Mark Clabaugh
Hello Folks and welcome to paradise! You cannot believe how nice the weather has been offshore lately. Hot days and calm seas!! But, the good news is that with summer winding down, weekend ballgames with the kids and fewer tourist there is less pressure on the fishing spots offshore according to Captain Buddy Rogers on the Reel Eazy. What does this mean, well, better catches!
Captain Buddy reports that he and the other fine fishing charter Captains are hauling in some of the nicest catches of the year. He places the reasoning for this on reduced fishing pressure. He also reported another, yet unexplained phenomenon, greater than n o r m a l b a r r a c u d a catches. For example, during a recent fishing charter while trolling a nice grass line no where near any reefs they kept hooking up cudas as well as plenty King Mackerel.
Captain Bobby Kimmons of the charter boat Billistic tells me that the Red Snapper fishing is doing really well now and they are taking live bait such as pinfish and ½ cigar minnows on a snail rig. The Snappers are running larger as you fish further to the west or further offshore. Captain Bobby also has been impressed with the Grouper catch which has been a little better this summer due to Ivan and then later Dennis pushing a few more up our way. If you are into Tuna Fishing, Captain Bobby said that the Yellow fin are tearing up the diamond jigs at this time.
On the Pensacola Beach Fishing pier fishing has been pretty good after Dennis despite having the last 400ft of the pier closed and hours reduced to 5A-8P. With 1071ft of pier still fishable, nice King Mackerel and Spanish Mackerel catches are still the norm. Pier partner Mike Pinzone states that the SRIA
has the
pier
decking completed and should have the pier railing completed by mid September making the entire pier fishable again. Once the deck is in place they will work on the lighting which will allow the pier to be open again 24hrs a day.
Also being caught on the pier are pompano, flounder and whiting. Pompano fishing at this time is using shrimp on a bottom type rig since the water clarity has been reduced due to beach re-nourishment taking place. Flounder are best caught in the early morning and along the pilings about mid pier. They are taking small grubs with a taste of shrimp
on the hook. The
best fishing style is
to cast along the
pilings careful not to
cross anyone and allow your rig to bump slowly on the bottom. Whiting are taking bottom rigs
Inshore fishing is hot right now if you are fishing lighted docks with live shrimp or DOA rigs. Keeper Redfish
and Speckle trout can be
found just after dark
loitering around bright dock lights and they are pretty hungry. Also, if you have some waders and can get to the northwest side of the Bob Sykes bridge or along the shore around the Gulf Island National Seashore some nice speckle trout have been caught fishing with plugs with a fast retrieve.
This is one of my favorite recipes from “Some Like It South” by the Junior League of Pensacola. The book can be found at any local book store and the Pensacola Airport stores.
Red Snapper with Sour
Cream Dressing Snapper Filets 1 Cup Chopped Celery 1/2 Cup Butter(Melted) 3/4 Cup Dry Bread Crumbs 1/2 Cup Sour Cream 1/4 Cup Lemon (Peeled&Diced) 1/2 Cup diced small Chopped Onion (Small) Lemon Juice Lemon Pepper Marinade(Spice) Paprika Chopped Parsley
Italian Herbs Add Crab Meat with a little more bread crumbs as an optional ingredient
Preheat oven to 350. Combine the onion, celery, butter, bread crumbs, sour cream, and lemon. Mix up the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Spread the mixture in a baking dish sprayed with “Pam” (I use that). Place the filets on top and wipe with the lemon juice. Season with the Lemon Pepper Marinade, Paprika, Italian Herbs and the Parsley. Bake 30-40 minutes depending on the thickness of your filets. Fish is down when it flakes, but is not dry.
Serve over Spanish fettuccine.
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