PC/PCB Fishing Report 5-30-25
Bay Fishing
A lot of bigger trout have been reported this week. Right now, we are having rising tides in the morning and that will most likely be the very best time. Try to get out early and fish as shallow as you can. Those big trout will be working shallow flats for baitfish.
Several options will work including flukes, Paul Brown lures and others. If you want to target the bigger trout use a really big pinfish freelined in the shallows. As the sun comes up there will be redfish also working these flats after the trout have left for deeper, darker water. A live bait worked through these same flats, but maybe a bit deeper, should yield some slot redfish. This is especially true when the tide is rising! Always take a gold or a copper spoon since they work really well in most situations.
In the pass there are some over slot redfish cooperating as well as some mangrove snapper. Fish a Carolina rig with a 1oz egg sinker and 20lb fluorocarbon leader with a really small light wire circle hook like the Owner Mutu Light and a live shrimp or a really small baitfish. They are hanging out where the rocks transition to sand. If you can find a spot that has a protected pocket in that area, fish there! Bump it and let it sit, bump, etc. The current will move the bait so reeling will be at a minimum.
*BRAND NEW* Ghost Shrimp FishBites
Get 'em while they're hot! We now have Ghost Shrimp FishBites to pair with your bait.
In May they handed out samples to try that were actually early batches. Reports were excellent. They tweaked and improved a few things and now you absolutely should be using some on your next fishing trip to the beach.
Surf Fishing
The bite has continued to be good. There were a lot of people to work around this past weekend! There was also some sargassum weed that came ashore at times. No signs of June Grass just yet. When that happens, it becomes unfishable!
The best news this week has been an increase in the whiting bite. Whiting love a piece of fresh peeled shrimp, but there were some reports of success with FishBites only.
The water has cleared, and we have very decent conditions. The high tide has been in the morning, but it is mostly calm. Late afternoon has had a little more wind and waves. There are still redfish in the mix as well. Some of the hardtails and ladyfish have shown up too. Especially the hartails at times. Morning fishing should be good this weekend. We do have a front coming through Thursday/Friday 5/29-30. This might cause a slight pause in some of the action, but it should not last long.
Fish-N-Mate Rake and Spike Carrier
This easy to attach accessory will make your next trip to the beach a whole lot easier! This Rake and Spike holder fits 4 Fish-N-Mate Sand Spikes and a Fish-N-Mate Sand Flea Rake.
Pier Fishing
The king bite has gotten better this past week. Fish from fairly small that are just a few pounds to some pushing up into the mid 20’s. The redfish were present, but not actively feeding so much. The Spanish were there at times, just not super thick. There was word of a sailfish hooked for a bit but came off. There are always a flounder or two around as well as lots of baitfish and hard tails as well as ladyfish. It should get better soon!
There was no word on tarpon. Usually, we are starting to really get into them this time of year. Perhaps they will soon be cruising by getting everyone excited.
Bottom Fishing
Red snapper limits were stupid easy for most on the opening weekend. We will get back to that in a moment.
Let’s talk about something really cool going on right now! Bottom fishing is usually fish caught on the bottom, thus the name! Well currently if you are just fishing the bottom you may be missing out! In the past week a number of boats have reported wahoo near the top! Captain Eric Wilkas with Semer-Fi Charters has had quite a week of “Bottom Fishing” ! He was running a flatline out and actually catching nice sized beeliners on top! While reeling some of those in to the boat some wahoo showed up and crashed the party! 3 to be exact. 2 hooked and 1 boated. The second fish came unbuttoned. The third took off. The caught fish was 45lbs. Fast forward a few days later and he had a crew that grew tired of catching nice beeliners 2 at a time. They requested some big fish to pull on. They made there way to a likely AJ spot and they worked various baits including a topwater. He was even trying one to get a hook up. He saw a flash under the topwater and switched to a Spro Jig and a 6” curly tail trailer to get down a bit deeper. On the first cast, third drop while reeling it got smashed. This was what turned out to be a 71lb wahoo. The rell was handed to a client and the fight was on for a while! He posted a great video of the fight to gaff including some seriously happy clients!
He was not alone in reports of Wahoo. There were 2 reports of 80lb wahoo and one over towards Gulf Breeze tipping the scales at 101.4lbs! These fish were had out past 20 miles. That is not too bad for inshore wahoo!
Now back to the Red Snapper fishing. They were plentiful and lots of nice sized ones at that! There were many in the 20lb+ range. Our area seemed to be loaded. I got reports of folks out of Destin that some were having trouble getting any red snapper. It was just some of the reports. In our area, the limits were typically reached in as little as 30 minutes.
Another interesting thing is that reports of vermillion snapper so thick on reefs that they were showing up in as little as 8ft from the surface and solidly all the way to the bottom! Two more notable has been the red grouper bite has been about as good as it has been in 8 to 10 years or more. There have been some really nice ones as well! Add the sargassum and a lot of mahi tend to just show up while bottom fishing or on weed lines.
Reamaining Red Snapper Days:
June 1–30
July 1-31
September 1-14, 19-21, 26-28
October 3-5, 10-12, 17-19, 24-26, 31
Novemeber 1-2, 7-9, 11, 14-16, 21-23, 27-30
December 5-7, 12-14, 19-21, 25-28
Nearshore Trolling
The king mackerel have shown up, but as mentioned in the bottom fishing portion, there are wahoo not too far offshore. This is a great time to troll a Nomad – MADMACS. The biggest one can troll 15-20mph. This is a great way to dedicate a rod or two for those between spots run. Of course, trolling slower for kings and wahoo can be successful for both. Come into the store if you need help with the rigging of the high-speed baits. We can get you the supplies needed, or we can do it for a small charge of labor and materials needed. If we are not too busy, we can get it done in a short while.
Offshore
Well, everyone seems to have red snapper on their minds so I did not here of anyone that ventured out. I am sure a few did, and I would say it was probably good!