Florida Fishing Reports, Bait, and Tackle Information

The wind on your face, the salt spray in your hair, and a fish flopping on your line. It’s an angler’s dream, and a daily occurrence at THE Beach. This water wonderland may have more places to wet a line and more year-round opportunities to do so than almost anywhere in the country. With freshwater and saltwater lakes, rivers, bayous, bay and open-gulf waters, fishing experiences are almost as plentiful as the fish.

For charters, Destin is tops with more than 140 vessels from party boats to private charters. Destin is known as the “World’s Luckiest Fishing Village,” and here’s why: Its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico gets you into 100 foot depths within ten miles. More billfish are caught off Destin’s coast than all other gulf ports combined. Charters also offer inshore and bottom fishing for red snapper, grouper, amberjack, scamp and triggerfish. Thousands of fishing enthusiasts come to Destin every October to compete in the month-long Fishing Rodeo. In 2007 a world record was set with a 438 lb. grouper!

Pier and bridge fishing has many of the advantages of being in a boat without the rolling waves. The Pensacola Bay Bridge fishing pier, and its counterpart in Gulf Breeze, were once connected, forming the first bridge over the bay in the 1930’s. A new bridge was built in the 1970’s, and the old bridge was severed in the middle. Both sides make dandy spots for reaching the bay’s 40-foot depths to catch white and speckled trout, redfish and flounder. The newly built Gulf Pier on Pensacola Beach takes you out nearly 1/3 of a mile, enabling enthusiasts to hook everything from pompano to cobia and mackerel. Try your luck at other piers, too: The Fort Pickens Pier in the Gulf Islands National Seashore or the 1,261-foot Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier between Destin and Fort Walton Beach, known to harbor 100-pound tarpons. If friendly competition is more your style, try the Gulf Breeze Bait & Tackle Pompano Tournament or the Pensacola International Billfish Tournament, which spans the July 4th weekend each year.

Fishing enthusiasts visiting Panama City Beach will not leave the resort area empty-handed. The Grand Lagoon, located at the St. Andrews Bay entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, has built a reputation as a world premier sport-fishing destination. Thanks to the balmy climate and calm waters teeming with blue and white marlin, tuna, sailfish, trout, redfish, ladyfish, king mackerel, grouper, red snapper, amberjack and more, fishing is a year-round pursuit in Panama City Beach. Anglers discover a full range of opportunities here, from offshore fishing to structure fishing in inshore waters. Don't miss the Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament every July at the Bay Point Marina.

Although THE Beach area is blessed with an abundance of saltwater, it provides only half of this fish tale. Rivers, creeks, streams and springs as well as stocked ponds offer more fishing diversion inland. Take a canoe out on the Blackwater, Shoal or Yellow Rivers, home to bass, bream, striper, blue gill, trout and catfish. The Escambia River, which divides Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, has a whopping 85 species identified from its waters, which may be the richest variety in the state. A likely source of fish for tonight’s dinner might come from the area’s many stocked ponds, such as the 350-acre Hurricane Lake in Blackwater River State Park, abundant with channel catfish, large-mouth bass, bluegill and shellcracker. Don’t forget to pick up a fishing license before you rent that boat!

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