I hate to say it folks, but from what I can tell, it’s been another rough week for fishing here in our little town of Port St. Joe, Florida. With the cold front we had moving in, the wind picked up something fierce and made fishing conditions less than ideal over the past several days. I talked to several anglers and captains that covered ground from East Bay to Indian Pass, and they all reported it was, “pretty rough going out there.” In fishermen speak, that means they barely caught anything, and if they did, it was small.
I did make it a point to stop by the Mexico Beach canal where there had been a good whiting run about a week ago. I saw several anglers and spoke with them, but they were a bit ambiguous with their answers to my questions. If a fisherman or fisherwoman is being ambiguous with you, it means one of two things. Either the fish are biting, and they don’t want you to encroach on their spot, or they don’t want to admit that they aren’t catching anything because for some reason it makes them feel like a lesser of a person. In this case, it was the latter. The whole time I was there I saw not one fish come in.
Our weather over the last week allowed only a couple of good days to head offshore. My friend Gary Meyer was lucky enough to get out there and loaded up with a nice haul of beeliners and red grouper. I spoke with a customer in the store that was buying bait and he had good luck with the beeliners as well. One bit of information that both gentlemen told me was not to go too deep. They both had better luck in the shallower water. Gary said he was doing his best in the 130-160 ft range.
You know, when we have rough weather come in or when our little town is void of tourists, sometimes it can be a chore to get good photos and stories. In a perfect world, I would be out there catching monsters and showing them off; but I can’t always be where the action is. That’s why I’d like to cast a bigger net for good, current fishing tales and photos. I’d like to make an appeal to all you readers and angler friends to let me know how you’re doing out there. Now don’t worry, I too can be “ambiguous,” and I won’t give away your secret spot. But if you get on some fish and want to brag a little bit or have your picture in the paper, let me know about it! I’ve set up an account in which you can contact me and it’s easy to remember. Just email your photos and stories to myfish@bluewateroutriggers.com
I can’t wait to see what this week has in store for us. Furthermore, I can’t wait to see your catches and hear your stories. I just got the call from Captain Jake, and he says, “we are go” for fishing tomorrow; so, you better bet I’m stoked! I’ll catch up with you next week. Good luck out there!
-Jeremiah Beasley