Captain Chris Phillips
Inshore –
A lot of people are starting to look for sheepshead, but unfortunately most anglers are only finding small ones hanging around the jetties in Pensacola Pass. There are a few keepers mixed in, but don’t expect to fill the cooler. As usual, just use a combination of live shrimp and fiddler crabs.
The white trout fishing has been a bit slower around the Pensacola Bay Bridge, but you should still be able to find a few. There’s also been some around the Garcon Point Bridge if you can’t get them to bite at the Pensacola Bay Bridge.
Offshore –
The scamp fishing has been pretty good lately on rocks in 250-350 foot of water when the weather allows you to get out there. Try to find some live bait if possible, cigar minnows, small hardtails, or even pinfish will work.
Vermillion snapper fishing doesn’t seem like it was as good this week as it has been lately. Several different boats reported having trouble getting them to bite on spots where they’ve been catching them recently. If you’re going to give it a try be sure to have both northern mackerel and squid.
If you’re just looking to have some fun now is a great time to hit some of the big wrecks and catch and release amberjack. If you can find some live bait that’ll work great, but they can also be caught using vertical jigs and laser tails.
Piers & Beaches –
A few pompano have been caught, but not really anything to get excited about. Traditionally, February is a great month to catch big ones, but there’s not a lot of them out there to catch. The good news is that we are only two weeks away from March 1 and that’s when we they usually really start showing up.
The white trout fishing has been hit or miss this week on the Pensacola Bay Bridge, but it’s probably still the best spot for land locked anglers. You might also want to take some bait and tackle out there to target redfish.