Fantastic SoWal Fall Fishing

November 13, 2014 by Larry Pentel

We have had some great weather here at the beach so far this Fall. I am running a lot more trips than usual for this time of year just because we have had so many more calm, sunny, warm days.

Up until today anyway..... I had to call today's trip off with a group of locals who have had 3 trips canceled so far this year. I checked the forecast yesterday and it looked like a good day to Flounder fish today with a 15 knot North wind and 10% rain chance. In reality this morning it's blowing 25 knots and there is a huge mass of rain coming at us with a high temp of less than 60...... Oh well, they live here and we'll try again.

For all the folks that have got to go the past 2 weeks we have had some great catches and some really pretty days on the water, especially for mid November. Yesterday trip was all catch and release, done in shorts and t-shirts! It has been nice just running one trip a day and being able to pick that 4 hr window of the nicest part of the day.

There have been plenty of Jacks up in close, both greater (AJ's) and lesser ( Amberines). Still a pretty good vermillion snapper bite, lot's of triggers with a few still legal, quite a few scamp, although we are catching more shorts than legal the past week. The kings have been sparse which is odd as the bait has been thick (thick!) up on the bar in 15-20 feet of water every morning for the past few weeks.

The Flounders are just starting to show as well. We caught 9 one morning this past week before going out and bottom fishing and a couple each day on some other trips. I think that this cold front coming through today should drop the water temp on the beach below that magic 70 degree mark and push the bait off some and gang the Flounders up for easier picking. I have a bunch of folks on stand by wanting to Flounder fish when they get hot.

As always, gotta show proof with pics and give some anglers credit and braggin' rights!

This couple's first trip off the beach after living here for a couple years. You should have heard Mom when she hooked that big jack ! Her husband will have no trouble going fishin' as long as he brings the family!

 

These folks got into a great jack rally with a big school all up around the boat. Just throw a bait in the water and hang on!

 

these 3 guys had a big time with jacks, kings and snappers.

 

Folks from across the big pond on a beautiful fall day. That young man in the middle is a fishing machine on snappers and jacks!

 

A group of regulars on their yearly pilgrimage to Sowal to fish for 2 days. This was the first day's catch, they were wore down the second day so we just caught more rather than bigger.

 

Some more regulars with a great catch of jacks, scamp, trigger and flounder. That big guy in the middle was gonna prove he can smoke fish as well as have the best bar-b-que on 30A.

 

A couple more happy, smilin', tired anglers.

 

With all this fishing going on I have not had much time to work on putting the "Federal" boat together. The welder is about finished with the trailer and I have all the electronics and pieces parts purchased. With the weather starting to get into more of a rough/calm pattern ( instead of the preferred (calm/calm) I'm sure I'll get it all together by the Jan. 1st date of Greater AJ's opening in Federal waters.

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Larry Pentel's picture

Captain Larry Pentel is a native of South Walton, growing up just 300 yards from the beach. Having fished the local waters for over 40 years, he is very familiar with all the different types of local fish, their habits, and most importantly - their habitats. Captain Larry is the owner of Dead Fish Charters

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