Another Destin Trip, Not So Great!

Fishing is a lot of fun, no doubt. But it’s to be expected that you can’t be successful all the time. Sometimes, fish just won’t cooperate. That’s one fact that every fisherman and fisherwoman has to accept. There is no absolute guarantee that you will catch fish. Buoyed by the success in Panama City, we decided to go to Destin again, only a few months later. With the better-than-expected performance in Panama City, we felt that we really got the hang of fishing, and that we would experience a lot of success in the neighboring Destin.

This time, we booked a room at Inn on Destin Harbor. The location was perfect. As the name indicated, it was right on Destin Harbor and provided us with a beautiful view. It was located not far from the Okaloosa Island Pier. Free breakfast was nice too, but I would rate it a little bit below what we had at the Club Destin. There weren’t any hot waffles, cold boiled eggs instead of omelets, and the dining area was small. For some reason, the toilet didn’t flush well, so that was a big minus.

So we went back to the Okaloosa Island Pier with a lot of expectation. But for some reason, we didn’t get a single bite. We casted our silvery lure, but there were no strikes. We thought may be we were fishing at too shallow of a depth, so we moved to the very end of the pier. Still there was no luck. But we also noticed that other people were not doing much better. Some people were catching a few baitfish for king mackerel, but we didn’t see much action.

After hours and hours of no action, I finally caught a fish. It was very strong, and gave up some good fight. The fish would leap out of the water and thrash about, and I even had to open my reel to let the fish tire itself out. I’ve heard that how furiously reeling in a strong fish could stress the line and result in the much dreaded broken line and lost fish. The fish I landed looked silvery, long, and had sharp teeth. I was told by an elderly man that it was a ladyfish. He said it is very bony and therefore not good to eat. I was disappointed, but I did enjoy the good fight. A few minutes later, my husband caught one too. Ladyfish must be schooling fish, we thought. Later that day, we switched to shrimp bait and managed to catch a few hardtail fish, which didn’t look very appetizing either. We threw them back, and surmised that we’ve seen better days.

Panama City Beach, Florida

Sadly, we didn’t get to hit the beach again until the summer of 2009. This time, we decided to try our luck at Panama City Beach, Fl. Mention Panama City Beach, and a lot of people think about the rowdy college crowd during the spring break. That reputation may be well deserved, but Panama City Beach is also a very popular fishing rivaling Destin. It’s also slightly closer to Atlanta than Destin, being situated almost directly south of Columbus, GA. So in August 2009, we once again packed our humble set of fishing gear and headed down to Florida Panhandle. One bad thing about our trip this time was the accommodation. We noticed that the hotels in Panama City were generally cheaper than the ones in Destin, but they were older, and service wasn’t as good. I can’t remember the name of the hotel we stayed in, but it was less than satisfactory. The bed was smaller, the carpet seemed a little dingy, and there was no free breakfast other than some sugary donuts that we did not touch. Well, you can’t have everything, right? After all, we were here for fishing. On day 2, we headed to Russell-Field City Pier. We read somewhere that the pier was fairly new. One thing we noticed about the pier was that it was quite a bit longer than the Okaloosa Island Pier, at 1500 feet. I think Okaloosa was about 1200 feet. The pier was made mostly of concrete with wooden rails. The fish cleaning stations were large and clean, there were plenty of benches, end of the pier was very wide, and the pier itself was very wide. Overall, I liked the Russell-Field pier better than the Okaloosa. Well, but that doesn’t mean much if we can’t catch fish right? So with our eager hands, we tried our luck with some shiny lures. After about 30 minutes, my husband caught a keeper-size Spanish mackerel. I had to admit that I was a little bit jealous. We finished for a few more hours but decided to wrap it up and try again the next day. We were still tired from driving and could use a good night’s sleep.

The following morning, we were in luck. The fish started to bite, and eagerly so. My husband landed a few more Spanish mackerels, and I did too. It was a lot of fun, especially since Spanish mackerel fights very hard. But all the casting and retrieving made our arms sore, so we decided to do “lazy” fishing for a while and took out our shrimp bait. We continued to do very well, landing a nice sized flounder, about half a dozen small porgy-type fish, a spadefish, and a stingray. We were glad that we had brought some salt with us along with the ice cooler, because we could make sure all our precious catch would not spoil in the hot weather. We fished well into the night because we were having so much fun. This was the most productive fishing trip ever for us.

Our Second Trip to Destin

Well, we loved our first trip to Destin so much we decided to go again, in November, less than a month later. This time, we booked a room at Wingate Hotel. It was not a fancy hotel, but adequate, close to the pier, and most importantly, provided free hot breakfast. When you are out fishing, you don’t know when your next meal will be, so it’s best to load up on a lot of food. And load up we did, and stacked our plates high with waffles, sausages, eggs, oatmeal, etc. After the big breakfast, we headed to the Okaloosa Island Pier again. The weather was a little bit cooler, around 65 degrees. We were a little bit disappointed when the Spanish mackerel didn’t bite. We were told by another fisherman that the weather’s too cool for Spanish mackerel and they likely won’t be back until next spring. But luckily, we were prepared. A few weeks before coming to Destin, we went to our favorite Asian market, H Mart, and bought a few pike mackerel to use as bait. It is very oil fish, so we thought the smell would attract any hungry fish. We cut them into smaller pieces, hooked the piece through the spine so it won’t fall off, and simply dropped it vertically from the pier until it hit the bottom. We didn’t have to wait very long. After a few minutes, I felt a bite and I caught a sizable bluefish. It was quite strong, and I really enjoyed the fight. Part of the reason may have been that neither of us had proper saltwater fishing poles. We used medium-action freshwater outfit that wasn’t very strong, so the fight was intense, and I could feel every tug and run of the fish. After a productive morning session, we bagged about five bluefish. The following morning, we went to the East Jetty which is a few miles east of Okaloosa Island Pier. Again, we had pretty good luck with bluefish. All in all, our second trip was better than the first. We caught more fish, enjoyed our stay at the hotel, and except for the chillier weather, we had a great time. One disappointing thing was the fish itself. Bluefish wasn’t very tasty; it was oily and fishy. Spanish mackerel was oil too, but bluefish had unpleasant taste in its oil. I later learned that freshness is very important with bluefish, and that I can mask the unpleasant taste with lemon juice, vinegar, and other acidic sauce. Later in this blog, I’ll try to share with you some of my fish recipe.

Yep, that’s my picture (finally!), proudly holding the bluefish.

Our First Trip to Destin, Fl

Many cities in the U.S. are known for something special. Las Vegas, Nevada is famous for gambling and entertainment. Austin, Texas is known for a lively music scene, even though Nashville, Tennessee might dispute that. Destin, Florida claims the title for fishing. That’s why it’s called “the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village” by the residents. Destin is home to over 140 charter fishing boats, which I’ve heard is the largest in the country. It’s about 338 miles from Roswell, GA, which is well-within 6 hours of driving. If you are an early riser, you could leave from metro Atlanta area and eat lunch in Destin.

So in October of 2008, my husband and I took our first trip to the popular tourist destination that is said to offer excellent fishing. We booked our stay at a condo called Club Destin. As I remember it, the place was quite comfortable, had a kitchen, an indoor pool, and reasonably priced. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m not into boating of any kind. Even a slight possibility of drowning frightens me, and the inevitable seasickness is another huge drawback. So we did some online search and learned that we could fish off the Okaloosa Island Pier. It was only about 10 minutes from our condo. So after a good night’s sleep on day 1, we headed off to the pier. I have to say, Destin is a beautiful city. There were many miles of white sandy beach, and the bridge crossing the Destin Harbor offered a beautiful view of the barrier island where the pier is located. It was our first time at a fishing pier with an admission fee, so we did not know what to expect. After opening a huge sliding door and paying our fee ($7 per person for all day), we walked to the length of the pier to find a nice spot. There were already at least thirty people fishing and naturally we were very curious as to what they were catching. Spanish mackerel was the fish of the moment, and I was giddy with excitement. I used a heavy metal lure shaped to look like a baitfish. I really didn’t know what I had to do to catch that beautiful Spanish mackerel. I just threw my line as far as I could and jiggled my plain 6 feet long rod hoping some fish will strike it. After about 30 minutes, one did. I was so happy!

But the real fun was at night time. We tried our luck after the sunset, and my husband caught a big redfish on small shrimp bait. It was so strong we had to use a bucket and rope to haul it up to the pier. Our first trip to Destin was excellent, though we would have loved to catch more fish.