This week on the Northwest Florida Fishing Report, host Joe Baya checks in with Evan Wheeler (Tall Pines Tight Lines) for an inshore breakdown around Pensacola and Santa Rosa Sound, then heads offshore with Capt. Adam Peeples (One Shot Charters) out of Destin. The theme is classic late-fall fishing: stack the odds with the right day in the front cycle, fish the best feeding windows you can, and be ready to adjust when current (or weather) doesn’t cooperate.
Conditions Recap
A big front pushed through, followed by a warming trend—but much of the “nice weather” lined up with tough water movement. Inshore, Capt. Evan Wheeler dealt with post-front conditions plus a dead-neap “double knee” tide that left anglers hunting for any meaningful current. Offshore, Capt. Adam Peeples notes the late-fall pattern of narrow weather windows and the reality that conditions can change outside the forecast—especially with north winds and stacked fronts.
If you can pick your day, both captains favor being tight to the front (pre-front if possible) and then targeting stabilized conditions once the post-front high pressure relaxes. If you can’t pick your day, plan on slowing down, fishing deeper, and timing your effort around the best feeding windows you’ve got.
Inshore Report With Capt. Evan Wheeler (Pensacola / Santa Rosa Sound)
Capt. Evan’s playbook right now starts with choosing where you’ll have the highest odds of a true bite window. His first choice is getting as close to the front as safely possible—pre-front—when fish often feed harder ahead of the weather. Post-front can still produce, but the first couple days after a big front can bring bluebird skies, high pressure, north winds, and blown-out water that makes for precision fishing instead of “run-and-gun.”
When conditions go calm but the tide/current goes flat, Evan looks for areas where some water still has to move—either deeper water, wide open areas where wind can push water, or small “micro-bumps” in current that briefly turn on a bite. His biggest advice for anglers fishing limited days (holiday schedules, family trips, etc.) is to stack factors:…