Bluewater Outriggers Fishing Report 9-05-2026
The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as a chronic brain disorder that causes a compulsive need to use a substance or perform a behavior, despite harmful consequences. After picking my boy up from school on Friday I was about to crash. A migraine had set in, and I sought relief from four ibuprofens and a hot shower. As my boy watched cartoons on his tablet, I laid down next to him and thought how wonderful it felt to be getting some much-needed rest. Just as my weary eyes were starting to close, the phone rang and I saw that it was Uncle David calling. He informed me that the weather looked good, the water was glass and wanted to know if I was down for a little evening inshore fishing. Before the rational side of my brain had time to think this whole thing through, I heard myself saying, "I'll be there in five minutes."
Now folks, I spent all day Tuesday offshore fishing with Captain Jake. On Wednesday, I fished inshore with the aforementioned Uncle David. Now here it was Friday, and I had rushed offshore for a quick run while the boy was in school, made it back just in the nick of time to pick him up, and now was back at it again despite my better judgement and outcries from my tired body. I performed a behavior despite the harmful consequences. I know many of you, dear readers, would have done the same. Is this ok; are we ok? Are we truly addicts?
If this type of behavior makes us true addicts, the Bluewater Outriggers looked like The Betty Ford Center this Labor Day weekend. We were packed with fishing addicts from all over the country. Folks are stopping in to gear up and take advantage of the good fishing going on all around us. In the bay, trout are turning on especially towards sundown. I spotted some monsters out there taking swings at bait on the surface. A Heddon Spook may just be the ticket to landing one of those gators. I landed a few small ones on a jerk shad but lost a bit of hardware to those pesky ladyfish that seem to be out in droves.
The word on the beach is that there are a good bit of redfish running right now. I talked to several customers that got good reds while fishing the surf, and even one customer that came close to landing a 20 plus speckled trout off Mexico Beach.
Congratulations are in order for Owen Lantz who landed a nice tripletail fishing here in Port St. Joe. His epic photo can be seen (top left). If he follows in his daddy's, Chris Lantz's footsteps, he's going to be a fisherman to be reckoned with when he is older.
For those wanting to go offshore, the bite is on, and better yet, everything is legal. Going out with Captain Jake Harpe last Tuesday we landed a mess of triggerfish and caught our limit of red snapper. We caught quite a few gags, but Jake caught the biggest that was 28". Thursday evening Stevie Sewell took his dad and Uncle David out for a late afternoon run and limited out on red snapper in no time. Uncle David landed a 28.5" gag and promised to give Jake some pointers on how to catch bigger fish. David can be seen in the center photo above. My friends Adam and Sophea Wallace took me out on Friday while my boy was in school. We quickly ran about 18 miles out and filled the box with a limit of snapper. We caught quite a few gags, but they were all a bit too short. Sophea can be seen with our catch in the photo (above right).
Maybe fishing addiction isn't such a bad thing. You could do worse. In retrospect, Bluewater Outriggers is not really like the Betty Ford Center at all. In fact, we are quite the opposite. We are more like that one family member or friend that is a true enabler, giving you just what you need to feed that addiction for another day. Inshore or offshore, the fish are biting. So, stop in and see us; we've got just what you need to make it all better.
-Jeremiah Beasley