Panhandle Hot Spots

Fishing heats up on cool days.

Get your hoddies and warm jackets ready because winter brings some of the best fishing in the Florida Panhandle.

In winter, redfish abound in all the passes from Apalachicola to Pensacola. They make easy targets when fishing live pinfish on a Carolina rig near the bottom. I prefer a 7-foot medium action spinning rod and a reel spooled with 30-pound braid. I tip it with a 1/2- to 1-ounce egg sinker above a 3-foot length of 20-pound fluorocarbon leader. A 3/0 Octopus Daichii hook completes the rig. Hook the  live pinfish through the lips, and drift it on the incoming or  outgoing tide. Finesse the bottom with the bait.

Grouper migrate into the bays during the winter where they find easy food sources. Granville Howard of Panama City developed what he calls a foolproof way to catch winter grouper. He uses a large Rat-L-Trap on a 15-foot length of 40-pound monofilament leader attached to a 12-ounce trolling sinker. He puts out 150 feet of 50-pound braid and trolls along the 20- to 30-foot drops at 4 knots while keeping an eye on the electronics for bottom structure or fish. He often catches grouper weighing more than 20 pounds. Try trolling through St. Andrews Bay at Panama City, Choctawhatchee Bay at Destin or Pensacola Bay.

Bob Derwick from Tallahassee does his winter grouper trolling around the C-Tower outside Carrabelle. He uses the same basic method except that he prefers pulling either a Mann's 25- or 30-Plus trolling lure out about 150 feet.

Fly-fishermen can also find plenty of excitement along any Panhandle beach as large schools of bonito (little tunny) move in during the winter. Almost any small white Deceiver pattern should provoke good responses when thrown on an   8-weight rod.

Late fall or winter can also produce plenty of pompano as long as the weather stays "Indian Summer" mild. Tempt pompano with jigs or peeled shrimp when fish roam close to the beaches.

Capt. Allen Duke charters out of Presnell's Marina in Port St. Joe and says the fall speckled trout and redfish bite produces many big fish. He says most of the eastern half of St. Joe Bay runs shallow with the lower neap tides concentrating fish in deeper pockets around the bay. During early morning on a low incoming tide, cast a MirrOlure Top Dog Junior and work it over the potholes and grass beds. Later in the morning, switch to a 3/8-ounce jig head and a Wave Tiki-Shrimp in root-beer color and fish it over the sand holes scattered around the bay.

Fall and winter conditions also signal trout and redfish to move into the rivers, bayous and the Intracoastal Waterway. Anglers can find quality trout in the Apalachicola River. Fish the drop-offs around Bob Jones Cut on the Little St. Marks or around Goat Island with a 3/8-ounce jig and Berkley Copper Penny Gulp! Grub. During a steady tide or river flow, drift and jig the bottom with the grub.

The Steam Plant Canal at Panama City in West Bay is also a "hot" spot during the winter months. Runoff from the Lansing Smith Generating Plant maintains the water at about 68 degrees all year long. This area should produce plenty of action from big speckled trout, redfish and even an occasional tarpon in the 25-pound range. For best success, free-line a live finger mullet over the sandbars.

DOCK TALK
Team Flatline won more than $5,000 by catching a 12-foot-long, 496.6-pound tiger shark to seal the victory in the Outcast Mega Shark Tournament in Pensacola. Brothers Matthew and Mark Bosler teamed with Justin Williams. Fishing on a 20-foot Hewes flats boat, they beat the rest of the competition by more than 200 pounds. Mark spent time on the Penn 80W spooled with 80-pound-test line baited with a whole bonito. They missed another $10,000 by not entering the Calcutta!

— Jim Wilson, Regional Editor