Blowin Again !

Capt. Larry Pentel
May 20, 2009
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report




After a over a week of great fishing weather it's back to blowing. The King Mackerel bite had been red hot since my last report until this North wind started on Monday.

We have been starting out the day by slow trolling live baits for Kings with great success. For about ten days we limited out everyday fairly easily in 2 hours or less. Not only does this make for some fast and exciting fishing but still leaves some time to bottom fish even on a four hour trip. A rack of kings is great, it's even better with a few "bonus" fish.

I started the other day and made a pass around a spot the Kings had been voracious at the day before- not a nibble. Okay , troll around again, this time we had a double bite but with a pair of Mahi in the air!. We landed one, pulling the hook on the other. Never did get a king on that spot but found 'em hot a 1/2 mile away. Good to have lots of spots !



A nice mahi for a bonus!

While there may be 6 folks in this picture only three of 'em were on my boat. When the fish rack's full everybody wants in the pic! I love a good Mackerel Rally!

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Kings make a Full Boat

Capt. Larry Pentel
May 10, 2009
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report

Whew, after the worst spring weather wise I can recall we are finally coming into summer. The water is turning that beautiful Emerald Green again and while it hasn't been slick calm we have had a lot of very fishable weather. The cobia run kinda got weathered out this year but there are still a few coming by. The bait has finally shown up on the beach and the kings came in close behind. With most of all the fresh water finaly gone from the springs floods the fishing will just get back to being excellent again. the forcast has a weak cold front coming through tomorrow that should give us that "perfect" pattern of a light North wind in the AM and a seabreeze the PM.

I picked a couple of folks up on the beach the other morning (from Montana!) who were clutching flyrods. While it was quite fishable it was breezy and choppy and the water on the beach was dark. They wanted to cobia fish with flyrods and I had my doubts as to how productive we could be given the conditions. I quick conference and they decided that there was no way they could accurately cast to a fish form a bouncy bow with a stiff wind. We blasted offshore, did a little bottom fishin' and made sure we had enough in the box for a fish fry. Changed gears, ran to where I thought there might be some Kings and flipped a live cig out on a spinning rod. I think we had to wait...

Better Weather

Capt. Larry Pentel
April 30, 2009
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report




While we still are no where near Chamber of Commerce weather the patterns are making changes for the better. There have been a couple stretches of nice days where we have been able to get off the beach and harass all those finny critters.
The cobia have shown real well a couple of the bad rough days this past week but I didn't want to beat my folks up so missed out on what may have been the only 2 "banner:" days of the run, Still plenty of time left for 'em to show when it's pretty!



Even if you don't see a Cobia the Jacks are great sight fishing excitement !

Most of my trips have been bottom fishing. We are still throwing back lots of Red Snappers, keeping the Vermillions. Been fortunate enough that the Vermillions have moved in strong and we run out of nails before we run out of fish to hang when we target 'em.



The fish always bite for pretty gals !

It's hard to get most folks to keep fishin' a 2 hook rig once they see a grouper bite. I try to always have at least one 2 hook going but my anglers can be hard to convince, This fellow stayed with it...

Finally Fishin'

Capt. Larry Pentel
April 20, 2009
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report




We finally have had a break in all this weather the past week. Still more rough days than I would like but there were a couple of just beautiful ones and a couple more that while rough were very fish-able.

I got to run a couple bottom trips on the calm days and we had some great catches of vermilion Snappers, a few groupers and even some triggers we could keep. With the current size on triggers at 14" to the fork if you keep a few the fillets'll fill a gallon zip lock pretty quick. Every spot seems fishy and there is no shortage of bites. Even with all we have to release the box seems to fill up pretty good by the end of the trip.

I somehow reset a button on my camera so I missed having pictures from a couple trips-- just look at the past couple reports and the boards are the same to better!

Saturday was pretty rough and I was supposed to run a family bottom trip. I told 'em we would wait to see if it got comfortable looking but by 10 AM it was downright sloppy. We called the trip and I stayed on the beach to watch for a bit. My son, Capt Will Pentel, came down around noon. He had come over from Indian Pass to celebrate his Birthday with his mother and I. He convinced me to take him out and look for a birthday cobia. The fellow that helps me launch,...

Hang On Boys, It's Gonna Blow !

Capt. Larry Pentel
April 13, 2009
Destin - Saltwater Fishing Report




And Blow, and Blow. I know it's Spring and the natural order of things has it blustery some days but this is getting old. The fronts keep coming and the surf stays up. It's been a good year to be skinny guy with a surfboard! While we have had some beautiful spring days the surf has only let me get off the beach twice since my last report. The good news is the fish have moved in close with all this weather and are stacked up like the shelves at a Wal- Mart.

Wednesday morning was slick calm, light North wind and a little cool at daylight. By 8:15 I was shedding clothes even though we were running out at 20 knots. I had a crew of folks who had never been and spent the first part of the trip teaching 'em the circle hook technique. They figured it out and boated some fine red snappers that we released and a few groupers that we kept. The snappers are so thick it's hard to grouper fish. We kept running bigger and bigger baits to give the groupers a chance to eat but usually just caught bigger and bigger snappers. If the current regulations stay in place they may soon be the only species in the Gulf after they out eat everything else ! My folks were having such a good time the dad asked if we could fish a little longer about 2 1/2 hours into our trip. Naturally I said sure...