You see them everywhere - at the beach, in the bay and on the coastal dune lakes. Stand Up Paddleboards have boomed in popularity in just a few short years, becoming a popular way for people to have fun and explore the water in a unique way. SoWal has certainly seen Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUPing) grow and flourish right here on our own coast, but it's not surprising.
Anyone worried about the drought of last year can rest assured it is way over. We have had enough rain this month to make up for any deficit from the past two years! While the catching has been good when we have gotten out, the going fishing has been sporadic with the weather (wind and/or rain) keeping me and the other Grayton boats on the hill about half the time since my last report.
The bite the past few days has been hot for just abut all the species we chase here at South Walton Beaches. After my last report we had several days of rainy, blustery weather that put a damper on not only fishing, but most of the July 4th celebrations.
This past Sunday it got nice again and has turned into absolutely gorgeous, chamber of commerce, postcard-perfect weather. As good as the bite has been and as nice as the weather I still had issues this week.
Lots of fine fish dinners this past week. Fresh Red Snapper Ceviche' and fresh, fried King Mackerel is a hard menu to beat! I was fortunate enough to have a few folks leave us a few filets this week so we ate good, too.
While everybody loves "fast fishing", I have been fishing fast the past two weeks. I have run 22 trips in the past 13 days and while we have had some spectacular catches, I am starting to wear down just a little.
I took Sunday afternoon off and worked on the boat, after running a trip this morning, dealt with book work awhile and I actually got a 40 minute nap in before sitting down to type this! I think I'll stil be in bed at 8:30...4 a.m. still comes early!
Easy Snapper fishing on the pretty calm days - if only the weatherman could just tell us a day or two ahead of time when that is going to be. We have been catching great boards of fish when the surf and wind allows us to go, and having to cancel trips at the last minute when it blows up.
The 11th Annual Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic (ECBC) runs June 19-23 at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. Some of the world's most impressive boats roar from the docks and out the pass into the Gulf of Mexico, one of the best fishing grounds on the planet.
At last, our long awaited Red Snapper season opened June 1st, but it was too rough to go fishing! We all made it out on a beautiful June 2nd though and got a couple days of "easy" fishing in before the current big surf from Tropical Storm Andrea shut us down again mid-day on the 4th.
Looks like we will all be on the hill till at least Friday afternoon, maybe Saturday morning before it is calm enough to be "fun" to go fishing again. Oh well.... can't fight mother nature (or the feds) and win in fishing!
It has been a great run of beautiful weather since my last report. The Amberines (lesser Jacks) are still hot any day you can get out to 'em and the Vermilion Snappers just keep on coming.
We have limited out on our 10 fish per person on a bunch of trips. The BIG news is the BIG Kings....they are here! Now there are not a bunch of "regulars" around but the ones that are, all qualify as "smokers"! Here's some pics from the past week.
There's a 42 pound King.
Like the title says...right now we have a little of all things fishy biting. The Jacks have remained strong and the Vermillion Snapper bite has been phenomenal since spring. There are still a few Cobias around, the Kings are sporadic, lots of Triggers - and while most are short there are a few great big ones as well. And day 'fore yesterday we caught the biggest Scamp I have seen up on the beach in years!
Here are a few pics from the past 10 days to prove the point.
