BlueWater Outriggers Fishing Report 7-10-2025
Well folks, things are starting to quiet down a bit here in our big little fishing town of Port St. Joe Florida. Our fourth of July fireworks celebration went off without a hitch and everyone, to my knowledge, still has all their fingers. I’ve finally caught up on some much-needed sleep after dealing with the consequences of giving more ice cream and popsicles to a three-year-old than the law allows and letting him stay up past 11:00 to watch the fireworks that were, in his opinion, “too loud.” Chris Bell, the manager at the Bluewater Outriggers, is in a joyous state of mind as his big tent sale was a huge success and many happy customers walked away with a boatload of new fishing equipment. It no longer takes 30 minutes to get a Happy Meal at the drive-thru and the shelves at the Piggly Wiggly are restocked as well as the serenity of mostly all their employees. I say “mostly,” only because I took a couple of the managers boys on a fishing trip with me and right out of the gate, in our excitement to wade to good fishing water, a stingray hit one of them across the heel leaving a pretty good gash. The boy is fine; he was lucky it wasn’t a direct hit and hospital services were not required. But that being said, be careful out there and drag those feet. The morning high tides make conditions perfect for early trout fishing. When you get a load of the trout I caught Tuesday morning (see above), you’ll most likely want to give it a shot. Head towards the back of the bay and fish in about 5-6 ft of water above the grass beds. The floating turtle grass has pretty much all washed ashore making it much easier to work artificials. The monster I caught hit a Z-man Salty Ned Shrimp with a 1/10 oz Finesse Shroomz jig head. There were other monsters out there, too. I had hooked a 4” pinfish that hit my Ned Rig and while reeling it in, a gator trout swallowed the helpless creature. He hit the surface and with a mighty headshake spit the fish out. It was an exciting morning to say the least, and it’s good to know those big boys are chewing despite the warmer conditions. There have even been good trout and Reds hitting off the beach at Salinas Park, Gulf side. It’s more of the same under the Tapper Bridge in the Intracoastal. The last three evenings have, in my case, produced nothing but Ladyfish; It has however been in a low tide lull.
Offshore fishing continues to produce. While there haven’t been as many huge Red Snappers coming in, boats are hitting their limit. I ran into Capt. Pete Barwick of Bounty Bay PSJ Charters and not only did he have a load of Snapper, but he added a killer Mahi to the mix (above left). It’s been a good week for pelagics as well. Realizing his own son Jake could be a liability to catching big fish, Jeff Harpe headed out with J.D. Dillon and landed an impressive Wahoo (above right). Isn’t it correct, Mr. Harpe, that if you want something done right, you just have to do it yourself! Speaking of doing it yourself, get out there and get it done. NOAA is forecasting seas around two feet today and Friday, then dropping to 1 foot or less over the weekend making your offshore run very doable over the next few days.
That will wrap things up for this week, folks. Good luck and I hope to see you out there!
-Jeremiah Beasley