Captain Chris Phillips
Inshore
Anglers are catching tons of small sheepshead around Pensacola Pass, but keeper size ones have been few and far between. You may have to downsize your tackle a little to get the big ones to bite and as usual be prepared with live shrimp and fiddler crabs.
The white trout fishing has been a pretty slow around the Pensacola Bay Bridge, but Captain Bob Potomski, of Hot Spots Charters found them biting good this week around the Garcon Point Bridge using fresh shrimp and cut bait.
A few redfish are being caught around the bridges including Pensacola Bay Bridge, Bob Sikes Bridge, and Garcon Point Bridge. It’s not a great bite, but if you invest a little time you should be able to catch a couple and it’ll likely be a mix of keepers and bull redfish.
Offshore
Most of the week was too rough to get offshore, but a few boats got out there early in the week including Captain Travis Gill on the Marlin Hunter out of Pensacola Beach, and he came back with a solid box of vermillion snapper and triggerfish.
It sounds like the tuna and wahoo bite off Mississippi and Louisiana continues to be steady if you can catch a weather window to run out there. If you’re looking for the yellowfins be sure to bring plenty of chunk bait to get started along with some jigs and poppers.
Piers & Beaches
The first cobia weighting 53.1 was caught this week on the Pensacola Beach Gulf Fishing Pier by local angler Matthew Key. It’s probably still a little early, but if you’re going out to the pier, I would definitely take a ling rod and jig.
Pompano reports have varied from one angler to another, but it should start getting good anytime now. There has been quite a few nice ones caught including a 5.25 pounder, but the angler was not in the Gulf Breeze Bait & Tackle pompano Tournament.