Inshore
Fishing for Spanish mackerel has been good this week, which is great, but a little surprising with the dirty water. The best approach is probably to troll around using speck rigs or mackerel dusters outside of Pensacola Pass and around the USS Massachusetts.
It sounds like the speckled trout, redfish, and flounder action was hit or miss for most anglers participating in the Pensacola Fishing Rodeo last weekend. If you’re looking for speckled trout you might want to wait until after dark and fish dock lights.
There’s been a lot of mangrove snapper around the bridges and other structure in Pensacola Bay. Live shrimp, alewives, and bull minnows all work well and should be used on a Carolina rig.
Offshore
Red snapper is currently open for harvest on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in both state and federal waters through September 4. The weather looks decent for this weekend so you should have no trouble going out there and bringing home a limit.
It’s tough to say what can be expected as far as offshore trolling goes out around the Nipple and Spur, but you don’t know unless you go. Wahoo and dolphin are usually likely catches along with an occasional billfish or yellowfin.
Piers & Beaches
According to the reports fishing hasn’t been all that great this week on the Pensacola Beach Gulf Fishing Pier or Navarre Beach Fishing Pier. King mackerel should show back up as soon as the water cleans up.
Anglers on the Pensacola Bay Fishing Bridge and Bob Sikes Bridge are finding every day to be a little different, but redfish, flounder, mangrove snapper, bluefish, and Spanish mackerel are possible catches this time of year.
Freshwater
Needless to say, the bass and bream bite on the local rivers has been slow with the dirty water that was caused by the heavy rains. Hopefully it doesn’t take long to get back to normal, but right now your best bet is to go after catfish.