Inshore
Spanish mackerel have been all over Pensacola Bay this week and are fairly easy to catch. The best approach is to just ride around and look for them busting on the surface. Once you locate a school you can cast lures at them or try trolling around.
The speckled trout fishing has been great recently in a number of different areas both on the flats and around submerged structure. They can be caught with artificial lures or live bait, but live croakers are hard to beat.
Anglers are continuing to find a decent amount of mangrove snapper throughout Pensacola Bay. They can be caught around any of the bridges, deep docks, and rock structure. Live bait is just about a must to catch them, so you’ll need to get some live shrimp from the tackle store or catch some sort of fish baits.
Offshore
Triggerfish and red snapper will both be open Friday through Monday of Labor Day weekend so if you’re looking for something to do and the weather allows going bottom fishing is a great option.
King mackerel fishing has been good around many of the nearshore wrecks. A number of different techniques will work, but dusters with cigar minnows has been working as well as anything.
Piers & Beaches
It’s been rough this week on the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier and Pensacola Beach Gulf Fishing Pier , but possible catches once it calms down this weekend include king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, mangrove snapper, and redfish.
Spanish mackerel, redfish, and mangrove snapper are being caught on the Pensacola Bay Fishing Bridge, Bob Sikes Bridge, and Fort Pickens Pier as well. You’ll need live bait, so either plan on buying some live shrimp or catching alewives.
Freshwater
The rain this week definitely won’t help the bass and bream bite on the local rivers considering the water was already high and dirty in a lot of areas. If you’re looking for action now the best bet is probably to go after catfish in the evenings and at night.