BlueWater Outriggers Fishing Report 3-20-2025
Offshore: Well folks it’s March 20, 2025 and I seriously wish I had some enthralling, page- turning fishing stories to entice you with as you sipped your coffee preparing for your day here in the lovely Port St. Joe, Florida, but alas that is not the case. High winds and unfavorable weather are just one of those necessary evils we Floridians must endure from time to time. If I think about it hard enough, I can still remember the all-encompassing cloud of depression and desperation I felt staring at the troubled waters of the Gulf through the sliding glass doors of our Mexico Beach rental house. What had I done to deserve this? Being landlocked on your family’s annual fishing trip was a very tough pill for a 13-yr old boy to swallow; and if I’m being honest, it’s still tough now that I’m in my 40’s. As it is in most cases, there’s always a silver lining. While NOAA reports the seas are currently 5-7ft, they are dropping to 2-3ft on Friday and wait for it...1 ft or less on Saturday. That’s Right! There will be a chance to get out there in the next few days and hopefully the bite will be just as good as it was before all this weather came through. Get out there and get some of those Red Grouper and a box full of Beeliners. Though I’ll be stuck in the office over the weekend, a couple of Bluewater’s own, Jake and Doug, will be making a long trek out to try their hand at some deep drops. If I’m being completely honest, the jealous side of me hopes they are followed by a pod of ravenous dolphins and try only in vain to put fish in the box. Either way, successful or not, I look forward to letting you know what happens next week.
Inshore: Fishing inshore you’ll find that things have remained pretty much the same with just a few exceptions. It is my opinion that we need the water temperature to rise a few degrees. The nice bait minnows have not arrived yet but I’m thinking it could happen in the very near future. Right now, there seem to be just baby glass minnows everywhere; What we want to see are some big schools of LY minnows. If you find yourself without access to a boat, hooking up on some big trout can prove a little difficult (a problem that will go away with the arrival of bait minnows). Redfish have continued to run under the bridge and along inshore structure so that’s one to go after, you just have to be there at the right time. A lot of Spanish Mackerel have been caught off the seawall. The Mackerel are plentiful, but they seem to be running small averaging about 1 keeper per 10 caught. The word on the street, or the beach rather, is that the flounder bite is really starting to pick up. This has been happening over the last week and a half. At first, they were all running small, but now some folks are getting into the ones that aren’t quite door mats but are big enough (14”) to throw in the cooler.
Freshwater: The Crappie bite is still on around the Depot Creek area. I’m meeting more people that like to fish them with very small Bett’s spinners. If it were me, I’d just buy a couple dozen minnows and a cork, but I’m old fashioned that way. A few customers showed me some pictures of bass they caught that were pretty impressive. They didn’t tell me where exactly, but I saw their truck heading in the direction of Wewa later that afternoon. That’s it for this week!
Jeremiah Beasley - BlueWater Outrigger