Recent inshore and offshore fishing reports from the Northwest region.
Mexico Beach Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: bbb
We hit several of the car body reefs and caught lots of pole benders and picked up a keeper fish here and there. We chummed a whole box of sardines, but could never get the fish off the bottom. We had several fish cut the freelined pinfish on mono, but nothing would hit the pinfish on wire. We ended up taking home two red snapper, one mangrove, two lane, a couple vermilion, a flounder and a spanish mackerel.
Red Snapper Off Carrabelle
Florida Sportsman member: IAM
I decided we would just fish with frozen cut bait and see what happened. We got out around 9:15am and were greeted with beautiful conditions, allowing for a cruise at about 34mph to some spots in 65 feet. We dropped down and started scoring some pretty respectable snapper. Not a feverish pace, but just enough to keep it decently efficient and really fun. My son caught a sharpnose shark that managed to literally tangle three other lines into a complete mess, but was an epic memory for him that he will never forget. It was on a walmart special $10 dock demon rod with no leader, hah!
Keaton Beach Trout
Florida Sportsman member: HookemBookem
We caught our full limit of trout both days before 1:00, despite snotty wind. Even had to throw multiple back over 20 inches because we had our limit already in the boat.
Dog Island Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: BUBBAsmalls05
Five o’clock came around and we caught fire, limiting on gags in 30 minutes. The water temperature was about 70 to 72 degrees. We had some time to kill so we started slow trolling. Not five minutes in, the line was screaming off the reel.
Grouper and Sea Bass
Florida Sportsman member: featherfanatic
We were greeted Friday with cold temps, 25 knot winds, and a small craft advisory. Saturday wasn’t near as bad as Friday, but still bouncy. We jumped around and got a three man grouper limit with 16 nice sea bass to boot.
St. Marks Trout
Florida Sportsman member: elawgrad
We went out and fished the incoming tide. In addition to the five keeper trout, we also released at least two other small trout, a pretty little red, two cats and a lady fish.
Panacea Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: HookemBookem
We fished past the light house in St.Marks, in very shallow water near creek mouths and got in some reds. We had noticed bait fish running and figured the reds were near by. We chased them down with the trolling motor and just followed them while throwing jig heads with gulp.
Lanark Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: Saltygatorvet
We put in at about noon with some shrimp to exercise some sheepies on some nearshore wrecks. On the way out we started looking for some bull reds.
Keaton Trout
Florida Sportsman member: HookemBookem
We caught a lot of shorts and a couple nice keepers. All were caught in 3.5 feet with white gulp and popper.
Night Redfishing
Florida Sportsman member: grouperdawg
Blew all week we were down at the coast, so last day my oldest talked me into taking them redfishing. We caught fifteen in about two hours, two were slots.
St. Mark’s Hot Bites
Florida Sportsman member: bbb
Once in the creek it took two casts to find the 13″ trout. We caught 25 of these with three keepers and moved 30 yards. Then we caught 20 more with five keepers. Moved 50 more yards and caught 20 more with five keepers and a 23.5″ keeper red.
St. Mark’s Redfish and Trout
Florida Sportsman member: tailwaters
We picked up four or five reds during the slack tide. Once the water started to move, the fishing picked up and we landed another 25 or so reds along with a few trout.
St. Mary’s: Trout, Redfish, Black Drum, and Flounder
Florida Sportsman member: Familyfisher
This ended up being one of the best days we’ve ever had for bringing fish home. We’ve definitely caught more fish, but we’ve not kept a lot more. Ended up with some nice trout, redfish, black drum, and a decent flounder.
St. Marks Redfishing
Florida Sportsman member: tailwaters
Sunday we did a little better, landing 22 fish (give or take). Most measured in the mid 20’s with one going over slot. It was top water early, then spoons and plastic twitch baits as the tide rose. Around 10am we switched over to pinfish. Had to get off the water by noon both days due to the heat.
Steinhatchee Fun
Florida Sportsman member: HookemBookem
Took my fiancé and the new boat to Steinhatchee this weekend. First time she has ever been out on a boat in the saltwater. Limited out on scallops in the morning and trout in the evening. All the trout were caught on white gulps.
St. Marks Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: spotremover
Then a school of bulls moved in and we really had some fun on 2500’s and 15 pound braid as you can see in the photo’s. Fish are there you’ll go get em and we’ll keep dreaming and looking for that tagged fish.
Spring Reds
Florida Sportsman member: Bonecracker
My daughter came down to the coast for her birthday weekend and wanted to go fishing! So dad poled the boat for two days and here are the results from this weekend fishing around Carrabelle, FL. She caught nine over 15 pounds and I actually caught two on fly and one on spin.
Lanark Reds
Florida Sportsman member: tailwaters
Forum member tailwaters got into some nice redfish on the flats of the Northwest region lately. Clear water and light winds resulted in some good fish.
Starting the Season Right
Florida Sportsman member: KayakMacGyver
The next spot had an absolute incredible show of fish on the bottom. As quick as we could get a bait to the bottom, our rods were getting doubled over. HUGE sow snapper, one after the other. In between the snapper, we caught a few red grouper and a healthy stock of sea bass.
Kingfish Fun
Florida Sportsman member: Bonecracker
My daughter came home last week after doing a 3 month internship in New York City and she needed some boat and beach time badly before heading back to UGA. Trout and redfishing has it moments in August (mostly bad) so I decided to load up on some tasty bait fish and head offshore for some action.
Bay Boat Bottom Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: KayakMacGyver
Alicia and Tyler were on fire and pulled in some nice fish while I lost a few good ones and followed through with a skunk nasty. We caught 4 grouper on the last spot before running out of live bait and left a bunch of fish in the rocks.
Red Snapper and More in the Northwest
Florida Sportsman member: vlcmsrfr
We moved around a few places in that depth, catching some more keepers and picking through a lot of shorts. We needed to head in soon so I started working my way back in and found some new bottom showing fish. We ended up finishing our limit and getting the red grouper here and ran in with the fish still biting.
St. Marks Redfish Action
Florida Sportsman member: spotremover
about 10am and a little more water, we headed to the spot, eased into the area and within minutes I had locked up with a 23 inch redfish on a topwater plug. After landing that redfish, we then hooked up with another, this time a 29 incher that gave me one of my best ever redfish fights. For the next 2 hours we were in solid redfish.
Panacea Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: spotremover
My next cast I get a huge blowup, fish gets hooked and taking drag. It’s got to be a red, couple of good runs and I get the fish close enough to see and it’s another large trout. Into the boat and another quick measure at just over 27 inches and 5.12 pounds.
St. Marks Redfish and Trout
Florida Sportsman member: KayakMacGyver
Like I was saying, the bite was off the chain. The fish just kept hitting and hitting. Trout, Jacks, Spanish and Bluefish, a completely mixed bag, were all crushing our plugs. By about 10 o’clock, it slowed down a bit and we turned our last ditch effort towards getting a Redfish with the peak tidal movement coming in.
Carrabelle Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: KayakMacGyver
At the first hole it was game on from the first drop and we proceeded to load the boat with the giant humpback seabass I’ve been hearing about. Seabass are our parents’ favorite fish and Alicia and I enjoy them very much for table fare as well. We wanted to make sure we caught enough to feed us for a few weeks, but to also save some for my folks back in Orlando.
Jam Packed Weekend Of Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: tailwaters
On the way I see a big wake in about 6 inches of water to which I place a nice shrimp at it nose. Fish on, although it didn’t make the normal runs like a red. As it gets closer we realize its big 5 pound sheepshead. I don’t catch too many sheepshead tailing so this was a nice bonus. After poling a few hundred more yards I see another large wake in very shallow water. Again placed a shrimp at its nose, boom! Another sheepshead and this one was even bigger than the first.
Northwest Bottom Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: ranaman
We set up on spot two and proceeded to put a few big Red snapper boat side to be vented and released, cussing their lack of presence the previous week, I think everyone took turns reeling up a decent ARS before the Mango’s and the Red Grouper started chewing and I can’t tell you how happy that made us! And yes some other anglers drifted so close to our marker buoy I thought they were going to use it to anchor on.
St. Marks Reds
Florida Sportsman member: Saltygatorvet
Our plan was to fish the Wakulla beach area, but concernes of crossing the mouth if the river forced us east. The mouth of the river can get too choppy for a 14-foot John in a hurry. We ran into a carpet of floating grass, forcing us off plane every 100 yards or so. We started fishing creekmouths as the tide started coming in. We didn’t have much luck so we headed up the creeks. We went way up, further than I thought they would be. We went to a spot I affectionately call “liars bend”. Tw and I have fished this spot about 10 times in the past 2 years and have never caught a fish there. But when he goes solo, it seems to produce. Liars bend gave us 4 slot fish 20-26 inches and a rat. We moved to a creek over and found a nice bend and picked up another 4 slot fish bewteen 23-26 inches and a nice 31-inch fish for the captain.
Rough Morning Pays off
Florida Sportsman member:micci_man
A quick stop at the Moorings for fuel, ice and bait and we were off. The plan was to go deep but with fresh repairs we were kind of hesitant. The boat ran great at 2100 rpm’s and cruising at 23 knots and once we hit 80 feet with no problems the owner made the call to keep going. Not much further and a over heating alarm came on for the #2 engine, the one that was worked on. We couldn’t see any leaking fluid so we limped…
