Spending a lot of time on the water lately with more guide trips than I can handle and lots of people wanting to go fishing. Santa Rosa Sound has been great in the early mornings for redfish and medium trout over the shallow grass but it really dies around 8am. Bongos and Stick Shadds are great choices right now. Around 8am, we’ve been running to some areas in Pensacola Bay where there are lots of sharks between 3-5′. Shark Week!! Plenty of blacktips that really put on a great show when hooked. Many anglers have requested shark fishing after the flats so that really makes the last few hours simple although it’s a little nerve-racking with so many unpredictable sharks coming to the boat.
In the last few days, East Bay and Escambia Bay have really turned on with the rains ending and the water clearing. Early morning topwaters are producing huge amounts of quality speckled trout and a handful of nice redfish. A few mornings we must have gotten over 50 trout in the 14-23″ range on topwaters. The trout are off the banks inside the large schools of mullet and the redfish are very close to the banks on high water. Most fish were released but several were taken for dinner at Aegean Breeze and for cookouts up north. E Holstman
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