Springing Into a New Fishing Season
February 18, 2011 by Larry Pentel
Wow ! Somebody threw the season switch to Spring! Looks like over a week's worth of high skies, warm days and light winds.
I even saw a couple boats bass fishing on the dune lakes today! The last half of February is always a good time to find those ten-pound-plus "green groupers" looking for a place to bed.
I was fortunate enough to get to run offshore on one of these early spring days and introduce a couple anglers to Amberjack fishing. They had a blast getting 5 to the boat and hooking up anther dozen or so that won the fishing contests. We had a couple bona fide jumbos on that eventually broke off after some drawn out battles. One of my anglers told me that he never thought he'd be happy to have a fish break off but he was beat!
Hang On !
We caught a bunch of smaller critters as well. The pink snappers seem to be pretty thick on just about any rock we stopped on. Should make for some easy "kid fishin'" here in a couple weeks when spring break starts.
Big or Small, We catch 'em All.
I made a stop on a grouper wreck just to let my folks get a shot. There are plenty of 'em out there to catch as long as you don't mind releasing 'em to catch again some other day.
A Great Catch
I have (finally) caught up on my boat and tackle chores just in time to take advantage of this great weather. Charter or not I believe the Dead Fish will have to run offshore again this weekend!
For those who are counting- 4 weeks till we start looking in earnest for cobias, 5 weeks till the official "run"!
Tagged
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.
