BlueWater Outriggers Fishing Report 6-12-2025
Offshore fishing in the area has continued to stay “Red-hot.” By that, I mean the Red Snapper are continuing to be hauled in, and there are some nice ones too! Above you can see Steve Sewell along with Jackson and Russell Floyd with a beautiful haul of reds. Those are some slabs on that table; congratulations guys. Jake Harpe and his crew submitted a picture of their fish box, and it is literally loaded to the gills. I see some massive Red Snapper along with Vermillion, Mahi, Red Grouper, and a very impressive Yellowtail. Now Jake’s the type of guy that would give you the shirt off his back. Heck, he literally lent me the reel off of his rod one time. He’ll talk your ear off for hours if you ask him anything about fishing. But you ask him about some of his numbers, and all of a sudden he becomes as tight-lipped as a suspect facing 50 to life in an interrogation room. The most I got out of him was that they were caught in about 145 ft of water. David Payne (above right) can be seen with a good load of Red Snapper along with a couple of Red Grouper that were caught a little closer in at a depth around 95 ft. There’s a lot going on so get out there and make it happen. NOAA is forecasting fishable water on Thursday and Friday with seas around 2 ft. Saturday it picks up a bit with seas estimated to be 2-3 ft, and Sunday and Monday are dropping back down to around 2 ft. So while the upcoming days won’t be like racing across a glassy Golden Pond with old man Norman, they will be fishable, you’ll just have to exercise a bit of caution and play it safe.
Last week I talked about how wading the intracoastal waters under the Tapper bridge had been very lackluster. As of 5:00 last evening I can say it remains the same. That is unless catching Ladyfish and Sailcats is your thing. I had a theory that the good trout I’m seeing come in were caught towards the back of the bay. I had a chance to test that theory, and it looks like I may have been spot on. My three-year-old and I arrived at his daycare a little ahead of schedule and had some time to kill. He was sitting in the back of the truck trying to make multiple sausage biscuits out of his one big biscuit from McDonalds. In a matter of two minutes, he was able to make a complete mess of a freshly cleaned vehicle. While he was doing this, I checked my phone for the tide conditions and the wind forecast. Everything looked perfect for taking the kayak out so that’s what I decided to do with the six hours of freedom that I had before me. After dropping him in his classroom, I loaded up the kayak and made my way to the end of the Cape. I launched right there at Eagle Harbor and made my way to the right around the bend; there is a bunch of grass in that stretch. I paddled out to deeper water until I was over grass with a depth of around 7 to 8 ft. I started by throwing a Vudu Shrimp. Not the regular sized Vudu but the baby Vudu. If you’ve never tossed one of those, I suggest you add one to the tackle box. They are killer. I was able to land a couple keeper sized trout but after multiple pinfish and hardtail attacks my Vudu shrimp lost its magic. After the shrimp was destroyed, I changed tactics a bit. I tied on a 3/16 oz Gamekatsu Finesse jig head and attached a Zoom fluke that was Baby Bass colored. It was hammer-time after that. Big trout were nailing that thing, and as you reeled them in you could see others coming to check out the action. There were some big boys out there. I promptly went through a whole pack of Zooms. If you’re going to fish soft baits, take a bunch. There were massive amounts of baitfish that take swings at your bait and bite the tail off. It was nonstop action though, and there are big +19" trout over there! I know if the conditions are right next week, that’s exactly where I’ll be. That's going to wrap things up for this week folks. I wish you good luck and I hope to see you out there!
-Jeremiah Beasley