Destin Fishing Report 2-2-25
Breaking News! Punxsutawney Phil woke up on Sunday and saw his shadow, meaning we are destined for six more weeks of winter, according to legend. I’m not happy with this little rodent!
Yesterday the red breasted robins were in my backyard. Old Wives Tale is that the cobia show up six weeks after the robins appear! We can only hope this is true and the cobia actually return this year. One good sign that they have a chance is that the water temps have dropped into the 50’s this year. It has been a while since this has happened and this sets us up for easterly currents and southeasterly winds in the spring and a slower warm up of the water, all of which is good for cobia fishing so we will be in wait and see mode!
We are finally finished with January and are inching towards spring! Our monthly seminars start back up this month. Tuesday, February 4th at 6pm kicks us off in the Showroom at Legendary Marine. This month’s topic is inshore fishing for spanish mackerel and sheepshead! If we have time, we will cover some trout and redfish. Join Captain Chase Vick and I for the seminar, IT’S FREE, and we have free pizza and sodas!
The Annual Destin Fishing Rodeo Membership party with free food is at AJ's in a couple weeks. Make sure to attend. This is your chance to voice your opinion by voting for the board members you would like to see on the board. We have six slots to fill an awesome group of candidates including myself. I have been on the Board of Directors for almost 30 years and would love to have your support to stay on the board! If you don’t come out and vote, you can’t complain if you don’t like something.
Candidates include myself
- Tim Broom Half Hitch
- Allen Staples Charter Captain
- Tyler Breilmayer Charter Captain
- Joe Bettinger Ships Chandler
- Robert Hill Private Boat Captain
- Chuck Madden 25ft and under Charter Captain
- Brandy Miles Charter Captain
- B.J. Teems Private Captain
- Black Wyatt Charter Captain
- Judah Barbee Charter Captain
Let’s talk about fishing! What happened this week?
Surf Fishing
In the surf there were some pompano. This winter surprise bite of pompano has been a treat for sure as they have bit most of the winter.
Add to that we have had quite a few reports this morning from anglers stocking up on live shrimp that they had a good day Saturday on redfish in the surf.
Additionally, quite a few whiting and some bonita have been caught.
Pier Fishing
Pier fisherman have mostly been getting whiting, reds, flounder, and the occasional bonita.
Bottom Fishing
We had a few nice days offshore this week and we saw some good catches of flounder and mingo snapper.
While I did not see any reports of banded rudderfish (aka amberine) this is the time of the year when we start catching them in good numbers. Last year we had our 1st limit on February 4th.
Offshore Fishing
Finally, some reports here. The fads did produce a few wahoo, blackfin, and bonita this week.
Farther out to the rigs were some good yellowfin photos on Facebook .
Nearshore Trolling
I know several people that tried for the blackfin tuna this week, most struck out with only a couple boats finding them. As far as I saw the ones that did find them only had one each in the box.
Bay Fishing
We finally have a supply of live shrimp and fiddler crabs now that the snow and freezing temps have passed. This has opened the door to some good catches of sheepshead, redfish, and a few black snappers.
