BlueWater Outriggers Fishing Report 4-18-2026
My four-year-old will lie through his teeth without blinking an eye. Just the other day, when things seemed to be a bit too quiet around the house, I knew I’d better check up on him. When I found him, he looked like he had stuck his face in a mud hole and he reeked of cocoa and sugar. I cocked my hands on my hips, glared at him through my glasses, and in the sternest voice I could muster asked, “Did you get into your Easter chocolate?” “No,” he calmly replied. Then he had the audacity to implicate our cat, Gravy, who was just sitting there minding her own business. He didn’t think twice before inventing that whopper, yet when I stopped to speak with an acquaintance after returning from a father/son fishing trip, we were asked the inevitable question, “Did y’all catch anything?” My mind began to piece together an answer that involved excuses about the wind, water visibility and jig heads that weren’t heavy enough, but before I could articulate my response, my son just said, “No, my Daddy didn’t catch anything.” The boy clearly has a lot to learn.
Folks, it’s frustrating but it’s true. We had tried our luck earlier this week around the Mexico Beach canal and left empty-handed. Did I mention that the wind was blowing right in our face and that the sand was stirred up, leaving the water murky? The following two days we fished around the waters of the intracoastal under the Tapper bridge and our luck changed for the better. Fishing towards evening on an incoming tide we had the place to ourselves. I tied on a small 2.5” JYG Shrymp with a 1/15oz jig head and let it roll with the current. It didn’t take long! A beefy speckled trout slammed the bait. For about 40 minutes I caught and released trout after trout, all keeper sized and some into the 18” range. There was a redfish in the mix as well! The boy and I had a ball, and he can be seen with the one I let him reel in (above center).
For those that like to fish the surf, get ready. Pompano are starting to show up. Bluewater employee, Brandy Caro, and her partner Scott Ehrman were just out there today and blew up my phone with pictures of their catch. They made short work of it and returned home with the beauties seen (above right).
Although it was quite windy, there were a few days that folks could get offshore this last week. I saw many pictures of big red snapper that were caught and released. There were red grouper caught as well. David Payne took some folks out last Sunday, and seeing that it would be very “sporty” to go a long way out, they stayed in close and fished the car bodies site. They hung some very impressive red snapper as well as a nice lane snapper caught by angler Robert Mendez (above left). There’s a lot of wind in this coming week’s forecast, so offshore days may be few and far between. Captain Jake and J.D. Dillon are out there as I write this report, and I heard rumor of a $600 dollar pot to the biggest fish caught. I assure you I will follow up on this and include the results in next week’s report!
As our waters warm up, the fishing will get even better. Bait is starting to show up in big numbers, and the big fish will be right behind them. After two successful days of trout fishing, I’m hungry for more and can’t wait to get back to it. I hope to see you out there!
-Jeremiah Beasley