5-17 Destin Florida Report
 

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegall.../its_a_boy.jpg

I was on the hook for a family trip to Florida to celebrate my wife's Mom's 60th. Fortunately they live in a cool area with great beaches and good fishing....Bill my father in law had a private charter arranged for Saturday the 17th and I was quite stoked for that. The same charter 4 years ago sparked my interest in fishing and it would be fun to go back with a little different perspective....

We hooked up with Captain Scott in Destin Harbor (which is in the western end of the Florida panhandle) and the 3 of us got on his nice center console and headed out to fish. First we made a few bait stops to load up the well. There were already an assortment of bait in tank, but he wanted some more...we caught cigar minnows and hardtails on the sabikis with the rest of the charter fleet of about 50 boats for the first hour and then Scotty said, "let's fish"


Game plan in these waters is to put people on the Red Snapper and go for limits....then go from there. This could take a while if the clients are not too....well....if they SUCK. :rolleyes:

He put us on top of some near shore structure and we baited up and dropped down 3 oz Carolina rigged coffee grinders with powerpro, a leader and a 3/0 circle....tap tap tap swing, miss...he says, let the rod load up, then get em off the structure quick...OK, now we're just roping the snapper, they pull nicely and they're frickin purdy as hell. We had a couple of mystery breakoffs on the structure (which varied from sunken tanks, ships, airplanes etc)....we got limits pretty quick and played catch and release hoping for a grouper or big cobia....at this spot, Kevin, the in-law's buddy goes big bendo and then stuck on the structure and the eventually works it out by moving the boat around,lands a nice ~15# Grouper...very nice.

Meanwhile, I've been dropping hints that I would like to target Amberjack's if possible....he says, let's keep an eye on the wind and if it dies a bit, we'll run offshore to look around...nice. So, we wrap up on snapper and we're not getting much love on the grouper, and morning offshore wind dies and we go a runnin....Captain pulls us up on a wrecked barge in 90' of perfect blue 73 degree water, he does a couple of passes to get a look at what's holding and stops to rig up one of the 'hardtails' on a fat treble hook and says get that out a ways and we'll make a pass...really nice bait that swims deep and is really lively. First pass, the rod gets slammed and I'm on a nice AJ. Stoked! We played that game a few times for a few more fish, they stop hitting the trolled baits so we got on top of the spot and fished deep baits...we were C/R on various snappers, but 90% red, and good size ones too. It was cool that every bait got bit within a minute, whether it was short bit, quickly farmed or converted into a fish....Bill broke a monster off on a reel that really shouldn't have been letting any drag by the setting, and had his 'fish once a year' ass on his knee's begging for mercy....finally he got rocked and straight went his rod. Looked like a big version of the AJ's we had already boated....time ran short and we finished up trolling back around the harbor for Kingfish, but they weren't playing.

The Captain worked really hard and put us on some great fish. When we got back to the dock and started the cleanup, we clearly scored over the rest of the boats coming in. Great trip....will be back next year!

Kevin hooked up on the biggest snapper of the day.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/B.jpg
A really nice sized one...he went back as we had already limited.....check out those Funny lookin rods we were using!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/C.jpg
Average sized snappa.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/E.jpg

Uh-oh, this ain't no snappa. I'm thinking WTF, I'm reeling with my left hand and my rod eyes are upside down...but I like it!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/1-4.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/2-2.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/3-2.jpg
Fought like a summer yellow of the same size.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/4-2.jpg
Bill get's a turn....how he landed it with slack in the line 45% of the time I do not know.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/5-1.jpg
Fruits of luck/labor: he was short so he went back..
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/6-1.jpg
I got another on a bottom bait and I felt the spectra rubbing for a while, but Scotty backed him up and off with his boat thingy.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/F.jpg
That's the skipper.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/G.jpg
Here are some shots of Destin Harbor. It has all of the cheese-factor that you would hope and expect in a Florida port, but no pretention (is that a word) what so ever, "it's all good" is the vibe
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/H.jpg
Break out the beer bong!!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/I.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/J.jpg
bustling water way...
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/K.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d115/dbensen/L.jpg
The End.

That's a sick report and trip Dan!! Nice Feesh!!


Al

nothing like banging them on an airplane... :cheers1:

killa fishing Dano!

IT'S A BOY!!! :luxhello:

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegall.../its_a_boy.jpg

Sweet report:cheers1:

cool report.
those snappers are making me hungry

Awesome report....

Did you get the name of those yellowtail looking fish?

Nice!

Looks like a lot of fun. Good weather and fishing is awesome.

And Quitchabitchin, too!

Cool report Dan

Great Report and pics. My first and only fishing trip in FL (the Keys) was awesome, 1 sailfish, 2 wahoos, several dodos and several blackfin tuna - all for 3 anglers. I was lucky enough to take one 60 lb wahoo.

To quote the Masta-
Thats Tits!
:notworthy:

Thanks for sharing, Dan. How did those amberjacks taste? I've heard that they're not very good, but I've also heard people say that our yellowtail are not very good either.

Stoic waterman fo sho!!!:D

That night we did beer battered baja style snapper tacos, grilled grouper with lemon and butter --kept it simple 'cause I really wanted to taste it, and then lightly teriaki'd amberjack on the grill, all were excellent the amberjack was great to eat, came out exactly like YT and the locals consider it fine eating. The grouper was the best, really mild and firm. And the snapper was good too, but the next morning I panned cooked a fillet with a couple of pieces of bacon and some creole spice and that was epic!

Sweet report...can't believe ya didn't manage to finagle a kayak to take out...:eek:

Nice report & pics Dan. Thanks for sharing. I love fishing FL.

Destin was one of my favorite places in the world to fish as a kid it has grwon but the fishing can still be great. Go back there a few time year for some family time and hunting/fishing. So many great fish to be had...Cobia are the way to go though if you get a chance...So dam good....Awsome report. grat to see pics from back there. P.S i was back there yak fishing this year. its catching on but still wide open in the surrounding areas.

Thanks for the great report Dan! Looks like a fine day indeed.:you_rock:

Awesome report Dan.
 

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. It reminded me of the good times that I've had on the east coast. I love florida, (minus the heat and mosquitos) coffee-grinders and upside down rods "not so much".:cheers1: