Dead Fish report - Capt. Larry Pentel

[Smiling JOe]

Speaking of dolphins- I was reading the link on the "Who Saw this Unfold in Real Life" thread, and on the same link was an article that said 20 dead dolphins have washed up on SoWal beaches lately!

Probably a typo. Recently, there were 2 reported.

 

[Kurt]

Fishing Report for:
Destin, Florida (nearshore).
Updated: April 10, 2006.



After a slow start the cobia run is in full swing. I ran my first trip for 'em on Monday ( the 3rd)and am happy to report we saw 4, captured 1 and let another (that was a little too short) continue his travels on to La.

We ran three more trips for the brown backed crab crunchers this week and got at least one every trip. Now if I can just keep this up for the rest of the month I'd really be good-(read extremely lucky). Any way- 4 trips- all 1/2 days and 6 fish. I love to sightfish-redfish , tripletails, cobias it's all good. The best is what ever season it is NOW.

Speaking of tripletails- They usually show up with the cobia and this year is no exception. My son Will (Fried Fish Charters)who lives in St. Joe and guides over there says the Tripletails are thick. He got one each of the past 2 days while on trout trips. Says he saw 6 one trip and 8 the next- I told him my cobias weighed more----

Too rough to fish today with a front coming through. I needed a day off to catch up and do things like write this. I have fished the past 12 days and untill this week have been pounding the bottom pretty hard. We have been doing real good with the triggers and still catching quite a few groupers most days. With the cobia here it's time to give the bottom a rest untill the 15th - that's when Red Snapper open back up. With the size of some of the Snappers we have been releasing lately this opening should be exiting. Thursday I ran a bottom trip and we let 4 snappers go over 10# !! The folks got pictures and were exited .The dad and two sons had a great picture made with thier 5 groupers and dozen triggers we kept too-.

Snappers open on a Saturday this year and it also happens to be Easter weekend. The gulf is going to be VERY crowded. If you go out in your own boat please show a little consideration for all the other anglers. Don't run right up to somebaody allready fishing unless it's a big public spot. If your running to a spot and another boat is fishing in your path- give 'em a wide berth and curve around. A little courtesy can make a big difference out there- Remember-It's supposed to be fun for everyone.

capt Larry Pentel

 

[Kurt]

Fishing Report for:
Destin, Florida (nearshore).
Updated: May 14, 2006.



Warm days, clear water and lots of fish- It must be summer!

While the cobia season may have been a let down everything else is coming in right on schedule. The snappers have started moving further inshore and the kings are showing up thick as fleas one day and gone the next ( as they are supposed to!)There has been a lot of grass in close and you never know just what is going to be on the board when you come in.

Ran 4 folks I had never fished before on a referral last week. They got on the boat with a bunch of fly tackle so I questioned thier intent on booking a bottom trip (?) They said no, they wanted snapper and grouper but if an oppoutunity presented itself they wanted to fly fish- fair enough but asking a lot on a 4 hour! As I always say- I'd rather be lucky than good. These folks knew how to fish and we had a great box with 11 red snapps, a black, a couple lanes, 6 (count 'em, six)nice groupers, 3 kings and bunch of BB,s and trigs. With about 20 minutes left to fish I'm runnin' to another snapper spot and we hit a big weed line. A quick conference and the deciion is made to troll the line and look for mahi. We worked the line dragging live baits with no action for 15 minutes till we reached the end on a big grass island. I saw a nice tripletail at the very edge from the tower and had a flyrodder on the bow throw at him. The tail struck but missed and as I'm looking for any other targets before we run in I glanced down and saw the electric green glow of a mass of dolphins coming up from down deep. I start yelling at the flyrodders to get ready and grabbed a spinning rod to try to get 'em fired up. The short version is we came in 45 minutes late with a dozen mahi in the box. My crew caught 16 and we released the 4 smaller ones keeping the better grade. They took turns hooking up rather than have 2 on on the fly at the same time wich made for a lot of yelling by the 'observers" for the current angler to horse 'em. Even so we only broke off 1 fish ! I love it when a plan comes together!

Plenty of snappers on just about everything from rocks to wrecks that we thought dissapeared years ago. The pompano run was in full swing with the "beach boys" getting plenty of action untill this past week . The dreaded June Grass has shown up. It's not everywhere so you can drive up or down the beach and find a clear spot ( for a while) to fish but don't even try if you see any in your favorite hole. LOTS of sharks around too, always eager to relieve you of that big snapper if you take to long playng 'em to the boat. I am a firm beliver in rules and limits but I think they need to lighten up on the commercial boys a little. Whatever damage had been done to the shark population has definately been healed. With this many teeth out there we are probably going to see more attacks (on folks)this summer again. I sure don't want to kill 'em all but it would be nice to thin 'em out some!

The report from over at the "Pass" is Tripletail everywhere. My son said he saw over 30 on 2 different days just out "play fishing".- Thats 30 each day in a couple hours! Said he just threw his flyrod one day and resited the spinning rod no matter how frustrated any particular fish would get him. I can't believe nobody wants to charter over there to do that. Im hoping there are lots left when I get over there in July!

Thinking of july- if you want to Tarpon fish ( or sight fish tripletails!) give me a call. I'm only about 1/2 booked for July to jump silver rockets.

capt Larry Pentel

 

[Kurt]

Fishing Report for:
Destin, Florida (nearshore).
Updated: June 18, 2006.



Our string of beautiful weather days finally came to an end with tropical storm Albertro. Nothing really happened here except the surf came up for three days making it to rough to fish. It never even rained!!! I had said the day before it got rough that I wouldn't mind missin' a couple days if it would rain a day. Even the dollar weeds are gasping and turning brown.

Had a couple of real pretty days since the storm but an East wind the past 2 days that had it rough enough to "not be fun". Hope to be back on the water tommorrow.

A storm always moves fish around. Sometimes it takes our fish and sends 'em elsewhere and sometimes it gives us more fish than we seem to be able to deal with. This storm seemed to be a mixed bag. On my first trip out this week I ran a 6 hour and went where I had been finding snappers. They seemed to have left the premises and found new abodes. We ended up with a great board of fish but I covered a lot of ground and fished some really good spots that we would catch one or two fish off of and then nada. We tallied our limit of Snapper (20) a Red Grouper, 3 gag Grouper, a King, a couple Triggers, a PILE of real nice B-Liners and way too many sharks.

The next day I ran the same folks on a 5 hour. Different target species and a different area to try. Started off by hitting a "honey hole" that always makes fine snappers- I think we got 2-. Time to rethink the plan and run a few miles. I love it when a plan cames together! First off the Kings were red hot. We boxed our limit of 10 and released ( some by accident) several more along with a Bonita. The groupers were hitting so fast you about had to hide the hook to bait it. Lots of shorts but some down right fine ones too. I went through an entire 25 pack of hooks we lost so many to the bottom. We even had to release several FINE Red Groupers as we allready had our limit in the box. We hung 6 nice gags along with our limit of reds, kings, a mahi,couple triggs, 10 snappers and 2 sharks for a magazine quality picture. Plus everybody had a tale of "the big one"- had a fine (10#) snapper right up to the boat that pulled off and another fellow had "Bubba" on -twice! that pulled off both times. A BIG boy and that solid glass grouper rod bent all the way over to the water with me yellin' at 'em to wind and him yellin' that he can't! He'll just get bigger and pull harder for the next guy that hooks 'em. Those folks were talkin' 'bout coming back in the fall beofre they were even off thebeach!

Might go back and fish that same area again tommorrow------ whattaya think ?

Only 10 more days of fishin' out of Grayton for me and I'm off to the "Pass". All those tarpons we saw during cobia season heading East should be about to show up out front of St. Vincents Island any day now. And I am still hearing some great triple tail stories-- can't wait-

So many fish- so many boats- so little time--

Capt Larry Pentel

 

[Kurt]

Fishing Report for:
Destin, Florida (nearshore).
Updated: August 19, 2006.



Back to Grayton! Ran my first trip off the beach today after 7 weeks of chasing Tarpon at Indian Pass. My Mom, daughter and new son in law anglers were first timers and the fist couple of big grouper bites caught 'em by surprise but they came through in the end. Our 4 hour trip tallied 2 Red Grouper (one 'bout12#)6 Red Snapper 1 big Black Snapper 6 triggerfish, a shark,,a king and a mahi.
I started out trolling live baits for kings as I'd heard the mackeral bite has been hot. We found 'em pretty quick but the school I located was all small fish. We released several shorts and missed a lot of cut-offs before I changed gears and went bottom fishing.
Speaking of shorts--- The new size limit on triggerfish went into effect last month and will have a BIG impact on 'em. While the size is still 12" it is not overall as it used to be . The measure is now a "fork length" to the inside of the tail. As trigs have those long swept tails this effectively raised the size 2 to 3 inches longer. I know we threw a bunch more back today than we kept and I was having to measure 'em all. It will take a month or so to get my eyeballs calibrated to the new size.
We also threw back a lot of "just" short snappers. I started out inshore and didn't really find any bigger ones till we got past 85 feet. I'm sure this hot weather has even the snappers looking to stay a little cooler.
This years Tarpon season was a good one. Plenty of fish still around over there but I had to get back to the old stomping grounds. The biggest fish we got up to the boat was around 200# and the smallest was about 50#. It was odd this year that there were all these different year classes of fish mixed together. I kinda like seeing all the smaller ones up here- means they like it and will come back as they get bigger, A lot of years you never see a fish under 90#.
I think my final tally for the season was 23 tarpon launched for 21 days run. Pretty good unless you were on one of the days that we din't get one- you probably think it was a slow year--- The shark trips are another story- we ALWAYS get them over there. I am happy to report that it is great season on tripletail too. I ran several days of just looking for 'tails and we got 'em every time. ( now if I could only say that about Tarpon I'd be somebody!!!) Maybe next year !!!
The boys at the Gulf Coast research lab in Mississippi have started a tagging program for tripletail. I know we tagged a couple dozen on my boat this year from shorts up to 10#-12#. I can't wait to see where they get recaptured. As these are true pelagics it wouldn't surprise me to see 'em turn up on the other coast. I also am curious as to just how fast they grow----.
Booked pretty good back here in the "crowded" country so I should have an in depth report on bottom fishing next time.

Capt Larry Pentel

 

[laurawood]

I am not a fisherwoman, but these reports are fascinating. You can tell he LOVES his job and fishin'! I am reading Peter Jenkins..."Along the Edge of America" and read about the tarpon. Too bad Peter didn't stay in SoWal for very long...he could have met some REAL characters and some REAL people with good character!

my father is the best fisherman i know. He can turn you into a fisherwoman real quick, women make better fishermen because they know how to follow instructions!!!!

oh and just to brag............ I caught my first triple tail this summer on the dead fish. Maybe a tarpon next year???(hint,hint)

 

[laurawood]

Fishing Report for:
Destin, Florida (nearshore).
Updated: September 11, 2005.



Northwest Florida in September. Just another day in paradise. The weather is great, hot but not sweltering. Clear high skies, no lines at the grocery and the beach is back to us locals, even on the weekends. Fishin' aint bad either.

There are still a few visitors around and luckily for me some folks want to fish. Ran 2 couples on a half day today from Kansas (isn't that one o' them "square states" ?)who had never been saltwater fishin' before. We did a lot of training ( no you can't yank, yes that was a bite etc. ) and they had a blast. Not the best catch of the year but they'll do a lot better next time, and as much fun as they had I know there will be one. We caught a lot of "shorts" we recycled but brought in a king, 3 red groupers, one black grouper, 4 snappers and 10 triggers .

Yesterday I ran 5 14 year olds as a birthday party. I know the b-days boys parents so I was sure to put 'em on a stand of triggers from the get go for mom's freezer. I don't think I've ever had to bait hooks that fast (or often) till they got it figured out. The triggers on that reef won't have to eat for a week! They tallied 16 triggers, a king, 3 red groupers, 2 black grouper and 13 red snappers along with dozens of throwbacks. I figuured I had done my job pretty well when I had 3 of the 5 sittin' down and wore out before our 4 hours was up. Course they were back to skim-boarding while I cleaned the fish. Wish I could recover that fast!

Katrina kicked up a big sea but didn't seem to move many fish around offshore. The flounders had just started showin' up on the beach but are now MIA after the storm. I hope they show back up. The triggers are showin' up good and should just get better for the next couple of months. There don't seem to be a lot of snapper around but there are quite a few groupers. Ran a couple of 5 hour trips where we targeted 'em a little more and had 9 nice uns along with 8 snapper on one and 6 ( 3 big blacks)with 14 snappers on another. The pompano should be showin' but haven't really appeared since the storm.

All in all we lucked out and dodged a bomb. My heart goes out to my friends and clients from the storm ravaged areas. The ones I've talked to are upbeat and planning on rebuilding. Hang in there guys- you can't fight mother nature. As long as the families ok everything else is just "stuff". We can make lots more fish pictures!

Capt Larry Pentel

8/24/06
Dog caught some pompanos yesterday..... saw em in the cooler on ice.

 

[laurawood]

Dead Fish fishing report

Capt. Larry Pentel

Fishing Report for:
Destin, Florida (nearshore).
Updated: September 04, 2006.



I'ts Labor Day so I guess summer is "officially" over. Luckily for us the next 6 weeks are some of the best here in Seagrove---
The fish bite has been a little erratic. Todays board was GREAT- My 4 anglers tallied 13 Red Snapper, 4 Black Groupers, 2 spanish, a 20# King, a trigger, 4 mahi and a couple blue fish on a 4 hour. This is what we kept-- we threw back a bunch that were "just" short
Yesterday on the other hand I hit some great spots and the fish just wouldn't fire up. My 3 folks ended up with 3 Red Snappers, a Black Snapper, a Black Grouper, 2 Kings (small), 6 trigger and 2 Mahi. I ran a lot further and fished a lot harder to make that board. The Kings bit good but we caught a bunch of shorts so I gave up on that and went and bottom fished. I told my folks I'd fish 'em a little longer no charge but they wanted to go in at the end of our 4 hour- Said they had more fish than they could eat allready-- As long as everybody's happy !!!!
The bite has been on and off like that tho-- One day the kings bite great and a good grade. The next all you can get is little uns-- The snappers are kinda the same. One day they eat and the next they don't. Luckily we seem to always be able to find some species willing to cooperate. As the water starts to cool the fish will get into that fall feeding mode and it will be easy again.
One species that likes this hot weather is the Mahi. This time of year you need to have a light rod rigged with a just a hook so you can grab it quick when the green glow swimms up to the boat. While most of the fish up inshore will be "schoolies" we had 4 nice ones swim up 3 days ago and got all 4. Not big but in the 8# range- 'bout 30 inches. A wonderfull treat to have jumping on the end of 12# spinning rod----
get out there and chase 'em!!!!!
Capt Larry Pentel






Archived Fishing Reports

Click Here to view previous fishing reports written by Capt. Larry Pentel .

Capt. Larry Pentel was born within 300 yards of the Gulf long before anyone had heard of N.W. Florida. Growing up on the coast he has fished for almost every species available from Pensacola to Carrabelle. His long time local knowledge of fish patterns and honey-holes will help make your trip a memorable one.
Contact Info:

Dead Fish Charter and Guide Service
PMB 281 5399 E. Hwy 30-A
Seagrove Beach, FL 32459
Phone: 850-

 

[laurawood]

Fishing Report-Grayton Beach

Capt. Larry Pentel

Fishing Report for:
Destin, Florida (nearshore).
Updated: September 17, 2006.



The water temp has already dropped a few degrees in the past 2 weeks and the fish are starting to notice. The groupers seem to be biting a lot better than the last time I wrote a report and the king bite is getting more consistent also.
The species that has shown up en masse are the spanish. Tight knots of jumping 1-2# spanish have greeted me several times the past week. While I haven't chased the "schoolies" we have caught some nice "axe handles" on the fly pole while looking for kings. As much fish as I eat I still say it's hard to beat a fresh 4-5# spanish fried up crisp in hot p-nut oil. Had one last week as a matter of fact!!
While the groupers are biting better that dosn't mean you can land 'em--- Yesterdays folks had a great box of fish by 11 AM. 10 Red snappers, 3 Lanes, a Black, a couple trigs, 2 fine kings. 3 big spanish, a scamp and a black grouper. We had a 1/2 hour left to fish and they voted for a shot at a "big" bite. I ran a couple miles to a spot I knew held a few "problem fish" to give 'em thier shot. Three rods down and 2 slam down and the groupers are in the reef ( third rod missed the bite), I retie, rebait and we go again--Instant Replay!!! Anglers 0, big groupers 6- Quickest way to shut down a spot-We fished for 10 minutes more with nuthin' but small snapper bites- I told my folks those fish would just get bigger and pull harder next year. Once again I call that job security- they'll be back!
The beach is almost empty, the water is clear and the temp is back to the mid to high 80's. If you don't try to go now you might as well move to a square state- it dosn't get any better than this!!!
Capt Larry Pentel

 

[Kurt]

Fishing Report for:
Destin, Florida (nearshore).
Updated: October 16, 2006.



I know I haven't sat down and written for a while but the weather has been fantastic and I've been runnin' everyday. Ther is a big low preassure moving in from Texas today that will probbaly shut down the fishing for the rest of the week. With what we have been fortunate to have for the past month I really can't complain.
The water temperature just dropped below 80 on the beach this week. The past few mornings were chilly at daylight and I actually had a jacket on. 'Course I'm still in shorts and flips and the jackets gone by 10AM. The falling water temps are making the fish do their thing and fishing is staedily getting better. The Red Snappers are biting much better than they had been and seem to ganging up again. With just 2 more weeks left in the season ( and this week a wash) I think the end of the season will go out with a bang. We have had limit snapper catches the past few days on the half day trips along with other species mixed in.
Yesterdays trip was 2 folks on a half- kinda blowy and a little choppy with a NE wind. I stayed right on the beach and never went more than 2 miles offshore to stay in the lee-- Even with the weather restricions we filled the box. Stopped on a couple snapper spots and got 'em their limit of reds and a fine Black grouper. One felllow starts asking about Kings so we do that for a while and put 2 Kings, 2 big Spanish and 2 Bobos in the box. Talk of groupers again so I change gears and run to some craigy bottom where they live- Groupers 7- Anglers 0. Talk of Triggers- OK new spot- 6 triggers in the box ( coupla nice 'un's too!) One last stop on a grouper spot- Groupers 3, Anglers 0- and we are headed back to the truck to be in at noon-. I love beach launch fishin'- where else can you target so many different species on a 4 hour trip ? And the view on the beach aint bad either when we come in !
The triggers are just staring to show and haven't really ganged up yet. I imagine that the first week of Nov. will be the time to make that "freezer trip" for winter. As good to eat as all these critters are nothing tastes as good after 4 months in the freezer as a trig. If you vacuum seal 'em I swear they still taste "fresh" in Feb.Another good "freezer trip" (tip?) are the kings. They will probably be real thick after this blow. Now everybody knows that a fresh king is great but you can't freeze 'em, right ? HOWEVER, (this is trade secret from a redneck that owned a fish house for years) If you smoke up a bunch of fresh kings and then vacuum pack and freeze 'em you got something worth having. Our old trick was to put up a bunch in Nov. and then pull it out at Christmass and New Years to make salads, spreads and dip. We have had some great feasts with food everybody raved about. Most folks had no idea they were eating frozen macks--
I plan on going over to Indian Pass for a couple weeks the 1st part of Nov. to sight fish red fish and bail speckled trout. After that I'm commmitrd ( or maybe some one should have me commited !) to yet another boat project this winter . I have another 20' cat hull I plan on doing some MAJOR modifications to and hope to be done by spring to have a new boat to run next season.
I think by the time I'm done it could be a TV show- "The 6 Million Dollar Boat"- but I'm hopefull it will be even better, run faster jump, higher etc..... I guess it helps keep me out of the pool halls----
The next 6 weeks are usually the "easiest" catchin' of the year. Get off the couch and go!!!!! Even if it's just to the bridge to get a trout before work, come jan. you 'll be wishin' you had gone----
capt Larry Pentel