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 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
Today’s weather was fantastic so I decided to try a short solo trip. I loaded the boat up and was on the water by 12. Arrived at the pass and dropped down at around 45ft. My only available bait was dead, warm shrimp so I wasn’t expecting much action. Much to my surprise, I was fighting fish the whole time! Within 5min of my first drop, a big bull red grabbed my line! The heavy action carrot stix did its job.
He swam away just fine so I position for another drift. The bite was very consistent. Just about every drop was either a sheep or a red. Drift #2 gave me another bull.
As expected, the sheeps were biting everything. I’m pretty sure I missed about 10 but I still managed to bring in a few.
By 2pm, I was beat red so I decided to call it quits. It was definately a great two hours of fishing! I was pretty surprised that my near rotten shrimp did so well!
Chris Dunn
My buddy Trevor and I loaded up the boat this morning on a mission for sheepshead. A quick stop at Hot Spots for some live shrimp and we were on the water by 8. At the pass, we looked at the depth finder the whole time. We found some rocks and ledges at 40ft, so we dropped down. Seconds later, Trevor is bent over!
We stay on this spot for a few hours. Ended up with 12 sheeps and a few cutoffs. Awesome day!
Chris Dunn
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
