Super User Chris at Tech Posted October 24, 2015 Super User Posted October 24, 2015 Hey guys, The family and I got to spend a week relaxing in Panama City Beach back in Sept, and of course I'm not going to miss my opportunity to let a few saltwater fish stretch my line! To start the week, my wife and I got out with Captain Justin Leake for the second year in a row. If anyone finds themselves in PCB looking for a guide, look no further! Inshore, offshore, nearshore -- this dude has it all covered, and he's a pleasure to spend time in the boat with. In our 6-hr trip we were able to catch mangrove snapper, mahi, BIG spanish mackeral, king mackeral, amber jack and a few others. We saw a nice sailfish come up and frollic in front of the boat, just to taunt us! I'd never caught any mahi before and while they were only the smaller "chicken" variety, they were still a boatload of fun to catch on small pompano jigs and ML inshore tackle. We even caught a mahi that had been tagged, and I got a nifty t-shirt for my efforts to call in the fish data Mr. Amberjack may not look like much but MAN do they pull! The few that made the ultimate sacrifice to feed the family. We gave them a proper burial in breading, oil and cocktail sauce. My biggest kingfish to date, ~22 lbs. Those suckers are fun to fish for! The tagged mahi A few days after the charter trip, I spent a few hours wading the grass flats in St. Andrews State Park. Dare I say it on a bass site, but I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I may enjoy inshore salwater fishing more than bass fishing. Then again since I live in Atlanta, bass will suite me just fine most of the time There's something very appealing to me about the simplicity of inshore fishing. 2-3 rods, one small Plano box of tackle, and a few bags of soft plastics. As long as I have a few topwaters, a few twitch baits, a few spoons, some jigheads and a few packs of Bass Assassin Sea Shads, I'm going to catch fish. And I'm happy to say that after doing quite a bit of inshore fishing the last few years, I finally recorded my first inshore grand slam (a trout, redfish and flouder on the same day). The trout was too wily to pose for a picture, but I promise that I caught one Notice the tackle box in the pic. That's ALL I bring. Quite the contrast to a day our on the local pond chasing largemouth! I know this is a site full of bass fishermen, but I really would encourage all of you to do some salwater fishing if the opportunity presents itself. Perhaps the coolest part is that the bass tackle you already own is just fine for chasing most of these fish, but in my opinion the salwater fish do a lot better job of stressing that equipment than the green freshwater guys. 6 Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted October 24, 2015 Super User Posted October 24, 2015 Chris we need to get you a new hat. Nice fish buddy. The great aspect in saltwater fishing is the mind blowing diversity of the fishery. You just never what you might catch. 1 Quote
Super User Chris at Tech Posted October 24, 2015 Author Super User Posted October 24, 2015 Yeah, yeah, yeah... The bad years make the good years that much sweeter! Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted October 25, 2015 Super User Posted October 25, 2015 Yeah, yeah, yeah... The bad years make the good years that much sweeter! I could be talking about the hat in the last three pics rather than the beginning. Look what GT did to FSU. Quote
Super User Chris at Tech Posted October 26, 2015 Author Super User Posted October 26, 2015 Yup, I was there Quote
Helluva_Engineer Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 Oh wait, fishing. Yea, nice catches and I agree, sure would be nice to have mahi fishing in Atlanta. 1 Quote
kikstand454 Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 I LOVE fishing the flats there at St Andrews state park. Such a beautiful flat, full of trout and redfish! I could go out there all day with just two lures....no tackle with me....and have a blast! Bone spook one knocker and a gold weedless spoon. Done. We have alot of the same fishing here to the east, but that beautiful water between carabelle and destin is just amazing to fish in! Great pics! Quote
Super User everythingthatswims Posted November 22, 2015 Super User Posted November 22, 2015 I caught an AJ about that size on a flipping stick by accident while wreck fishing for small bottom dwellers. Talk about stressing equipment! Your post sums up how I feel every time I get back from the beach, I hate to say it but I probably wouldn't even look at brown and green fish if I lived close to salt water! 1 Quote
Catch 22 Posted November 24, 2015 Posted November 24, 2015 Great post,I am so envious. That jack has the same lines as a bluefish. If many hard core bassers could experience some good salt fishing,it would open their eyes to a whole new world. Some of it is stupid easy ,but often it presents all the complexities of bassin. I started to split my time between fresh/salt about 25 yrs ago and never looked back.I was throwing standard bass lures at them long ago with great success. As said before ,if I could take the Florida heat I would move there to experience the diversities of species it presents. C22 Quote
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