Destin FL Fishing Recommendations

[sms_alum]

Headed down to destin in 3 weeks and I was looking for fishing suggestions. I usually take a surf rod to mess around with on the beach and end up going on a bottom fishing trip or two. This year I was thinking about booking an inshore trip. If any of you have a boat or captian suggestion let me know. Thanks.

[jpb2187]

There's a good inshore spot Right by the Destin bridge. I caught several specks, reds, and even some mackerel when I was there. I'll pm you some more specifics when I get home tonight.

[moguy1973]

I heard that all the dune ponds along the coast have very big large mouth, redfish , and speckled trout in them. Might want to rent a kayak and give those a try.

[sms_alum]

Thanks for the tips. I think I bought myself an extra day of fishing by leaving the golf clubs at home this year, so I might be able to get out and do some exploring. I'm always amazed at the verity of species in salt water.

[MeatintheFreezer]

There used to be an old bay bridge East of Destin that had been replaced by a taller one. The old one ran our in the bay a ways from the south side. I think the highway was 331? I've caught a ton of Specks from this bridge.

The west side jetties right there in Destin are good fishing if you dont mind the hike out there. I've caught huge bull reds and some keeper grouper off them.

I wouldn't be much help on the charter fishing, it was 10 years ago the last time I took one out of Destin.

[JestersHK]

Was just there 2 weeks ago. Left a quick report here

Lots of catfish at the pier and in the bay. Pomps, Kings, Spanish, and Cobia were all being caught as well.

Check out the forums here. Tons of daily reports and guys sharing where the bite is at.

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/

Good luck!

[patfish]

I fished with Captain Tom Campbell a couple of years ago and it ruined me. You should give him a call.

http://www.destiny-unbound.com/

[Flysmallie]

I fished with Captain Tom Campbell a couple of years ago and it ruined me.

Don't blame Captain Tom for that.

[Guest]

I heard that all the dune ponds along the coast have very big large mouth, redfish , and speckled trout in them. Might want to rent a kayak and give those a try.

the Sandestin beach & resort golf course ponds have 10-15lb bass in them, but you gotta get permission.

there are other ponds along old highway 98 that have bigguns too, where there's bass, there's gators

[sms_alum]

Forgot to give an update on this after the trip. We ended up just doing the party boat thing on Sweet Jody. It was the first couple days of snapper season, but I guess that boat has a special permit so it really didn't matter if snapper season was open or not. We caught fish, it was fairly in-expensive, but I would rather do a smaller boat. We had a few first timers in the group and didn't want to spend a lot of money for them to hate it. Probably a good move since my nephew started ralphing as soon as we left the jeti. I brought gear down planning to fish the surf some but just never had time with all the kids stuff. There are some really cool places to fish freshwater, bay, and deep sea down there.