Captain Chris Phillips
Inshore –
The speckled trout fishing just doesn’t seem like it’s been as good this winter as we’re used to seeing through the cold months. This is likely due to the weather just never staying cold for very long. If you want to give it a try, you’ll want to look for fish in the canals, rivers, and bayous.
There’s been a good amount of small sheepshead around the jetties in Pensacola Pass, but keepers have been few and far between. Hopefully in the next week or two we start seeing some of the bigger fish show up on the deepwater rocks in the pass.
Anglers are finding a good bite of white trout around the Pensacola Bay Bridge along with quite a few redfish. The white trout are always in schools so just move around until you find them biting good, most of the time the best area is the east side of the driving bridge.
Offshore –
Vermillion snapper and scamp continue to be the most sought-after bottom dwellers at this time considering that amberjack, red snapper, gag grouper, and triggerfish are all closed. The vermillion snapper fishing has been great on a lot of the big public artificial reefs.
Usually the tuna fishing gets pretty good off Mississippi and Louisiana around the deep-water rigs and lumps in February, but from what I’ve heard it hasn’t happened just yet. The hot bite typically occurs 80 to 120 miles from Pensacola Pass.
Piers & Beaches –
Surf fishing has been pretty disappointing, but of course it’s still a little early to be out there anyway if you’re in search of pompano. If you can avoid the catfish, you may be able to pickup a few whiting. Right now, with the lack of pompano I would stick to using fresh peeled shrimp.
White trout fishing has been good lately on the Pensacola Bay Fishing Bridge. They are being caught night and day as long as you have some moving water. A variety of different artificial lures and natural baits will work.