends headed out to the Southwest to our Honey Hole. Got anchored perfect on first shot. First drop my bro picked up a just legal scamp and a few mangroves hit the deck. After a few minutes the snapper started biting pretty good, caught a few shorts but ended up limiting in about 2 hours on decent fish nuthin big. We caught 2 amberjack just shy of 28 and had some major breakoffs of the unknown. After we had been there a while things started slowing down I put a handsized pinfish down just off the bottom and stuck the rod in a holder on the side of the boat just as soon as I got it down and set I look back and the rod bows over big. I get it out of the holder and start to crank or thought I was goin to crank and he cranks me for about 5 minutes, it was back and forth for 20 minutes I didnt have my drag all the way tight bc I had 50lb test and didnt wont to break, during all this everyones lines got wrapped around me and I mean everyone on the boat, including my bro in law which had a 5lb snapper on his line also. We finally got them untangled except the one with the snapper on it, still havent seen a flash of what I had on just a glimps of the snapper that was tangled with me, I got it up finally to around 40ft from the boat and it starts to get tired, I tighten my drag up some and started pumpin it to the top, he rolled up and I bout messed on my self when I seen that Cobia, it looked huge OffshoreRN put the gaff to him and over the side he comes into the boat. This is the 4th cobia weve caught off this spot with several others seen and lost. We didnt have any scales onboard so we would have to wait till we got home. We picked up anchor and headed toward the SW edge to try for a grouper found some good bottom and first drop picked up an 18 in scamp after that it was nuthin but 18 in snapper that had to go back and all the white snapper you wanted with a few mingos mixed, about 4pm we decided to head in since it had calmed off we pointed it to the hill 26 miles @ 35 mph made a smooth ride back. We made it to the house and were thinking that the cobia was gonna be heavier than what he was but tipped the scales at 57lbs. All and all had a great day, a little rough on the way out, seen a few storms and spouts in the distance but managed to stay out of the line of fire all day.

OffshoreRN with the cobia

Heres a group shot with all the fish

Total tally for the day

A 57lb Cobia

1- 3ft shark of somekind

2- Bobos

10- ARS

4- Mangroves

2- Scamp

15- White Snapper

2- Mingos

Deepdropping W/ Team Outcast

Boardfeet — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:15:42 GMT

I had the pleasure of an invite to fish with Team Outcast to try out the Diawa, Tanacom Bull 1000 power assisted reels.

These reels proved to be light and powerful. Among the many features they will stop reeling just before your rig reaches the surface or if you manually turn the handle. A programmable jigging feature, variable speed retrieve and of course a line counter.

Did I mention light and powerful??? The two Yellowedge Grouper below were caught on the first drop in 350+' . they were 30# and 17#

The reel hardly strained.

We worked our way in shallower to catch some Scamp and Snapper. don't remember the exact final tally but this is pretty close.

3 Yellow Edge Grouper

1 Snowy

1 Cusk eel

6 Scamp

1 Red Grouper

Several AJ's ...all released

Limit of Red Snapper...many many were vented and released.

Here is a pic of the box without the two 30# Yellowedges

Master deep dropper and Grouper killer Chris Lister w/ twin Yellowedge Grouper..30# each!!

Chris' head is the one in the middle.

Alan Moore and Tommy Holmes

Chris Lister

We all got together today at Sam's Seafood for lunch. We had Grouper cheeks, throats and backbones. For those of you that don't save the throats believe me you are missing out!

Thanks Tommy Holmes for an unforgettable trip!!