Category: Fishing Reports


The weather finally allowed us to get out there and search for a cobia after a couple rough days. We were fishing the First Annual Paradise Small Boat Cobia Tournament. The weather was nice most of the day with just light winds, although the fishing wasn’t all that great. We went 1 for 3 on cobia, the first one was lost at the gaff, the second we caught, and the third we couldn’t get to bite after finding him a couple different times (Big Fish). It’s been the weirdest year with fish getting excited and going down on a bait, but not eating it. The one we caught weighed 42 pounds and was big enough for us to win the tournament believe it or not.

Captain Chris Phillips

www.hotspotstackle.com
www.hotspotscharters.com

Once again, another beautiful day on the Water!! Today I was lucky enough to be involved in a three boat trip with Capt. Brant Peacher of Emerald Coast Fishing Excursions and Capt. Matt McLeod of Hot Spots charters. We met at Shoreline Park at 0900, picked teams and loaded up! I was joined by Jim Musicaro, Paul Schreiner and John Piraino!

We quickly fired off to towards the North rocks. We arrived to find that the Sheepshead are still there and they are still feeding. We boated fish at a pretty decent pace for about an hour when we were surprised by a BIG bite!!! After reeling all of the lines in and taking chase, we finally about 20 minutes later boated a 25# Black Drum!! This fish was a monster…. after a few snapshots the fish received a healthy release and off to fight another day!! The remainder of the trip was more of the same as we steadily boated solid fish for the remainder of the 4 hour trip. We also had two great bonus Flounders to throw on the ice as well!

I would like to say thanks again to Capt. Brant and Capt. Matt for letting me join them today!!

……………………………see you out there

 

Had the pleasure of being invited to Cobia fish aboard the HEBE out of Destin Sunday. She is a gorgeous 45′ G&S and was a blast to fish from. We had a slow day going 3-8 but it was a great time watching Dawna and Jenny smoke these fish!!!

 

Holy Fog batman!!! Can you say socked in?? Saturday I was booked by some of Dawnas’ childhood friends from Tampa, Paul and Scott Fritz. They were looking for a fun day of fishing and were really excited about a shot at a Cobia!! We left Shoreline Launch at around 0800 in near white out conditions. We decided to start out throwing topwaters early for trout and reds and let the fog burn off for a while.

Within a dozen casts we had boated Trout and Redfish, the fish seemed to be hanging tight to schools of mullet in about a 1 foot to 1 1/2 foot of water. Locate the mullet, locate the redfish. This was a really solid pattern that has been working for me all season. Shortly there after, the fog lifted slightly so we eased towards the North Rocks in the Pass. As expected we quickly began to throw Sheepies in the cooler. The spawn is close to over so the fish are running a bit smaller and biting a little less aggressively, but they are still biting none the less.

After the fog lifted we bolted into the Gulf and began a long slow day of Cobia fishing. We spotted one fish and it refused to eat our live Eel. This put a very somber note on what started out to be a banner day!! Thats the breaks though, if you swing for the fences you sometimes strike out! None the less a great day on the water with another great story to tell!

………………………..see you out there

 

Started out to a VERY foggy bay this morning. It was slow leaving bayou chico but pretty soon we had shrimp in the water. Trout action was ok and we put a few keepers in the box in the 16″ to 18″ range. We lost a bigger fish at the boat. We fished slowing from spot to spot and finally found a great bite of nice quality spanish. Live shrimp under popping corks got us lots of bites and we left with 10-12 nice fish. The weather looks great for the weekend, good luck everybody! 

Captain Matt Mcleod

www.hotspotscharters.com

www.hotspotstackle.com

matt@hotspotstackle.com

850.418.5333

Matt, Chickenbone, and I decided to brave the weather and see if we could find a fish out of the bay boat. We cleared the pass about noon and within a few minutes was 1 for 1 just east of the old Coast Guard Station. We fished for a few hours and ended up 4 for 5. Three of the fish were caught west of Pensacola Pier and we caught one between the pier and Portofino. Three of the fish were caught on eels and one a on croaker. We’re doing cobia charters on the 24′ boat with a tower if anyone is interested…
Captain Chris Phillips
 

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