PC/PCB Fishing Report 8-15-25
Bay Fishing
The tides are incoming late in the day to into the night. Next week, high tide will be in the morning, and they will be good tides. Those tides currently are good for fishing the docks for trout and redfish. Try free lining live baits into the light sillouette, or a single long dropper loop with a live bait works to not beat up the water. A live bait on either of these will get the fish if they are present. The fish are there to eat and if your bait is placed correctly, it will get eaten!
The bridge continues to be great for big redfish. If you get on them in the right conditions, it can be one fish after another on live bait.
The pass is still producing a bit of everything. Some spanish mackerel, bluefish, redfish, and some mangrove snapper that are up close to the rocks. One of the shockers of the week was video from a local that frequently dives the jetty area found a fairly large school of snook! These fish were of decent size as well. A good method to get one of those is a Carolina rig with a decent length leader and a live bait like a pinfish or pilchard. Drift it on or near the bottom. It might be a rare chance to catch a very cool fish we don’t see a lot of here in the panhandle.
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 surf fishing has been much better this week. Some of the areas have cleared of the June grass, but that stuff could come back without notice.
Anyhow, a number of pompano have been caught, even in the middle of the day. Live sand fleas without floats seemed to be the best. Actually, one of the better surf fisherman was having success working a flea into a rip with just a hook and no weight. You can also do this with a 1oz or less Carolina rig too.
Another method that has been getting some action is to wade out and fish over the sand bar. A cup faced popper works well, but other thigs can work too. Another surf fisherman reported that a gold spoon with some weight to it was the trick for spanish one day this past week.
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
Based on reports from our good customer and pier fisherman George, the king mackerel bite has kind of trailed off a bit and it has been just a few kings, mostly small. The big news is the absolutely great spanish mackerel bite of late. As reported, the surf fisherman have been getting them, and the pier guys and gals have been hammering them at times with limits being had.
There are still a lot of bonita in the the mix with the spanish, and they are mostly big ones. Currently there is so much bait under and around the pier it is crazy! That sounds like a good problem, but it caught the attention of the sea gulls and the pelicans and they are feasting on it at times. It was so bad the other day, getting a cast in the water was quite difficult. That said, if you get out there when the birds are full and cast for spanish you may very well get your limit.
In the shallows there are some big bluefish and ladyfish mixed in with them. Overall, if you have the right gear you should be able to load up on some fish! If you need some gear or tackle come see us and we will hook you up!
Bottom Fishing
The primary ones doing the bottom fishing this week were those with federal permits. They did really well on most species, but many others turned to other fish for at least part of the trip.
The vermillion snapper bite is still good as well as the mangrove snapper bite! Soon enough we will be back to red snapper open dates as well as most other bottom species in September for the next two weeks.
Reamaining Red Snapper Days:
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 bite has been really good this week. Flatlined live baits are always a great way to go early in the morning. Capt Johnathan "Chewy" Hartsfield had a charter this week and kings were the target. They put out the first bait and ended up with a beautiful decent sized sailfish right out of the gate! 87” and 62 lbs! Next, they went on to catch a big king mackerel 49” and 30lbs, and a number of others that were more around 10lbs give or take!
There are also Tarpon schools up and down the beach now too. Live baits and being quiet are both critical to get them to eat.
Offshore
No real change since last week so last week’s status is the same!
The word this week is the good water way, way offshore, like over 100 miles! That is not great for us here. Reports this week are that the fads are mostly dead in regards to action currently as well. Therefore, the overall report is just not very good
