Forgotten Coast Fishing Report
Red snapper bite continues to improve with limits being caught as our local guides continue to outperform themselves. Kingfish have started showing up. Try trolling spoons when they are feeding on the surface. Topwater plugs such as a Rapala Magnum or Yo Zuri TopKnock Pencil should be your first choice. Local fisherman CJ Young had a great trip with a cooler of kingfish, red grouper and snapper. At 12 years old, I’d say that’s pretty good. He’s wanting to become a guide in the future, looks like he’s got a great start. Snowy and yellow edge grouper are also being caught in the 400-plus feet of water.
Bite has been a little tough inshore with the weather a contributing factor. There are fish out there and nice schools of redfish roaming the Cape, but they are spooky. You will probably want to finesse cast a live shrimp out in front of them. Flounder are being caught around the Highland View bridge using bull minnows or shrimp.
The Dead Lakes have been yielding some fine stringer of crappie. Fish the stumps in the morning and the deeper channels in the afternoon; soft plastics or minnows are topping the chart. Gator season opens August 15, and we have gator snatch hooks, and a fresh shipment of bang sticks In different calibers.
Until next week, don’t forget those lanyards and lifejackets.
Tom Gannaway – BlueWater Outriggers
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.