Fly Fishing in Destin, FL

[Mike Tolbert]

My wife and I will be taking our little boat down to Destin, FL during labor day weekend. Does anyone have any experience fly fishing the bay area around Destin?

Thanks,
Mike

[T. Wiles]

Here’s what little experience I have:

Hogtown Bayou:

It has a nice ramp, good marsh/flats. We’ve caught good redfish and trout there in the past, but it was quite slow last year. Find the ramp on Google Earth on the East Bay in Santa Rosa Beach N Co Hwy 393. Fish the moving tides from Super early dark:30 , and the bite’s normally dead by 10 AM. We used to motor out of the bay and head north about 1-2 miles and drift fish the open flats on the right side bank (East) drifting back towards the ramp. Tons of ladyfish there last summer, but the trout and reds were off (my buddy said the rains were unusually high that year and the low salinity had the fish pushed elsewhere). It’s worth a shot.

St Andrews Bay: PCB
We hauled the SeaArk there last summer (about an hour drive from Destin with traffic), and the boat ride across the pass to Shell Island from St Andrew’s park was a bit of an adventure. Choppy waves and boat wakes tested the gunnels, but the water was clear and gorgeous. Caught plenty of Jacks, Bluefish, Trout, and ladyfish. We took Mike Anderson’s recommendation for shark fishing and rigged up our catch (a blue runner) and kept him off the back. NO sharks but we did get swarmed by dolphins. Later wound up catching a Real nice gag grouper inshore:

Huge Sandflat North of the Destin Inlet Bridge: west side of the Boat Landing/charter area.

We rented a Pontoon boat last year at the main commercial/Charter Point of Destin and cruised the bay. A big thunderstorm pushed us back from the Bay, and we took shelter under the Bridge upstream from where the Destin Inlet opens to the Gulf. The skies cleared and the sun came out, so we spent our last hour anchored on the sandflat amongst all the other party North west of the bridge. There were tons of boats and swimmers enjoying the water. As the boiled peanut boat, and the ice cream boat…People selling food from skiffs drove from boat to boat… I noticed that they both had rods on board. When I asked what they were fishing for… One gentleman informed me that “ON AN OUTGOING TIDE…you can spot large pods of redfish on the whitesand flat, and they’re quite easy to catch!”
I was devastated that the tide was still two hours from changing to outgoing and our boat rental time was over. No redfish spotted on the flat…just pods of mullet. The water was gorgeous there, and I can only imagine what it’s like to see swarms of big reds cruising over it. It’s quite a crowd there, but I would say it’s worth a try…atleast you can enjoy the water and food if the fish don’t show up.

(Not our catch..but I wish it was…the boat rental was nearby)

Here’s the flat…I think there’s a boatramp on the North side of the point…lots of traffic though

Parasailing was fun:

Hope this helps

[Mike Tolbert]

Outstanding as usual Travis! Really appreciate the feedback man. Definitely have to hangout for the outgoing tide and try to catch some redfish. I’ll let you know how it goes…

This is going to be a very relaxed vacation (won’t be going 90 miles an hour like we normally do on vacation) so I’m sure there will be plenty of time to throw out the anchor on the sandflat and have some cold ones.

I was up pretty darn late last night, couldn’t sleep so I googled “Choctawhatchee fly fishing” and found some decent info and videos that got me excited. I just need to figure out what fly’s they like and I’ll be all set. Need to find some recipe’s because I plan on catching a speckled sea trout, redfish, or flounder to grill for dinner one night. Probably just end up using some lemon, thyme, etc…

Here’s where we are camping. We have a tent site booked in the Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park.

Thanks,
Mike

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