In this week’s Northwest Florida Fishing Report, host Joe Baya looks back at some of the strongest fall fishing conversations from recent episodes, covering everything from giant yellowfin tuna and Panama City grouper fishing to oversized Spanish mackerel, kayak bottom fishing, wahoo, tripletail, kite fishing, and offshore boating safety.
The episode features Capt. King Marchand of Capt. Mike’s Deep Sea Fishing, Capt. Branden Collier of Capt Collier Charters, Tanner Deas of Dauphin Island Fishing Charters, Dylan Kiene, also known as Dr. Doormat, Brandon Barton of Emerald Waters Kayak Charters, Capt. Harris Scruggs of Triple B Fishing Charters, Capt. Justin Leake of Panama City Inshore, and Capt. John Ward of Sea Tow Destin.
Rather than focusing on one narrow weekly pattern, this special episode brings together practical fall tactics that apply across Northwest Florida and the central Gulf Coast, including live chumming, fishing low-relief natural bottom, managing heavy drag from a kayak, trolling for wahoo, and using kites when strong northeast winds change the way anglers can fish offshore.
Conditions Recap
Because this is a best-of-style episode built from several recent reports, the conditions recap reflects the recurring early-fall patterns discussed across the selected conversations rather than a single week on the water. The clearest theme is bait. Live forage is playing a major role in everything from giant yellowfin tuna offshore to Spanish mackerel on grass flats, wahoo around Panama City, and sailfish and mahi during windy kite-fishing days.
Clear water is also making presentation important. Several of the conversations come back to lighter fluorocarbon, natural-looking live baits, and keeping terminal tackle as unobtrusive as possible. At the same time, anglers targeting grouper and other structure-oriented fish still need enough tackle and drag to stop a fish before it reaches the reef.
Fall wind is becoming another major factor. East and northeast winds can make running and gunning difficult once boats get several miles offshore, but Capt. Justin Leake explains that the same conditions can be well suited to controlled kite drifts. Nearshore and inshore anglers are also benefiting from cooler conditions, moving water, and concentrations of bait around passes, flats, bridges, reefs, and other structure.
Giant Yellowfin Tuna And Live Chumming With Capt. King Marchand
Capt. King Marchand joins Joe and Alabama Saltwater Fishing Report host Butch Thierry to revisit a remarkable run of big yellowfin tuna, including a 209-pound fish. King says many of the largest tuna his crew has caught in recent years have come on live bait rather than heavier traditional presentations.
One of the biggest changes has been hook selection. King credits a very small Owner circle hook, roughly in the 2/0 range according to the conversation, with improving their ability to keep big tuna connected. The small circle hook tends to settle into the corner of the mouth instead of gut-hooking the fish, and King says even the 209-pound yellowfin was landed on one of those surprisingly small hooks.
The bait in this case was what Gulf anglers often call a crazy fish or horn belly. King describes watching big tuna come up behind the boat and attack the live chum before the hooked bait was eaten. On one trip, the crew marked roughly 25 yellowfin between about 40 and 140 feet, immediately tripled up on 60- to 80-pound fish, and eventually watched a much larger tuna begin feeding aggressively behind the boat before hooking it.
The fish fought for roughly two hours before the crew was finally able to harpoon and land it. The more important lesson, however, came after the bite slowed. One of the large tuna cleaned during the trip had 19 crazy fish in its stomach, showing just how much live chum the fish had consumed in a short period.
How Much Live Chum Is Enough?
King says the larger tuna often require a bigger burst of activity to make them commit. A small barely legal yellowfin may charge into four or five live chum baits, while a much larger fish may need a couple dozen baits scattering behind the boat before it becomes aggressive enough to make a mistake.
That creates a balancing act. The goal is to make the tuna compete without feeding them so heavily that they simply become full. King’s experience shows why live-chumming for trophy tuna is not just a matter of throwing bait overboard. Anglers need to watch how the fish react, how quickly the chum is disappearing, and whether the tuna are still rising in the water column and feeding with urgency.
Panama City Grouper Fishing On Natural Bottom
Joe also revisits a Panama City bottom-fishing trip with Capt. Branden Collier of Capt Collier Charters, Tanner Deas of Dauphin Island Fishing Charters, Dylan Kiene, aka Dr. Doormat, and Butch Thierry. For anglers accustomed to fishing obvious artificial structure, the conversation offers a useful look at how different low-relief natural bottom can be.
One of the biggest lessons was patience. The crew often had to leave a bait in place for 10 to 20 minutes before a grouper bite developed. Once one fish finally committed, several bites might happen in quick succession. That led to a discussion about whether the grouper were tucked into individual holes or moving along the ledges and patches of bottom until they encountered the baits.
The fish were difficult to stop once they reached the structure. The crew tried both lighter and heavier leader, but even 60- to 100-pound leader was not enough when a gag grouper got back into the reef. Triggerfish created an additional problem by stripping live baits before the grouper had a chance to find them.
Slack-Line Baits And Getting The Reef Fired Up
Joe compares the trip to his own recent experiences around Panama City, where catching vermilion snapper and other fish sometimes seemed to activate the entire area. Chumming, fishing multi-hook rigs, or simply creating more feeding activity can draw grouper out of surrounding holes and low-relief structure.
The group also found that completely slack-lining a Carolina-rigged bait on the bottom could produce bites. Joe offers another tactic worth testing when fish repeatedly win the first few seconds of the fight: keep every bait several feet above the reef. The idea is to make the grouper leave the structure to eat, giving the angler a small head start before the fish turns back toward cover.
That contrast is part of what makes the discussion useful. On one day the fish may want a bait lying almost motionless on the bottom; on another, holding the bait five or more feet above the structure may provide a much better chance of actually landing the grouper after it bites.
How Capt. Justin Leake Targets Giant Fall Spanish Mackerel
Capt. Justin Leake explains that the biggest fall Spanish mackerel around Panama City often behave very differently from the smaller fish roaming open water. Anglers can troll bait schools in the middle of the bay and catch plenty of 12- to 16-inch Spanish, but the larger fish are often holding around shallow grass flats instead.
Justin concentrates on roughly four to eight feet of water, especially where a grass flat has a point, trough, contour change, or clean sand edge. He prefers flats reasonably close to a pass and places a high priority on moving water. If chum baits do not quickly flow away from the boat, he usually does not expect the bite to develop.
Live chumming is the key. Pilchards, pogies, small Spanish sardines, cigar minnows, and similar open-water baitfish can all work. Justin will establish on the edge of the flat and begin throwing live chum, sometimes waiting 10 or 15 minutes before the first big Spanish finally begins attacking the freebies.
Why Justin Avoids Wire
The difficult part is getting a large Spanish mackerel to eat a rig that can survive its teeth. Justin says even a short piece of wire can reduce the number of bites from these bigger, more cautious fish. His preferred compromise is roughly three feet of 40-pound fluorocarbon leader.
Cutoffs are part of the game. Rather than making a hard hookset, Justin starts reeling quickly as soon as the fish eats, trying to slide the hook into the corner of the mouth before the leader contacts the teeth. He also recommends starting with enough leader to retie several times because losing a few hooks during the bite is expected.
Fighting Big Grouper And Snapper From A Kayak
Brandon Barton breaks down one of the biggest differences between reef fishing from a boat and doing the same thing from a kayak: the angler has to manage the fish and the kayak at the same time.
Heavy drag can be necessary to stop gag grouper and large red snapper before they reach structure, but Brandon cautions that a heavy side load can also put a kayak angler in a bad position. His priority is keeping the fish toward the bow. If the kayak starts turning, he lets the boat rotate with the fish rather than fighting it broadside.
Brandon fishes from a Hobie Pro Angler, which gives him a stable platform, but he still stresses that anglers need to understand how much drag they can safely handle from their own kayak. Joe recommends physically checking drag pressure with a scale rather than guessing at it. Fifteen or 20 pounds of drag is considerably more force than many anglers realize.
Short Rods And Shorter Leaders
For this style of fishing, Brandon prefers short jigging rods over long conventional rods. A shorter rod allows quicker pump-and-reel movements, which reduces the time a grouper has to turn back toward the wreck between strokes.
He also generally prefers a three- to four-foot leader on a Carolina-style bottom rig. A very long leader may create a stealthier presentation, but it also gives a grouper more time to eat the bait and return to the structure before the angler feels the weight. When grouper are the target, Brandon usually fishes directly over or immediately upcurrent of the reef. Snapper are more likely to spread farther downcurrent, giving anglers more flexibility in where the bait is presented.
Wahoo Move Close To Panama City
Capt. Harris Scruggs reports wahoo, blackfin tuna, and sailfish moving surprisingly close to Panama City as bait and good water push toward shore. His crew recently had multiple wahoo bites while simply trolling on the way offshore.
One fish came in roughly 85 feet of water only about 11 miles from the pass, while another bite came in about 125 feet of water roughly 23 miles offshore. Both hit the same chrome jet-head lure with a multicolor rainbow-style skirt while the boat was moving at approximately 13 knots. Another fish in a doubleheader struck a black-and-purple or black-and-yellow Islander-style lure running with a trolling lead.
The landed wahoo weighed roughly 28 and 51 pounds. If Harris were specifically targeting wahoo rather than picking them up while traveling offshore, he says he would slow down and work approximately 80 to 120 feet of water around natural bottom, structure, and concentrated bait.
Building A Mixed Pelagic Spread
Harris would combine deep-diving plugs with skirted baits such as Islander-style lures and Mold Craft-style trolling baits. He recommends mixing leader materials rather than putting wire on every presentation. His recent wahoo were caught on heavy mono, and he discusses using roughly 150- to 200-pound mono on many surface presentations while reserving approximately 90-pound seven-strand wire for deep-diving plugs.
That approach keeps the spread versatile enough for wahoo while still giving anglers a legitimate chance at blackfin tuna or sailfish. Harris also notes that rain can change the picture quickly if runoff affects water clarity, making current direction and the location of clean water important variables to watch.
What An Unexpected Boat Tow Can Really Cost
One of the most practical conversations in the episode comes from Capt. John Ward of Sea Tow Destin. Ward explains that many boaters underestimate towing costs because they think only about the distance from the disabled boat back to the ramp. In reality, a fee-for-service tow may include the time required for the response boat to leave its location, reach the disabled vessel, tow it home, and return.
At the time of the original conversation, Ward said his local daytime fee-for-service rate was $400 per hour with a two-hour minimum. Using Joe’s previous breakdown in Hogtown Bayou as an example, Ward explained that a tow that looks like only a few miles from the ramp can become a three- or four-hour service call once the complete response is considered, potentially pushing the bill well above $1,000.
Ward says common calls include fuel problems, dead batteries, steering failures, and other mechanical issues that can leave even a relatively new boat unable to make it home. Electronic steering failures have become especially frustrating on some multi-engine offshore boats because multiple healthy engines do not help much if the steering is locked hard to one side.
The larger point is that on-water assistance should be part of trip planning rather than something anglers think about after the boat stops running. A Sea Tow membership can include towing, jump starts, fuel delivery, and other assistance depending on the situation and current membership terms. Rates, membership benefits, and coverage can change, so boaters should review the current terms for the waters they fish.
An Unusual Nighttime Tripletail For Brandon Barton
Brandon Barton also shares one of the strangest catches of the episode. While fishing around bridge lights at night for bull reds, he caught a ladyfish, cut it up, and began dragging the bait along the bottom. Instead of a redfish, a legal tripletail ate the cut bait and immediately began jumping.
Brandon says it is not the first time he has caught a tripletail in an unexpected way. On an earlier winter bull-red trip, he caught one while working a large LiveTarget pinfish-style rattling lure near the bottom.
The story also leads into a useful discussion about full-moon fishing. Brandon believes bull reds around bridge lights can become less predictable during a bright full moon because they are capable of feeding away from the concentrated artificial light. Tripletail, however, have shown up around the same period, making them an unusual but welcome bonus around bridge structure.
Fall Kite Fishing With Capt. Justin Leake
The episode closes with Capt. Justin Leake explaining how he changes tactics when the first real fall cold fronts bring 15- to 20-knot east or northeast winds. Once those winds build, running and gunning several miles offshore can become uncomfortable and inefficient. Instead of staying home, Justin deploys kites and lets the spread cover productive water.
The number of live baits depends on how quickly the fish are responding. On a fast day, Justin may barely get three baits deployed before sailfish, mahi, kings, or other pelagics begin attacking the spread. On a slower day, he may fish two kites, six kite baits, flatlines, and deeper presentations, creating a spread of as many as 10 live baits across roughly 200 yards of water.
Control The Drift, Then Adjust The Bait
Justin treats kite fishing almost like trolling without engine power. He generally wants to drift around one mile per hour, fast enough to cover water but slow enough that the live baits continue swimming naturally instead of being dragged through the surface. A three-mile-per-hour drift is usually too fast for the presentation he wants.
Bait attachment also changes with speed. Justin uses a small bridle and moves the connection point farther toward the head as the drift becomes faster. In light current, the bait can be bridled closer to the dorsal area. As speed increases, moving the bridle forward helps the bait remain upright and swim naturally.
Current can complicate the picture because it may push the boat in a different direction than the wind. Justin notes that forecast current information does not always match what anglers find on the water and specifically mentions sponsor Hilton’s Realtime Navigator while discussing the value of accurate offshore current information.
The biggest advantage of kite fishing is that anglers no longer have to visually locate every pelagic before making a presentation. By setting a wide spread over water that has recently held bait and fish, the boat can drift until the fish find the baits. It takes more rigging and patience than a simple trolling spread, but during windy fall conditions it can turn a difficult offshore day into one of the most productive and exciting ways to fish.
Featured Sponsors Mentioned In This Episode
Sea Tow provides on-water assistance and towing services for boaters, while Hilton’s Realtime Navigator provides offshore satellite fishing charts, including sea-surface temperature, chlorophyll, current, and other imagery used for trip planning.
