Pensacola Fishing

[FlyingBeagle]

Anyone in the Pensacola area that likes saltwater fishing (Fly or spinner) or has ever wanted to do it should check out Gulf Breeze Guide Service. I just took my first saltwater trip with them, and I have to say that I couldn't have been happier with their service. Captain Bas is a great, fun guy who knows his stuff and does pretty much everything for you but reeling them in. I used a fly rod, my roommate used a spinner and we tore it up, taking spanish mackerel, ladyfish, redfish, and speckled trout. I don't know anything about the other guides here, but I think it's a waste of your time to look for anyone better. For those of you who are hardcore flyfishermen, he also claims to be the only saltwater flyfishing guide in the area. It was worth every damn penny!
Check his site out at:
http://www.gulfbreezeguideservice.com/

If anyone wants to know more about my trip or why Captain Bas is the MAN, ask or PM me.

 

[E5B]

Good on ya! Post some pictures. I fished my butt off while in Pcola but never did the guide thing. All the fishing we did was from the beach or pier. Fall and winter is the best time to catch bull reds from the beach. Me and a few buds would head down to Navarre beach, or Pcola pier (after they close, no one checks) and set up right before sunset. We'd take a couple of folding chairs, cooler or two, some jackets, and a thermal of coffee (it got pretty cold out there some nights). Squid and cut up mullet seemed to work the best for bait. We'd cast out as far as we could then set our rods in PVC and wait for the tiny chem-light to bob. Some nights were really slow and others we'd tear it up. It's cheap and fun (if you don't mind sitting in the cold until 0200). The biggest bull red I caught was 33 lbs, 44", couple times we limited out on blue fish, a bud caught a 6' Bull Shark....it was a beast and a heck of a fight. We had good luck off of Pcola pier (at night), the last time I fished there (Jan 05...balls cold) something took off with my bait and stripped almost all mine line before it broke my steal leader, and I use 8' hvy rods with 50 lbs test gorilla line.

The first time me and my bud started surf fishing on Navarre Beach we didn't have PVC pipe to hold our rods so we just stuck our rods in the sand so they'd stand up. Well my buds rod started singing and all he could do was hang on, well I was standing right next to him (not paying attention to my rods) and after about 2 minutes of kicking his ass the fish broke off. I turn around and noticed one of my rods was missing. Only thing left was a line in the sand leading to the water. I was pissed, but what can you do. Then, not 5 minutes later I was standing by my buds rod about to cast when one of his starts bobing so I froze thinking he was gonna come over and pick up his rod and I didn't want to cast for fear of hooking him. He's yelling for me to cast and I'm froze, well...his rod just jumps out of the sand and straight in the water (without even touching the sand) This crazy bastard runs and dives in after it, coat and all, in the dark, head first into a wave, and no sh!t, comes out with it. Fish was off, swivel was straightened out. After that, we bought 4 PVC links apiece.

There's some big fish out there boys, it's a lot of fun.

 

[FlyingBeagle]

I was trying to post some of these sweet pics, but when I try to upload them, the window turns white and nothing happens. What's the deal?

 

[FlyingBeagle]

Look at this craziness. You couldn't cast into that without something biting on. It was like this all day. Notice the base in the background.

 

[Pugs]

Ladyfish? Used to walk the beach at Perdido casting into pods like that.
Pugs

 

[FlyingBeagle]

Here's the redfish I caught. It weighed about 7 pounds. It probably took me 15 minutes to bring in and stripped out all my fly line and kept going on the backing. As I got him near the boat and he was at the surface, a freakin dolphin showed up and started chasing after him. I can't believe that I actually managed to bring him in without the dolphin chomping him in half. That little guy followed us around the rest of the day and got atleast one of the ladyfish that we released. My buddy fought one that was probably bigger, but the line broke near the boat.
Capt Baz told me that before conservation efforts recently started, redfish were almost fished to extinction. I kept the one I caught, which was within the regs, but for reasons like this, among others, I'm usually catch and release fisherman only.

 

[FlyingBeagle]

Pugs,
Yeah, those were mainly ladyfish, but there were some reds in there. When I caught my red I was casting off the port bow. As soon as my line had landed the Capt said "Redfish on your right!" I picked the line up, and cast it over to the right, landing my popper right in front of the red. Popped it twice, and held on.
Ladys definitely were the fish of the day though. I can't even tell you how many we caught and threw back.

 

[TrunkMonkey]

a bud caught a 6' Bull Shark....it was a beast and a heck of a fight.

There's something for all the API people to think about while floating alone out in the middle of the bay, waiting for the helo to come pick them up... and something for the SNFOs to ponder while learning about how our plane doesn't have a liferaft.