In this week’s Northwest Florida Fishing Report, host Joe Baya tracks a true early-spring shift across the Emerald Coast with help from Justin Reed of Justin Reed Surf Fishing Charters, Brandon Barton of Emerald Waters Kayak Charters, and Capt. Tyler Massey of Hot Spots Charters. The headline this week is that the surf-side pompano migration is finally underway, Pensacola-area trout are feeding aggressively in transition zones, and even when wind keeps boats from running far offshore, there are still good options from the beach to nearshore waters.
Conditions Recap
The big setup this week is classic spring change. Sea-surface temperatures along the Emerald Coast have climbed into the upper 60s, the April full moon is lining up with warming weather, and that combination is helping push new fish into the system. On the beach, that means migrating pompano rather than just scattered resident fish. Inshore, bait is pulling out of creeks and bayous and setting up the kind of transition-water feeding windows that can produce better trout. Offshore, east wind and choppy conditions have limited how often boats can get out, but nearshore Spanish mackerel and short bottom-fishing opportunities are giving anglers something to work with while they wait for better weather.
Surf Report: The Pompano Run Is On from Pensacola to Navarre
Joe starts on the beach with Justin Reed, and the update is the one surf anglers have been waiting for. Justin says the pompano run is on, with schools of fish moving through and plenty of 11- to 12-inch class fish showing up, a strong sign that the migration is underway. His advice stays simple and practical. Find a stretch of beach where waves are breaking hard on the bar, then look for a place where that bar pinches closer to shore so anglers can more easily cast beyond the breakers. That backside of the sandbar is the travel lane, and when a school moves through, multiple rods can go down at once.
Justin says anglers should not just blindly launch every bait as far as possible and sit back. Instead, spread rods intelligently, track where bites happen, and use that information to reposition the whole spread. On calmer days he likes sand spikes about five or six steps apart, then spreads them farther apart when current is stronger to avoid tangles. Because the fish are moving in schools, a slow hour can flip fast, so patience matters unless everyone nearby is catching and you are clearly out of position.
For bait, Justin says fresh sand fleas and go shrimp have both been producing, but he is also paying close attention to color. Right now orange and white are standing out, and he recommends carrying multiple combinations so anglers can quickly match what fish want that day. He also talks about the value of mixing natural and synthetic options like Fishbites so anglers can dial in both profile and color. On the terminal side, he prefers Sputnik weights, usually four-ounce models, but says recent current has made five-ounce versions necessary at times. For anglers buying local surf rigs instead of tying their own, he specifically mentions the Bruno rig from Frisky Fins as a good option.
Justin’s setup also reflects how dialed-in surf anglers stay during the run. He likes double-drop rigs because they let him fish two baits, two colors, or even two positions in the water column at once. On rods and reels, he says a 10-foot rod is easier for beginners to learn with, while a 12-foot rod is often the best all-around option when rougher surf demands more reach. He runs 20-pound braid with a mono shock leader tied with an FG knot, then finishes the rig with a simple uni knot to the swivel. Once a fish hits the sand, Justin recommends bleeding every keeper quickly and getting it into ice to improve both cleaning and table quality.
Inshore Report: Big Trout in Pensacola-Area Transition Water
From there Joe checks in with Brandon Barton of Emerald Waters Kayak Charters, who says this is one of his favorite times of year to target larger trout. He is focused on transition areas where fish are moving from winter patterns toward their summer locations. In his recent trips, that has meant bait showing around creeks, bayous, and nearby staging areas, with trout using those zones to feed heavily during short but high-quality windows…