The month of April has proved to be a great month for inshore fishing! The Sheepshead bite has been as good as it has ever been. The bait started to show up on time this year for a change bringing catches of Spanish Mackerel as well as some nice King Mackerel. The Big bull redfish bite has been on fire as well, especially in Pensacola Pass. Live Pinfish have worked well for the redfish in the pass. If you cannot find the pinfish, live shrimp works too. Reports of Black Snapper being caught around dock pilings in the bays have been steady. Use live shrimp for the black snapper as well. The month of May will bring increased catches of King and Spanish Mackerel. The Redfish bite will remain Steady and the flounder bite will pick up as well. Get your reels ready! Things are just going to get better from here!!
Here are a few pictures from some of my recent trips. Today was really cool. We caught sheepsheads first and then decided to go look around in the gulf since it was so nice. We went 2 for 3 on cobia from my bay boat with no tower! One was small and we released the little guy unharmed, one was 40-45 lbs but I couldn’t get him to eat, and the one we kept was about 30 lbs.
Capt Matt Mcleod
850-418-5333 matt@hotspotstackle.com
www.hotspotscharters.com
www.hotspotstackle.com
Here are a few pictures from my charter on Saturday the third. We had a great time with some nice sheepsheads and some bull reds. The reds were on fire for a while, we couldn’t get a bait past them to the sheepsheads! But that was a good problem to have. All fish caught on live shrimp.
Capt. Matt Mcleod
www.hotspotscharters.com
www.hotspotstackle.com
On this particular morning I got the pleasure of guiding Edwin and his son Jeffery. Our goal was to target monster redfish on shallow flats in Pensacola Bay. Right now the big bulls are in pairs spawning on these flats so it makes for a great sightfishing trip! The only issue we had this morning was rain and wind which makes it very tough to see a fish. After riding the banks for 30 minutes, I knew we were fighting a losing battle. No sunshine made the visiblity very poor. I decided it would be best to blind cast the dropoffs on the edge of the banks. I figured we might find a few stragglers somewhere. It did not take long before we were hooking up with 35 to 40 inch fish. The cool part about hooking a beast like that is we were only 10ft from the bank. After catching a few nice ones, the rain, wind, and cold became unbearable, so we called the trip off early and headed in.
These monster fish should be in this area for at least another month. What some people may not know is that some big bulls actually come up in 3 to 4ft of water to spawn on sandy bottoms. It is best to look for these fish on sand where you are finding a bunch of pot holes and drops offs right off the bank. In this particular area it is 15ft deep no more than 10 ft from the bank. I think a fish of that size feels much safer on a shallow flat when he knows he is only a few feet from very deep water. It is funny, but I have also found that these spawning fish will eat almost anything thrown at them. They are not picky at all…
Capt Brant Peacher
www.fishtheemeraldcoast.com
I had the pleasure of taking Denis, a return customer of mine, and some of his family and friends on a fishing trip yesterday. The weather was nice, still a little cold when the clouds were out, but getting better! The fish bit pretty well, it was hit and miss throughout the morning but in the early afternoon we got on them hot! Total for the day was 15 nice sheepsheads, 3 pompano, and 1 redfish.
Mitchell with a nice sheepshead
A group shot with a few of our fish
Dan caught this nice keeper gag grouper but the season is closed until next month so back he went.
Capt Matt Mcleod
www.hotspotcharters.com
www.hotspotstackle.com
matt@hotspotstackle.com
850-418-5333
Inshore
Sheepshead can be caught around jetties and bridge pilings with ease right now. However it’s been a little tougher so far this year so don’t expect to fill the cooler up like you may have in past years.
The white trout fishing around the Pensacola Bay Bridge has been pretty good. You might not catch as many fish as you often do, although the size will likely surprise you.
Redfish stories have varied from one angler to another. There have been some fish scattered along the docks on the north side of Santa Rosa Sound for those looking for slot size fish. Meanwhile bulls are being caught along the beach and around Pensacola Pass.
Offshore
If you’re looking for fun there is plenty to be had bottom fishing right now. Just be prepared to practice a lot of catch and release considering red snapper and gag grouper seasons are both currently closed. You should be able to hit some of the big wrecks like the Oriskany or Avocet and find keeper size amberjacks.
You shouldn’t have any trouble finding blackfin tuna at the floating rigs, but the yellowfins reports haven’t been very good unless you’re willing to travel to the rigs south of the Mississippi River.
Piers & Beaches
It seems like surf fishing is improving every day, but it’s still not up to par considering it’s the third week of March. The water temperature is rising quickly so if the weather cooperates this could be the breakout weekend.
Fishing has been slow recently on the Pensacola Beach Gulf Fishing Pier, but any given day the pompano and cobia will start making an appearance.
Freshwater
A consensus of several reports is that the bass fishing is improving in a hurry for those looking for action on the rivers. With a little cooperation from the weather the beds will be heating up.
Captain Chris Phillips
www.hotspotstackle.com
