In this week’s Northwest Florida Fishing Report, host Joe Baya checks in with Evan Wheeler of Tall Pines Tight Lines for an inshore look around Pensacola, then heads offshore with Capt. Adam Peeples of One Shot Charters out of Destin. The big theme this week is a classic late-March transition: offshore anglers are seeing good opportunities for wahoo, swordfish, and open-water tuna when weather allows, while inshore trout fishermen are dealing with a day-to-day mix of winter holdovers and early spring movement.
Conditions Recap
A warm stretch gave way to another late-season cold front, creating the kind of unstable pattern that defines March along the Emerald Coast. Offshore, the weather windows were fishable and productive, but scattered grass, changing current, and inconsistent bait made things far from automatic. Inshore, negative morning tides, bluebird post-front conditions, and sharp temperature swings kept trout fishermen guessing. The overall takeaway is that fishing is improving, but anglers still need to stay flexible and fish the conditions in front of them instead of expecting a full spring pattern every day.
Offshore Report
Joe starts offshore with Capt. Adam Peeples, who reports a productive weekend out of Destin despite fishing that was a little slower than the weather might have suggested. On Saturday, his crew caught a nice wahoo at one of the FADs almost immediately after putting the first bait in the water, then spent time swordfishing and released a couple of smaller fish. On Sunday, they ran into open-water tuna action on the way offshore, with blackfin, skipjack, and yellowfin mixed in, before going back to swordfishing and boating a couple more swordfish.
Adam says the FADs, including the newer inshore ones, are well worth checking this time of year for wahoo. Even when fish are not heavily grouped up, the chance at a quality bite is there. His approach is to pull a varied spread rather than rig strictly for one species. That mix often includes Nomad diving plugs on the corners, Mold Craft lures, and Islander-ballyhoo combinations. When a wahoo bites, he prefers to keep the boat moving at first instead of immediately slowing down and clearing lines, because that violent strike can open a large hook hole and any loss of tension can cost the fish. He also notes that leaving other baits in the water can turn one hookup into multiple fish.
On tackle, Adam says he runs mono instead of wire on his trolling setups, usually in the 200- to 250-pound range, because he believes it gets more bites and he does not lose enough lures to cutoffs to justify the tradeoff. He has been critical of early durability issues with Nomad DTX-style plugs, but says recent design improvements look promising and the lures unquestionably get bit. Offshore anglers should also be ready for plenty of scattered sargassum right now, because grass is everywhere and can make trolling a chore…