In this week’s Northwest Florida Fishing Report, host Joe Baya covers a changing early-summer bite from Pensacola to the offshore grounds, with heavy rain, dirty water, wind, bait movement, trout and redfish patterns, red snapper season, mahi around grass, and wahoo opportunities all part of the conversation. This episode features Evan Wheeler with Tall Pines Tight Lines and Capt. Tyler Massey with Hot Spots Charters.
The big theme this week is adjustment. Inshore anglers are dealing with “root beer” water, fewer visual cues, changing bait behavior, and warming temperatures, while offshore anglers are working around rough weather, sharks, dolphins, scattered grass, and the early red snapper season rush. From reading birds and solunar periods to building an offshore plan around wind direction and bait options, this report is about finding fish when the obvious signs are not easy to see.
Conditions Recap
Northwest Florida has finally seen much-needed rain, but that rain has also pushed dirty, tannic water into the bays and bayous. In the Pensacola area, Evan Wheeler says the combination of morning storms, wind, dirty water, and a lack of bait and bird activity has made trout and redfish fishing more variable than usual. Water temperatures are climbing, summer patterns are beginning to take hold, and many fish are starting to shift away from the super-shallow windows that were more productive earlier in the season.
Offshore, the red snapper bite is good when boats can get out, but weather has limited opportunities. State-water anglers are dealing with public spots, sharks, and dolphins, while federal-water anglers have more room to make longer moves. Scattered grass is making trolling difficult in some areas, but larger grass patches are holding mahi, and there have been some wahoo bites around deeper offshore structure and FADs.
Inshore Report – Evan Wheeler With Tall Pines Tight Lines
Evan Wheeler with Tall Pines Tight Lines gives the Pensacola inshore report, where recent rain and wind have made trout and redfish fishing highly variable. He says the dirty water showed up after a stretch of heavy rain, and with fewer birds, bait schools, and surface signs to read, he has had to go back to basics and fish areas based on timing, current, structure, and experience rather than obvious visual cues.
When the cues are available, Evan pays close attention to birds. High-diving pelicans often point him toward larger menhaden, while short-hop pelicans, terns, and smaller active birds can signal smaller bait like glass minnows or silversides. Wading birds such as herons and egrets working the shoreline often make him think more about redfish than big trout, especially when they are focused on small bait, crabs, shrimp, or other shallow-water forage.
When those signs are missing, Evan has been prospecting with lures like the MirrOlure 17MR and the Pure Flats Slick Jr. He uses those baits to cover water, find bites, and then work backward from the fish he catches to figure out what kind of area, depth, current, and timing produced that bite. He also mentioned matching bait size with presentations such as larger MirrOlure-style hard baits, Texas Custom-style twitch baits, smaller soft plastics, and the 19MR or MirrOlure MirrOminnow when fish are feeding on smaller bait.
Timing has been a major part of his approach. Evan watches solunar majors and minors closely, and says he would rather be fishing during those feeding windows than running between spots. He also pays attention to tide movement, but he does not treat a predicted tide chart as absolute. Wind, rainfall, dirty water, and pressure can all change what the water is actually doing, so he looks for current, bubbles, dirty-water bands, and real-time movement before committing to an area.
As water temperatures climb, Evan expects more fish to slide a little deeper. Earlier in the year, some big trout were still using two to three feet of water, especially under low light or cloudy “trout sky” conditions. Now, with warmer water, he is thinking more about three to four feet or deeper depending on the estuary, time of day, and conditions. He is not fully committed to deep summer patterns yet, but he is adjusting away from the skinniest water as the heat builds.
Evan also spent time talking about stewardship and why he supports releasing speckled trout over 20 inches. He says his boat is catch-and-release focused for larger trout, especially big breeder fish, and he wants anglers to think beyond simply keeping a limit. He is not against keeping fish for fresh meals, but he believes better anglers should become better stewards and protect the larger fish that help keep the fishery strong.
Gear and products mentioned in this section include MirrOlure 17MR, MirrOlure 19MR, MirrOlure MirrOminnow, Pure Flats Slick Jr, Texas Custom Lures, popping corks, live shrimp, soft plastics, hard baits, circle hooks, and light-tackle inshore setups.
Offshore Report – Capt. Tyler Massey With Hot Spots Charters
Capt. Tyler Massey with Hot Spots Charters gives the Pensacola offshore report, where red snapper season has started strong when the weather allows boats to get out. The bite has been good on both public and private areas, with federal-water spots, larger wrecks, live bottom, and bigger structure producing fish. State-water anglers are still catching snapper, but Tyler says those public pyramid zones can be hit or miss as sharks and dolphins move in and pressure builds.
Tyler says dolphins can follow boats from spot to spot, especially inside state waters where anglers have less room to make long moves. If a dolphin is actively stealing fish or bait, he likes to move at least three and a half to four miles to get away from it. Sharks can be even more spot-specific, especially on smaller structure. If sharks are stealing the first few fish, Tyler says it is usually better to leave than keep feeding hooked snapper to them.
Trip planning matters right now because wind has made the ride a major factor. Tyler builds his day around the wind direction, the safest and most comfortable route, and clusters of spots rather than one isolated waypoint. If the wind is pushing from one direction, he would rather run in the trough, fish an area with multiple options, and avoid long cross-sea moves whenever possible. For anglers with limited numbers of spots, he recommends choosing areas with several public pieces close together instead of gambling on one distant mark.
Live bait is still part of Tyler’s snapper program. He has been catching bait around the Massachusetts wreck, including cigar minnows on the bottom and LYs or scaled sardines in schools. He says live cigar minnows and live LYs are not always required, but they help produce steady keeper-sized snapper and can reduce some of the problems that come with dead bait, such as triggerfish picking it apart or smaller fish stealing the bait.
For bigger red snapper, Tyler still likes large dead baits. He mentioned catching a 31-pound snapper on a whole Boston mackerel fished higher in the water column on a spinning rod with an Aqua Rig. Big dead baits, whole baits, and butterflied baits can be very effective for larger fish. Tyler especially likes butterflied white snapper as a big-fish bait, while softer baits like Boston mackerel may not always need to be butterflied because smaller fish and triggerfish can tear them up more easily.
On the pelagic side, Tyler has been seeing scattered grass that makes trolling difficult in many areas. Instead of constantly clearing trolling baits, he has been running to larger grass patches and pitching live baits around them. The bigger mats have been holding mahi, including fish in that smaller “turkey dolphin” range. He says the key is to fish all sides of the patch and give the live bait time to draw fish out from underneath the grass.
Tyler also reported some wahoo bites around the deeper FADs, though they pulled hooks on a couple of fish. He says that is part of trolling lip plugs and hard baits for wahoo, since those fish hit violently and can shake loose during the fight. The wahoo bite has been better farther east, but there are still opportunities out of Pensacola when the weather and grass conditions allow.
Gear and products mentioned in this section include live cigar minnows, live LYs, scaled sardines, whole Boston mackerel, butterflied white snapper, big dead baits, spinning rods, Aqua Rigs, lip plugs, hard baits, bucktail jigs, trolling plugs, FADs, and offshore satellite tools such as Hilton’s Realtime Navigator.
