Forgotten Coast Fishing Report

This last week there were a few good days to get out there and more are coming, based on NOAA forecasts. This last week all species seemed to be biting well. We had good reports of snapper and gags coming off the car bodies, along with some lunker triggerfish. Heading out into the 100-foot range there were two massive wahoo caught, and several people had chicken dolphin come up to inspect the boat. Now’s the time to get out there and make it happen, and with the approach of snapper season, it is certainly time to make some calls and get yourself booked on a trip with some of Port St. Joe’s experienced charter captains.

When it comes to inshore fishing, flounder is the name of the game right now! They have been steadily biting for the last three weeks but this week it just seemed bonkers; when you found one, there were six more right around the same spot and they were hungry! I stepped away from my normal routine this week and walked the beaches targeting flounder. I wasn’t packing a 10-foot surf rod either; I just carried my 7-foot ultra-light with a tandem Z-Man Curly Tail rig weighted by a quarter-ounce jig head.

I realize you folks have no idea what I look like and there’s a good reason for that. I’m not quite as photogenic as I was in my 30s and now that I’m taking full time care of a 3-year-old that has on multiple occasions been described as being “wide open,” I’m too tired to care. But I’m a big guy. Some of it has to do with genetics and some of it has to do with the absolutely delicious chocolate chip cookies sold in the local Piggly Wiggly that my boy and I can’t seem keep our paws away from.

That being said, my stature makes it fairly easy for me to wade off the beach to sandbars. I fished the valley right along the sandbar edge and was able to limit out on flounder in all of about 40 minutes.This was around 10 in the morning. I returned around 4:30 in the afternoon to see if they would still bite, the only change in my gear being a 40-some odd pound toddler riding on my shoulders like Little Lord Fauntleroy and I his personal steed.

When the second flounder struck, I noticed I came within an inch of whipping my boy in the face on the hookset, so I decided to play it safe, and we just collected shells on the beach. If you want to give this a shot, do be careful of stingrays as I noticed a bunch of them out there. Along my travels on the beach, I spoke with many different fishermen and women that had coolers of impressive pompano, redfish and black drum.

I spent some time under the bridge as well. Let’s just say the flounder are loaded there too. Take your time and work that jig all around you. Again, when you hook one, there will be others around, no need to move all over the place. As you work your jig in towards you, pay attention. Don’t start thinking about where your next cast is going to go. More often than not the strike is going to come when your jig is almost at your feet.

According to my friends Gary and Tim, the crappie bite in freshwater started to slack this last week. However, they have had great luck getting a good mess of catfish and we all know how good they are in the frying pan. While I hate it that I won’t see them as often coming in to get their minnows, I look forward to seeing them at our usual saltwater spots where we can give lighthearted jabs about each other’s inability to catch the big one.

Jeremy Beasley – Bluewater Outriggers