TARPON MORNING
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Sunrise over the Panhandle waters.
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tarpon
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tarpon july 14
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STILL SWIMMING STRONG
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Lots of fish moving and sseing some really big ones, Fltz Lee Coker with a nice 120 class fish.David Mangum
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EAST WIND=GOODBYE OIL
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Although Hurricane Alex brought Rain and wind, the wind was from a welcome direction, EAST. A week of east wind has brought the Panhandle's waters a welcome reprieve from any oil impact. The moral of the story, come get it while the gettin' is good. and yes the Poons are still swimming!!
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PURPLE TARBALLS
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We saw quite a few "purple" tarballs today, to everyones relief they were heading WEST!!, they also ate some of our flies while on their way. NO, there is no oil here!!
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OIL EFFECTS
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As we all have recently seen on the news our local area is starting to see the effects of the BP oil disaster, the reality of what is actually being felt and seen in our local waters has certainly been overstated and dramatized in the media, at least for the moment. Some "Tar Balls" have been collected along the beaches. What does this mean? Small sized clumps of oil have washed up on the beach. Thats it! If you were to come down to the beach with the goal of seeing some oil or tar balls on the beach you would be in for quite a search. This may change in the future, but for now we aren't covered in oil.
As far as fishing and "closures" are concerned, the closures are for the harvest of fish, catch and release fishing is still open wherever there are closures due to the oil. If the oil situation off the beaches gets bad, our local passes are small and the surface oil will be kept out. We will still be guiding in our inshore fisheries.
David Mangum
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POONS OIL
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YES, the poons are swimming, NO, the OIL is not here
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Report out of Destin...
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With the panhandle water still unaffected by the oil situation, the fishing has completely turned on in the last week. The Gulf and Bays are like aquariums right now and offer a variety of species to target with light tackle and flies.
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COBIA, REDFISH, OIL...?
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We are keeping our fingers crossed here on the Panhandle that the powers that be can figure a way to stop the flow of oil from the seafloor. Strong Southeast winds are forecast for the next few days, this wind direction with move surface oil away from our area. It seems inevitable that the entire Gulf Coast will feel the impacts from this disaster, to what degree, only time will tell.
As far as the current fish goes, Cobia and Jacks are still making a strong showing along the beaches, and the Redfishing in the Bay has been good, lots of different things to chase depending on conditions. David Mangum
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Half Hitch "Kobra Kai!" Tourney 2010
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Jason Giles, Jake Matney, Christian Yergans and myself set out early in the a.m. to fish the 2010 Half Hitch Cobia Tournament out of Panama City, Florida. With poor vis and spotty fish numbers we managed to find a few and put them in the boat, we didn't win, but we sure had fun!
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Jacks
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The Jacks have shown up in big numbers. The Jack Crevelle is the Gulf Coast version of the Trevally, super aggressive and strong, and they want to eat off the surface.
David Mangum
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They're....HERE!!
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J A C K S !!!
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WARM WATER
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The air and water temps are climbing and the forecast has nothing but warmer weather for the next week, 80's by the weekend. Our Bayboat guides are catching Sheepshead and Bull Redfish in the passes, the sheepshead have been thick! A few Cobia have been caught and with this weeks warming trend I expect we will see one on the grill soon.
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Waltons red's
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Walton Martin with one of the several redfish he caught while fishing with SWE.
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SWE Season Kick-off
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The SWE Family got together at Randy's for our annual season Kick-Off shin dig
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Spring Break Redfishing
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Here are a few pics from some recent trips over the last week. The redfish are starting to act like spring is in the air, water temps are on the RISE!
David Mangum
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Spring Redfish
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Dispite the up's and down's of the weather in the last few weeks we have still managed to feed to some of our local redfish. Montana/Patagonia guide, Mike Trelor, Bruce and Neilson Koepfgen show off a few of their fish.
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Sheephead and warming temps
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Capt Kyle reports that the Sheephead have started to move into the passes, our water temps have started to climb and the fish have begun their seasonal routines. We are starting to catch some of the BIG female (sow) trout, they have begun to move onto the flats as they follow the schools of returning mullet.
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Robert Seigman Beach Reds
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Robert Seigman came down for a few days of fishing and caught his first 2 redfish, one was tailing in 6 inches and the other was in a school of hundreds out on the beaches.
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