kmarv

Hey all,

I'm new to the board, and this is my first post. I lived in the ATL for a few years, and primarilly fished out of Destin, but moved back to my homestate of Texas a couple years ago. It is rough over here. You have to travel at the very least 30 miles to get into good fish, and typically I'm heading more like 50-70 mi. out. Given the rising cost of gas, I've decided to tow my boat over to P-Cola April 17th. I can drive to FL, fish for 3 days, and drive back for less than a one dayTX trip cost me if you can believe that. Anyway, I have family in P-Cola and am going to leave the boat there and come back a few times throughout the year. I'm just in my planning stage, but was hoping y'all could help me with a few questions. I do not have any of my old spots in Destin, and never had any GPS locations in P-Cola. I fish for snaps, grouper, AJ's, and the bluewater species in the Summer, and plan on hitting the Nipple, Oriskany, and any other closer spots I can gert numbers to. Here they are:

Are any of the public knowledge spots worth while (i.e. those that canbe found on websites) or are they all fished out, as is the case in Texas?

Where can I find some good numbers for P-Cola and Destin?

Is the Oriskany producing any fish?

What can I expect for my fist trip as far as species April 17-21?

Any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance! Kevin

Captain Woody Woods

Before anyone can point you in the right direction, what kind of boat do you have? Then we can set some limitations. As for public spots on the internet, I personally have like a thousand numbers that I've gotten from the web ALONE over the past few years. Certainly there are plenty of them that are hot, and some are not. That kind of stuff switches up overnight, it seems like. Check out the MBT Divers website for numbers. Oriskany from what I recall has a shitton of cudas (trashfish) on it, but is really startin to collect some amberjacks as well as snappers and groupers. It is only going to get better though as time passes. To answer your question regarding species, the sky is the limit, especially if this relatively warm water stays in and only gets warmer. Cobia should be in full swing by then, and you shouldn't have to run far to find them. Pelagics should be back by then, it just depends on water temps. Plenty of tuna to be had though if you want to run west (the BEST kind of fishing)!!

kmarv

I am running a 22' hydrasports Vector with an Evinrude 200. My range is about 160 miles with the extra fuel I carry on board. By running West, are you talking about running to the Midnight Lump? Not real interested in tuna, we get infested with blackfin here in Texas, and they're not all that good to freeze. For the April trip I'd be happy just gettting on some good grouper, snaps, and AJ's, and will try to hit the hoos, mahi, marlin, etc. later in the year. Thanks!

Captain Woody Woods

anytime someone mentions the "west" in this forum, it generally means the rigs. blackfin are hardly tuna....do you not like fishing for the real deal (yellowfin) or just never done it before?

kmarv

I've been on a few long range trips out of Texas and tangled with them. I don't usually have that luxury, as most of the productivefloaters are out almost 90 miles. That is one of the main reasons I want to fish P-Cola for a portion of the year. More fish, less money. I will probably no go past the nipple all year. Are any of the public knowledge spots productive? Thanks!

Captain Woody Woods

once again, it all depends on water conditions. come summer time, nipple, spur, etc. are all loaded with billfish, dorado, hooters, and yellowfin. you've got plenty to look forward to

Deeplines

APRIL 17th the public spots will still be productive for SNAPPER, MINGO'S and such also. You will get a keeper AJ, gag and scamp every so often.

The edge which is public of course but has no PUBLISHED #'s. That is something you just have to find. They produce plenty of AJ, Grouper, scamp, Red Snapper and Mingos.

Don't rule out head west also to BAMA waters and hitting some of there reefs. They have about 10,000 more then we do.

I haven't fished the Big "O" and don't know if I will but heard a lot of grouper and AJ are on it, I will just leave it to the divers for the most part though.

Of course you will have the kings and spanish in by then and like Woody said Cobia.

HEads up though, I haven't looked at the calendar or the moon phases but if you are comfortable fishing at night I would do that for the snapper, gags and mingos. The water will be full of people that 1st weekend of snapper season.