Welcome to paradise! OK, you are not going to believe this … but some fishermen are looking forward to COLD WEATHER and we have had some chilly nights. In fact, not too far from here records were broken.

That is right; November's weather had a few cold snaps in it with some mild days. What does this mean for us? Well of course it means Flounder and Redfish fishing. Oh, and if you want to get offshore, a few Grouper are starting to move close.

Starting with the Pensacola Beach Gulf Pier where the catch of the day have been Flounder, Black Drum, and Pompano with the nice Redfish stopping by for a bite. The fishing has been pretty good at the pier last month for those properly rigged. Flounder have been biting live shrimp as well as small grubs with a taste of shrimp on them. The best time for flounder fishing has been early morning along the pilings. Just a note, the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier does not carry live shrimp, but you can always pick some up from the local bait shops.

In December, you can hope to see along with the drop in water temperature more redfish and sheepshead with the numbers increasing through February. A few Sheepsheads are showing up now and can be seen now swimming around the pilings from mid pier all the way to the end. They will be caught along the pilings using shrimp and fiddler crab. Sometimes the sheepshead is so fast in taking live bait that it is difficult to hook the guy. So one way to catch this bait thief is to chum an area with shrimp or bits of shellfish. After the sheepshead have begun to feed, cast with a small ¼ ounce jig. They will get him!

The sheepshead is a large porgy. It reaches a maximum weight of about 20 pounds. It's coloration is silvery to yellowish white, with an olive-brown back and five or six dark slightly diagonal bars along each side. It uses it's flat long teeth to crush mollusks and crabs and to scrap barnacles from rocks and pilings. The best thing about them is that they taste a lot like Red Snapper to me.

Offshore you will be seeing the Grouper moving in and a strong Trigger and Amberjack bite. Of course, the big challenge fishing this time of year is getting past all the hungry Red Snapper. Now, if you are fishing on a Charter Boat where they will fry up some for you this is not a problem, however, they are out of season and you cannot bring any home. But, that does not mean there is not plenty to catch out there. As I said the bigger grouper will move into the close in wrecks, back in the day Captain Kirk and I have been known to pull some big ones from wrecks as close as the Three Barges.

Snapper season is over, but there's still plenty of fish to catch in the winter. Inshore and around the docks you can catch some really nice 'slot reds' and speckle trout. They are taking all kinds of baits from live shrimp, plugs to my favorite DOA Shrimp Baits. At night I favor fishing with the white one that glows. Casting out along a lighted dock, pop this bait along and redfish and specs cannot resist it. Also, fishing around the docks with live shrimp along the bottom is producing some really nice flounder bites too.

Also I will be heading out on a Bass Fishing adventure tomorrow with my wife's uncle, Johnny Guy. I have been looking forward to this fishing trip and will keep you posted with what we catch. You might not realize, but our area has some good Bass Fishing around Perdido River, East River, Yellow River and Escambia River. If you are looking for the bass when the temperatures starting to cool they can usually be found in the mouth of creeks and places like that.

So, I wish everyone a very Happy Holiday and I hope to see you fishing!