This week on the Northwest Florida Fishing Report, host Joe Baya is joined by co-host Angelo DePaola and inshore guide Captain Blake Nelson, as well as offshore expert Captain Adam Peebles and Hilton’s Realtime Navigator founder Tom Hilton. The crew delivers an information-packed show, with inshore tactics for trout, redfish, and Spanish mackerel, along with offshore insights on how to interpret satellite imagery to reverse engineer fishing success. Whether you’re hitting the flats or heading to the fads, this episode covers what’s working now and how to dial in your approach for both weekend warriors and serious offshore captains.
Conditions Recap
We’re in the dog days of summer, but don’t let that fool you—there’s still plenty of action in Northwest Florida. Bait is abundant on the flats and inshore, with greenies, pogies, and croakers easy to find. Water clarity is high on calm days, and finger mullet schools are drawing in trout and redfish. Offshore, the water remains a mix of blue-green, and while pure blue water hasn’t returned since spring, pelagics like blue and white marlin, mahi, and tuna are still being caught near high-salinity edges and rigs. Nearshore reefs are fishing better than expected for this time of year, and the presence of bait is drawing in king mackerel, bonitas, and even sailfish.
Inshore Report – Choctawhatchee Bay with Captain Blake Nelson
Captain Blake Nelson breaks down a stellar inshore bite across flats and vertical structure. He highlights catching bait as a critical first step and shares tips on identifying pogies vs greenies vs anchovies by their surface action. For bait catching, Blake recommends a 10-foot quarter-inch mesh cast net for greenies and notes his crew sometimes uses 3/16-inch mesh for finesse.
Once bait is secured, the go-to tactics have been:
- Fly-lining greenies for trout, redfish, and Spanish mackerel over grass flats and around roll downs.
- Using croakers when greenies get picked off too quickly by pinfish, allowing for longer soaks and better hookup ratios.
- Knocker rigs around bridges for redfish and mangrove snapper.
- Topwater lures at the ready for jacks and bull reds cruising the flats.
Gear Mention: Long shank gold Aberdeen hooks (#1 or #2) are key for reducing bite-offs from Spanish mackerel. Blake adjusts leader from 25–40 lb test depending on clip-offs.
Offshore Report – With Capt. Adam Peebles & Tom Hilton
Captain Adam Peebles and Tom Hilton dive deep into reading satellite data to improve offshore strategy. The key takeaway? Successful offshore anglers reverse engineer their catches by analyzing historical altimetry, temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll imagery from Hilton’s Realtime Navigator. This helps them understand what water conditions held fish—and what to look for next time.
Recent tournament catches have come from areas with:
- High salinity fingers near the Thunder Horse and Blind Faith rigs
- Stable, slightly cooler water between 78–88°F
- Mixed blue-green water near the Squiggles and FADs
- Converging edges with current and structure
Despite lack of perfect blue water, white marlin, blue marlin, sailfish, and dorado are still showing up in big numbers. Cloud cover makes satellite interpretation tricky, but layering current, temperature, and salinity helps narrow down productive zones.
Gear Mention: For swordfish and pelagics, Adam runs Starlink and Sat2Nav on his boat for real-time access to sea temp overlays and edge tracking while offshore.
Nearshore Report
Along the beaches from Pensacola to Port St. Joe, bait is everywhere—herrings, sardines, threadfin shad, and more. There’s been a surprise uptick in nearshore action for king mackerel, with a 47-pound king caught aboard Ignite the Bite Charters in Destin. Reef fishing is average to slightly better than expected. Plenty of action remains on Bonitas, and the occasional sailfish is being caught from local piers.
