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PAST FISHING REPORTS We are no longer updating the reports section but are still in business. The fishing in our region has remained unspoiled and is as good as ever. Call us today to book a trip of a lifetime !! We
June 2007 6-15/16-2007 .......... The Big Bend Saltwater Classic fishing tournament out of Carrabelle Florida was this Father's day weekend. I had the honor of fishing with SPC James Cornell of Virginia and SPC James Lim of New York in the "Take a Soldier Fishing" event of the tournament. 30 + soldiers back from Iraq on leave were welcomed and sponsored by the Carrabelle community to fish the tournament and enjoy a little R&R before they go back to Iraq in September. All of these soldiers will be going back to Iraq for at least their 2nd tour, and many for their 3rd. I salute these brave men & women for what do for us and our country. I pray that they all make it back to fish with us next year and bring more of their buddies. Thanks again James & Mr. Lim !! You will always be welcome on my boat !!!!!!!
6-9-2007 .......... Today we enjoyed calm seas and hungry grouper and snapper about 25 miles offshore in about 70 ft of water. With 5 anglers on the boat (associates of the Ready Mix concrete company), we almost had our limit by 11:00 with 19 beautiful grouper on the boat and several big snapper. By 12:15 we had our limit and many sore backs. We landed several grouper in the 15 - 20 lb range. 6-8-2007 ........... Fished with Rich and Sandra Glaze from Lawrenceville, Ga today. We started off the day fishing the falling tide for trout. With Rich on the flyrod and Sandra and I fishing grubs, we managed a few nice trout with many smaller fish. The bite wasn't great, so we moved to Dog Island reef and worked on the spanish and blues. The highlight of the trip was a beautiful 45 pound cobia we found hanging with about 9 much smaller fish. We didn't realize how big the cobia was, until Rich threw a fly at him. Lucky for us, a smaller cobia hit the fly and the big boy hit a jig on the spinning rod. Double hook up on fly and spin cast. The fight was on for about 30 minutes before we could land him. All I could say was ........... yee haw !!! Great trip guys !!!! May 2007 5-31-2007 .......... Grouper and snapper fishing offshore is the story of the month. To say the least, grouper fishing offshore in 65-80 ft has been phenomenal. Filling up the boat with full limits before 11:00 am has been common with big fish. Beautiful snapper have been chewin on natural bottom right along with the grouper (and I mean chewin folks!!) Trout fishing has been really good on the better moving tides around the shoals and on grass early in the morning. Redfish are moving around in big schools as well as holding on to structure on high tides. It seems like the wind has been blowing all May out of the east, so hopefully, June will bring us some better luck. The tarpon run is beginning to heat up as well. Cheers !! Capt Dean
April 2007
4-20-2007 ....... Fished with my
friends Herb Brown and Amy Ward from Destin and Wasicca Florida. We
caught fish all day long starting out with trout and finishing big with a 30
+ redfish rally to end the day. Check out more pictures on
Grouper, grouper and more grouper everywhere. Marvin reports that they are chewin in 65 ft of water. Gags & reds !! Call early, he is getting booked up in a hurry. Also the cobia have a started an early strong run this year. The next few months should be a great time to catch a bonus cobia fishing over rock fishing for grouper. Yum, grouper and ling on the grill. I can smell it now !! Inshore fishing is doing its normal spring heat up. Big trout and redfish are being caught around Dog & St George Island. Largest trout so far - 27" - largest red 45". The spanish macks are showing good now, with late April being the absolute best time in the spring for the larger mackeral. With the lack of rain, the water is spring clear and beautiful. This weekend we are looking forward to high temps in the 60's. Followed quickly by the usual 80's. What a great time of year to fish !! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FISHING REPORTS ARCHIVE
April 2006 Capt Marvin is catching grouper, snapper, & amberjack on a regular basis. Well as regular as the wind will let him. But May is upon us which means calmer winds and flatter seas. Please remember to book Marvin as early as possible. He stays booked !! Eric Hammar of Minnesota and I fished several days last week and had a blast. Some days were better than others due to wind, but overall we caught a lot of fish. The bulk of which were quality. The trout were not as thick as I had expected, but were very nice in size. The spanish mackerel were everywhere. We caught them on spoons, fly's, live bait, popping cork............ you name it. We left them biting everyday. We also ended one of the days on a redfish hole that produced. We landed 4 out of 6 and headed back to the house. More good fishing is expected in May. The winds tend to be a little calmer as well.
March 2006 Its been a while since my last report, but its time for the spring bite. The weather has been beautiful with relatively light winds for this time of year. Redfish have been the primary target this month, and we have done very well in local creeks and around docks. The trout are also starting to respond to the warmer water feed on the local grass flats. Offshore, the grouper fishing is getting better and better. Capt Marvin is in full swing and booking trips every weekend. As with quality grouper fishing, you can expect the occasional cobia to bite this time of year as well. We'll report back soon.
June - July 2005 Well, I have not fished much the last two months. June was full of wind and rain, on every chance I could go at least; and July we were hit by the storm surge of Hurricane Dennis. Predictions for the surge for our local area was for 5 - 8 ft. However, unfortunately we received 10 - 12 ft. The beautiful house I was living in on the water was decimated. The pool, the dock, and much of the house were lost, including almost everything inside it. The boat road out the storm surge tied to the house with very little damage, thanks to some brave neighbors !! And many sentimental items like pictures and fish mounts were saved as well. All the other stuff, the sea can have. I have many great memories there for sure !! Here is a link to some of the pictures of my house and some nearby restaurants ......Posey's and Angelo's. I will get back on my feet and start fishing again real soon. Capt. Marvin has not skipped a beat and is taking charters out on a regular basis since the storm. As usual, the grouper fishing is as good as ever. Hopefully the rest of the hurricane season will be quiet, we could sure use it. I will report back in August, hopefully with some nice Tarpon Tale's. Take care. Capt. Dean
May 2005 Inshore and offshore fishing this month has been awesome. The winds have really calmed down; a much needed relief from April. Inshore, the redfish are holding on to structure and in the potholes on the flats. Trout continue to be plentiful on the grass flats as well. This pattern should hold through the summer. With summer heat though, fish low light conditions with topwater plugs for the big gator trout. For all of you thrill seekers, the Tarpon fishing will be in full swing by the end of this month. Our fish average 100 lbs and run in huge schools. It usually takes between 30 minutes to an hour to land one of these bruisers, so bring plenty of water to drink, you will need it !! Offshore fishing for grouper has been as good as it has ever been. Quick limits are the norm and many large grouper are being caught off of Capt Marvins boat. Please remember to book Capt. Marvin a couple of months in advance. Capt. Dean ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 2005 The grouper fishing with Capt. Marvin has been super hot. Our last trip with Mike Weldon and company from near Atlanta was no exception. We had a limit of 25 grouper before 12:00 with a few fish pushing 20 lbs. Marvin estimated our catch at around 330 lbs. That's an avg. of about 12lbs a fish. Although we had our limit early, we chose not to Amberjack fish due to the forecast for much higher winds. The ride in was much smoother getting on land as soon as possible. Many thanks to Mike and his friends !! April has come and gone, but not quickly enough. The rain has continued this month and the wind not far behind. I have managed a couple of trips though that have gone very well. Eric Hammar of Minnesota made the trip down again and finally got back at those pesky Spanish. The fly rod and clouser minnow were the ticket and light tackle fly rod action could not have been better. We also managed a few AJ in the morning and a shot at about a 75 cobia on fly. The big boy in the brown suite turned on the fly, but didn't eat. Talk about making your heart race. Eric also had very good luck fishing out of his kayak for trout near the house. Dennis Swanson and his good buddy Jim were down from Michigan to fish the flats. As usually the spanish bite was very good in the morning. From there we went redfish hunting eventually catching about 20 until another storm and high winds ran as off. All of these reds were caught off of structure around Dog Island and a few spots off of Hwy 98. I look forward to May, which is usually one of our driest and calmest months. I sure hope so, I am not much into kite flying. Capt. Dean ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 2005 I went out last week for redfish on the high tide. I caught about 20, but only one was a keeper. It is very good to see such healthy young redfish for sure. Our water temperature is still very cool. The temp around the marine lab is in the low 60's and it is the middle of March. It wont be long now though. It should warm up rapidly and the trout, redfish and spanish macks will be everywhere. Water clarity is very good right now as well. The offshore fishing with Marvin is awesome in the Spring with limits on almost every trip for grouper. He has limited out the last 5 trips in a row. Please book 2 months in advance for offshore grouper trips. Capt. Dean
February 2005 Well winter is about to pass us by. Now it is time to watch the water temperature for that magic 70 degree mark. If we don't have too many cold fronts late in Feb or early in March, by the second week of March the redfish and trout should be really turned on. The amount of rain we get will also dictate water quality and over all fishing conditions. Lets just pray for light winds this spring. I will post reports and keep you informed of conditions on our coast all spring. Take care. Capt. Dean
November 2004 - January 2005 Just wanted to send out a quick winter report........ I spent most of November fishing for trout with the fly rod. Topwater flys have done the trick and sure are fun. December moved most of these fish into the river, although I did catch a 25 inch trout off of my dock recently. It seems that as shallow water warms up by the sun after cold spells, the trout move in to feed. And they are usually large. The grouper fishing has remained fantastic in the 40 to 60 ft depth. Now if the wind will just corporate, we can go get them. To tell you the truth, I am already craving spring, but it wont be too long before the warm air sparks the inshore fishing once again. Happy New Years and tight lines !!! Capt Dean
October 2004 Oct. 29th & 30th .......... Robert Spainhour of Lafarge Concrete and company fished with us for two beautiful days. The conditions were absolutely perfect for inshore and offshore fishing. The seas were less than a ft and for much of the time perfectly flat. We fished near shore wrecks and caught grouper and snapper on light tackle. From there we finished each day on the grass flats of Ochlockonee Bay and one of my favorite creeks fishing for trout and redfish. The trout bite started slow, but ended with a bang as the tide got right...about 2 hours before high. Marvin of course went about 20 miles offshore in his 30 ft C-Hawk and hammered big grouper, finishing the day by about 1:00 with a limit of 30 grouper (around 280 lbs) !!!!!! Now that's how you get ready for a fish fry. Marvin is consistently catching limits of grouper, with many fish in the 15 to 20 lb range. Please call at least a month in advance to book a trip with Marvin. Fall grouper fishing is the best and he books many trips this time of year. Call now to book your next offshore experience.
Oct. 17th .......... Eric Hammar and I fished Ochlockonee Bay yesterday with beautiful weather conditions; blue bird skies and light SW winds. We loaded up with live shrimp in the morning and selected the fly pattern to use for the days trip. We started out fishing the grass flat between the channel markers. The tide fell hard until around 11:00 a.m. producing an unexpected slow bite for trout. We caught a few fish on fly and a few on live shrimp, nothing spectacular. The rising tide however was fantastic. The bay was alive with surface feeding spanish mackerel and skip jacks feeding on ghost minnows. Unfortunately, we could only manage 2 mackerel in this crazy white water of fish. I think mainly because the skip jacks were so fierce and they out numbered the mackerel. But for the next 3 hours the only talking was being done by the fly reels screaming drags, catching jacks on every cast of the fly. Folks, fly fishing for surface feeding fish is awesome. We were both using 8 wt rods that were tested on every fish. Normally on spin tackle I would catch a few of these fish then move on. But this was way too fun on a light fly rod !! As we moved to 2 hours before high tide, I changed strategies and moved to the creeks. There, we caught 10 redfish and 2 nice trout. All in all it was an exciting day on the water. Eric had redfish and trout to eat and ripped knuckles from skip jacks - the poor man's tarpon. Oct. 11th .......... The redfish have invaded in full force. Although the wind blew all weekend, I did manage a canoe trip in the back of Alligator Bay catching 7 redfish on artificial lures and shrimp. Apalachee Bay seems to be inundated as well. I caught six redfish and 5 trout off of my dock as the wind was too strong to go out in the boat. Next weekend I have 2 trips with Eric Hammar of Minnesota. We plan to fish for redfish and trout on fly in Ochlockonee Bay. Capt. Dean ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 2004 Sept. 29th .......... More hurricanes, Jeanne this time. This storm missed us to the east, so we got very little rain. Our water is looking clean. I am fishing the back bay this Friday in the creeks targeting redfish and trout. I haven't fished in a month, so needless to say I am excited about fishing this full moon tide. I will send out a report next week. Capt. Dean Sept. 21st ........... Fishing the last 2 weeks has been non existent. First it was Hurricane France and last week Ivan the @#$%#@. Frances came ashore in St Marks and really did not affect us much because we were on the west side of the storm. Ivan on the other hand almost flooded my house from over 185 miles away. I actually went to Ft Walton Beach to be with family and to help after the storm. It hit around Gulf Shores Alabama and did major damage from wind and storm surge. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of the families affected by Ivan and all of the storms that have hit the USA this year. Its not just Florida or even just coastal areas affected. The northeast has had devastating flooding from these storms as well. On a good note, the Apalachee Bay has had very little rain from these storms. That means water quality should be perfect for our fall fishing bananza. I am going to scout the red fish and trout in our creeks this weekend to see if they have arrived in full force. The temperature last night was about 65 degrees and the days are getting shorter. These fish will feel the temp drop and also respond to less light during the day. They are beginning to feel that winter is around the corner -- Its time to eat !! Marvin will get back on the grouper fishing this weekend as well. The seas are finally going to subside. Once the water clears up from Hurricane force seas, the grouper fishing will be incredible !! They always respond after hurricanes this way. The plus this year is that we didnt get soaked with rain. The water should be perfect in a week or so. We will both report after this weekend. Cheers Capt. Dean
Sept. 8th.............Well, Hurricane Frances has made her presence known. We have all grown tired of these storms. They seem to come one after the other, and this week is no exception. Hurricane Ivan seems determined to go around Florida to the south, and into the gulf of Mexico. The latest 5 day tract has it eyeing the panhandle. Needless to say, we have not been fishing this month. Once these storms leave us alone and the water settles down, the grouper fishing should be incredible. Fall grouper fishing.........cant beat it !! Look for the trout, redfish, and mackerel fishing to really get good soon. That is if Hurricane Ivan doesn't ruin our awesome fall fishing with dark, muddy water. I'll report back after Ivan the Terrible, which should be here or there sometime next week. Keep your fingers crossed !! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 2004 Friday August 27.......... I went scout fishing for trout and spanish mackerel and had great success. The bait was plentiful and the sun was shining. It only took me 5 minutes to fill my livewell up with big pilchards. I fished around the bait schools in about 8 ft and caught 15 trout in 1 hour. What a bite. I caught the tide about 2 hours before high and the fish were on fire. Every cast either a big trout, a spanish or a blue fish. I caught 4 trout over 22" two of them at 24". Once the tide slowed down, so did they and I went back to the house to relax in the pool. Over the weekend, the offshore fishing was incredible for Marvin. He had a limit of grouper by 11:00 AM. Most of these fish were red grouper and they were caught in about 70' of water. What a day. We are watching Hurricane Frances very closely, if she crosses Florida and gets into the Gulf, we could be in big trouble. However, on the bright side, this will send grouper and snapper inshore and the bite will be incredible. Storms like this push fish inshore with all of the wave action developed. During this time, the fish dont feed much and are moved away from familiar territory. This in turn makes them feed like crazy for weeks after a storm. These fish can be moved into as little as 25'. But still.......... I would rather this storm leave us alone. Lets pray that it does. Till next time, thanks for checking out our site. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday August 21............ Marvin had an offshore trip cancel. I had an inshore trip with Demitri Basil of La Farge Concrete out of Atlanta and five other employees. We split the trip between 2 boats, mine and Capt. David Ziegler of Z Horse Charters. First thing in the morning we netted a live well full of pilchards, amd there were acres of bait. We stayed near this bait catching spanish mackerel, blue fish, and a few trout. As low tide approached and the spanish bite subsided, I moved to the shoal and we caught two beautiful cobia on 10 lb test. One fish was 40" the other 34". Each fight took about 45 minutes. Big cobia on light tackle. What a blast !!!!! Check out the Photos section to see a picture of these two fish. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 15........Terry, Wes, Bob and I fished for trout & redfish in Apalachee Bay. The day before the trip, I went out scouting to find fish and was very successful catching a limit of nice trout and releasing five redfish. The next day on the trip was not so good. Conditions change, fish move........ We caught blue fish, skip jacks, sharks & trout - nothing to brag about. However, in good faith, I am going to take them again free of charge. Probably in the fall when fishing picks up again. If we don't catch fish inshore up to my standard, then the next trip is on me. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This month has started with very high winds. An unusual cold front has passed from the north bringing cooler, dryer temps and unfortunately very high seas. Marvin and I both had to cancel trips Sat. 7th Due to conditions. I looked at the wind this morning and it is still howling. If the conditions are not favorable for comfortable, safe fishing......... we don't want to be out there, and we know you don't either. It is much better to reschedule and go another day. Next Saturday 14th Capt Marvin will take a group from La Farge Concrete from Atlanta. Sunday 15th will be Mr. Terry Drent, his son, and Mr. Bob Hewes fishing the flats with Capt Dean. With any luck, the wind will return to normal............. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 2004................. This is the first month we have had our website operational. We will be actively updated this reports section to give you accurate information on fishing conditions in our area. Weather plays a major role in helping or hindering fishing in the Big Bend. Water clarity, wind, seas and tides dictate the quality of the bite. The offshore fishing for grouper and amberjack with Capt. Marvin has been great throughout all of spring and summer this year. All of his clients have been very successful at reaching bag limits on both species. Better water clarity and calm seas have made conditions ideal for offshore grouper digging and he knows where to go get 'em. The inshore fishing with Capt. Dean this spring started off with great trout and red fishing in local creeks. These creeks all have very productive oyster bars that are ideal for targeting these fish as water temperatures rise into the 70's. April and May produced some nice cobia, the largest being 55 lbs. The spanish run was as good as I have ever seen it. I contribute all of this to very clear water and large bait schools arriving early. The tarpon are here by the hundreds right now and will be here until early September. On our last tarpon trip, The Inklebarger family from Tennessee hooked and landed a 110 lb beauty on 20lb test. After a 2 hour fight, the mighty fish was photographed and successfully let go to fight another day. Good job Bill, Barbara and Duke !!
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