Captain Chris Phillips
Inshore –
A bunch of black drum have showed up in Pensacola Bay over the last week or two. Quite a few are being caught around Pensacola Pass, but you can also find them on a lot of the bottom spots in the bay where you would ordinarily fish for red snapper or gag grouper.
The white trout bite hasn’t been very good at the Pensacola Bay Bridge, but it shouldn’t be over yet so hopefully it’ll pick back up. If you’re going to give it a shot be sure to use your bottom machine to look for the fish, they’re always in schools.
Speckled trout reports have varied from one person to another, but it sounds like the bite has been decent in both the canals and in some of the rivers. The canals in Gulf Breeze are a great place to try if you’re looking for somewhere to go.
Offshore –
There’s been some decent tuna reports from the deep-water rigs, so if you’ve been waiting to go now might be the time to plan a trip. It sounds like the rigs 80-100 miles from Pensacola Pass like Ram Powell have been holding a decent amount of yellowfins, but they’ve been on the small side.
It doesn’t sound like the vermillion snapper bite has been all that great lately, but with enough effort you should be able to catch a few. With the bite slow like this be sure to have some northern mackerel on board because quite often they’ll bite that when they won’t bite the squid.
Piers & Beaches –
There’s finally some pompano being caught in the surf, but it’s only a couple here and there. If you can find some sand fleas on the beach or buy live ones they’re definitely worth trying, otherwise just use fresh peeled shrimp.