I must say that today was the smoothest day of the year thus far. There wasn’t even a breath of wind as we glided across Pensacola bay to the first location that began our very eventful afternoon. Today, I got the pleasure of having George Converse on my boat. George is a local Dr. from Pensacola who has a passion for fishing as many of us do.

We arrived destination number one, a bay rock which has been a go to spot for me over the last few weeks. I frequent this area because it is usually immediate action for my clients. Catching 6 or 7 different species is not out of the ordinary for this location, but the target fish today was sheepshead. George has a boat of his own and was eager to learn the ins and outs of Pensacola bay sheepshead fishing. With a much stronger current than normal, I rigged George up a carolina rig with a 3oz egg weight. I pulled him over the spot and told him to drop. GAME ON! George hooked up with a monster 6lb sheepshead on the very first drop. After that it was constant action for a solid hr.

George got his fill of huge, Pensacola pass sheepshead so we decided to go target monster bull reds in the bay. Over the last week I have found a school of 2 to 3 thousand bull reds directly in the middle of Pensacola Bay. The redfish have been chasing large schools of pogies to the surface of the water which makes these fish very easy to spot. Birds will also give these fish away. If you see a group of gulls and pelicans diving in an area it is always a good idea to check it out. More times than not you will find large schools of bull reds underneath them. Since these fish are in a frenzy they tend to eat anything thrown there way. I have a friend that once caught one on a banana peel! Talk about crazy!!

As we approached the area that the redfish have been concentrated in, I spotted 20 or 30 seagulls circling above. I slowed the engine to idle speed and told George to watch the birds as I watched my depth finder. A lot of times you will run over the top of these huge redfish schools. If you don’t have our sonar on you will never no they are there. Afer looking for no more than a couple minutes my sonar turned blood red from top to bottom. George dropped a jig down and hooked up within seconds. After a 10 minute battle he landed a beautiful 37″ bull red. We revived the fish and he was released unharmed.

George decided soon after, that he wanted to catch a bull on a top water lure. I tied on a pink Skitterwalk and the hunt began. We followed the same group of birds and watched the reds on the sonar. I new any minute they would come to the top. About that time George spotted them 50 yards from the boat going crazy. I rushed over and positioned the boat to where George could make a perfect cast. The reds were so aggressive that he would tease them by reeling the topwater to the boat as fast as he could. Everytime he would have 30 or more fish follow it in. Finally he let one eat and caught another giant bull. Soon after we called it a day. I had sheepshead to clean!

Great Job George! Another great day on the water!

Fished with Bryson Bratcher, His niece Elissa, and her friend Jessica today. We started the day in the sound, pitching baits around a few docks that have held good fish as of late. Elissa was the first to hook up! After battling with a fish that wrapped her several times around a pilon, she managed to reel in a fat 24″ red. The fish ate a live shrimp around a broken dock. It took everything she had to pull that fish out lol….We pitched 5 or 6 more docks and averaged about 1 red per dock.

After we got several keepers in the boat we headed out to find the big bulls in the bay. Those girls just thought the slot reds pulled hard! When we arrived in the middle of the bay, I found my buddy Shawn looking for the same school of fish we were. We sat for about 15 minutes and finally spotted them about a quarter mile away. We rushed to the school and got a quick double hookup before the fish went down. It was truly a blast watching those two girls battle the biggest fish of there lives. We netted them both, snapped a quick pic, looked up, and an acre of fish were right in front of the boat. They stayed there for over and hr….

After we had our bull red fun we ran to the pass and caught 10 big sheepies then called it day. We tried for grouper a few times but had no success. Today was the best weather day of the week by far. Hopefully the weekend is nice!

This morning I got the pleasure of guiding Mina and her Friend Jodie on some Pcola bay action. Mina is an avid fisherman but Jodie has only fished a handful of times. After getting some ever so lively shrimp from Hot Spots, we headed to shoreline to start our adventure. The wind was nice to us the first half of the trip so the ride out was very smooth.

The sheepshead bite in the pass was so so…but all of them were big! We managed a cooler full of sheeps then went looking around for redfish…We managed to find a large school of bulls in bay so I let Mina and Jodie fight 15lb fish until there arms were tired. It is odd to see the big schools of bulls in the bay this time of year. Most of the time it is an October, November, December thing. O well, it was lots of fun. After that we hit the sound and got 5 small to medium sized slot fish and called it a day…I went back and cleaned fish for the girls and headed home to catch up on some much needed rest!

Hey guys,
Today I guided Brad, his wife, and two kids from Kentucky. We left shoreline at noon and headed to the pass. The jetties were covered with boats so we fished a bunch of deep water structure in the bay. The bite was non stop throughout the afternoon. We started out with a double hookup on legal gag grouper. We were only two days away from being able to keep them! As all of you should know…. the gag grouper season opens up April 1st.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with one sheepshead bite after another. After filling our coolers with tasty sheepshead I decided to take my clients to a few docks I have in santa rosa sound to try and get a few slot reds for them… By now the wind was blowing upwards of 25MPH and it was getting a little uncomfortable on the water. We pulled up to my first dock and it was constant redfish action for the next 30 minutes. The strong winds made it hard to keep the boat in position so after boating a number of quality slot reds we headed back to clean fish.

I have found lately that the outgoing tide in that deep water makes for a much more consistant bite. As of the last two weeks the fish seem to shut down a little on an incoming tide. I have also found the sheepshead have been growing a couple pounds when you fish the deeper water. For some reason the fish around the jetties and some of the shallow water holes have not been as big this year. I think the water still needs to warm up a couple degrees…

Final tally for the day…

12 big sheeps
2 legal gags
tons of snapper
lots of slot reds

Geat job guys!!

This trip I guided Tom, his girlfriend, Kimberly and RJ. We basically repeated the pattern from the day before. The only difference in todays trip was we had to release 3 keeper gags! Now that’s heartbreaking! All fish were caught deep dropping on a bunch of bay numbers I have. Rj also got a 27″ and a 24″ red. The bite seemed to really turn on when the tide turned. They stayed hooked up all afternoon…We boated 10 big sheeps, 3 keeper gags, 3 redfish, 20 snapper, a big black drum, and a legal scamp! All fish were caught on live pinfish and shrimp. I had them rigged with 30lb Power Pro, 25lb floro leader, with a #2 Eagle Claw hook. Great job guys!

Weather is warming and I have seen a drastic change in the fishing over the last 3 days. The bite went from very poor to great in a matter of one day. The last 3 days we have caught 7 or 8 species of very good eating fish. Most all the fish in March are caught close to structure in deep water so make sure you bring your bottom machine. March can be one of the best times of year to fish Pensacola bay. The sheepshead move in, the Pompano bite picks up and lots of slot reds are being caught. The Fort Pickens and Fort Mcrea jetties are a great place to anchor up and have consistant action. It is much better to fish these areas mid week. If you try and go on the weekend then you will be fighting a bunch of boat traffic. However, if you can get a good spot off the end of one of the jetties chances are you will fill your coolers with tasty sheepshead, Pompano, and Black Snapper!

Another great way to target fish in March is ride the beaches. March brings the migration of Pompano, and Cobia along the panhandle. If you pick a sunny day and ride the first sandbar looking in all of the washouts, chances are very good that you will see a number of Pompano and Redfish. This is a very good way to target spring time fish! I rig my Cabo 30s with 10lb suffix braid for maximum casting distance. You want to be able to make the longest possible cast before the fish spots you. Once the fish spots the boat it is too late. I rig with either a 12 to 15lb flourocarbon leader when pompano fishing. Sometime they can be leader shy. If you are not familiar with them then stop by Hot Spots bait and tackle and pick you up a few Conors pompano jigs. I prefer pink myself…I would also suggest tipping your jig with a small sandflea. That way you will be certain the fish bites. This set up will be fine for a redfish as well! Last but not least….don’t forget to have a cobia jig handy. They migrate during the spring and you don’t want to miss an opportunity if you spot one. Good luck anglers….

Captain Brant Peacher
www.fishtheemeraldcoast.com

On this trip I guided Mike and his two sons on some Pensacola Bay action. We started the day deep dropping some bay rocks but the bite was a little slow. We finally got on a hot Pompano bite and boated 13 with several just over 3lbs. After filling the cooler with tasty pomps we ran back to the rocks and the bite had turned on. We caught quite a few sheepshead, 10 red snapper, and a gag. With plenty of fish in the cooler we called it a day.

The water is finally starting to warm up and the fishing is getting good. It won’t be long before it is on fire! Get ready guys….

On this particular morning I got the pleasure of guideing Edwin and his son Jeffery. Our goal was to target monster redfish on shallow flats in Pensacola Bay. Right now the big bulls are in pairs spawning on these flats so it makes for a great sightfishing trip! The only issue we had this morning was rain and wind which makes it very tough to see a fish. After riding the banks for 30 minutes, I knew we were fighting a losing battle. No sunshine made the visiblity very poor. I decided it would be best to blind cast the dropoffs on the edge of the banks. I figured we might find a few straglers somewhere. It did not take long before we were hooking up with 35 to 40 inch fish. The cool part about hooking a beast like that is we were only 10ft from the bank. After catching a few nice ones, the rain, wind, and cold became unbarable, so we called the trip off early and headed in.
These monster fish should be in this area for at least another month. What some people may not know is that some big bulls actually come up in 3 to 4ft of water to spawn on sandy bottoms. It is best to look for these fish on sand where you are finding a bunch of pot holes and drops offs right off the bank. In this particular area it is 15ft deep no more than 10 ft from the bank. I think a fish of that size feels much safer on a shallow flat when he knows he is only a few feet from very deep water. It is funny, but I have also found that these spawning fish will eat almost anything thrown at them. They are not picky at all…

Anglers,

Please come check out the Florida Sportsman show this Saturday, Feb 20th and Sunday, Feb 21st at the Fort Walton Beach fair grounds. Capt. Chris Phillips, Capt. Matt Mcleod, and myself will be introducing a new line of fishing rods to the panhandle. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to check out the best inshore fishing rods on the market!

The rods we will be showing are American Rodsmiths. As Capt. Matt already said…they are a company based out of Huston Texas. Some of you who keep up with the redfish tours may be familiar with them. These rods sparked a lot of interest when American Rodsmiths team of Cajun Phil and Kevin Broussard, won this years Oberta Redfish Cup championship, right here in Pensacola, FL. I have worked with fishing rods my entire life and I can truly say that American Rodsmiths is the most innovative, up to date, rod company in the fishing industry. The price points on these rods range from around $99.99 all the way to 349.99. Even the lowest end rods come with titanium coated, stainless steel, guides!!

We will be more than happy to go through each and every rod with you. If you are into inshore fishing, freshwater fishing, or offshore fishing, then this is a line of fishing tackle that you must see! Check out there website for more info….http://www.americanrodsmiths.com/

Also, for all of you kayak fisherman, we have a line of rods just for you!

thanks,
Capt Brant Peacher
www.fishtheemeraldcoast.com

Guided Mr. Aaron Sago today for some trout/redfish action in East and Blackwater bay. We hit the Water around 1 oclock and headed to a couple deep water areas near east bay. We managed 2 slot reds and a rat within the first few minutes then the action slowed. We ran back towards blackwater bay checking a number of different spots with no luck. The tide wasn’t moving much and with all the mullet dead it seemed, that the normal hot spots were not producing fish. Before heading north to chase stripers, I ended up checking a deep hole a couple miles south of the i10 bridge and it was on! We would drop a 1/4oz jig head down 20ft and the second it hit the bottom you were on. We pulled about 30 trout and several reds then moved on towards the bridge. The area around the bridge was holding a few big fish but it was tough to get them to bite. We managed a couple nice fish around the bridge and called it a day. We ended up with about 35 trout and 7 reds. Surpisingly the trout were big! Most of them ranged from 16 to 20″ with several 22 and 1 right at 25″. We looked around for stripers at dark but they were MIA!

On December 31st 2009 I guided Josh and his two sons on some upper bay trout and redfish action. I was very confident going into the trip, seeings how I had located a good number of fish just two days prior. We were a little late taking off because the fog hurt our vision and it would have been unsafe to run through such conditions. Around 8 a.m. the fog lifted and off we went to our first stop. Little did I know this would be our last stop of the day. I had two of my clients rigged with a Berkely Gulp and the other with a live shrimp for trout. I got them into position and all three of them made great cast into the deep water droppoff that was holding fish a few days before. The two boys both hooked up with mid to upper slot reds on the first cast. One was caught on a live shrimp and the other on a gulp. After that it was constant action throughout the morning. I ended up rigging them up with three soft plastics and let them cast and catch an assortment of trout, reds, and black drum. All of the fish were caught in 13ft of water off a dropoff. In fact I haven’t caught a good fish in less than 8ft of water fishing the upper bays in the last 3 weeks. This cold snap we are having is only going to make it better.