I had been cooped up too long without much fishing and decided I needed to get out. What better fix than exploring PINS after the extend closure from hurricane Hanna. I drove down late Friday got a room for the night and hit the beach about 7:30 AM. Driving was smooth only a hand full of spots with loose sand. A lot of debris both organic and inorganic was everywhere as to be expected. The beach has changed significantly some good and some maybe not so good. The dune line has been pushed back 20′ – 50′ back. The narrow spots in the 30’s are wide open. All of the mile markers that had been in the dunes are now on the beach and a potential driving hazard so unfortunately a lot of valuable dunes and grass were lost but ultimately will enhance our driving experience for a while until mother nature takes it back. The beach was fairly busy up to the 25MM then started spreading out some. By no means was it crowded there was still plenty of room to social distance.

Fishing was well… lets just say it was a beautiful day to be on PINS, blue sky and pristine water conditions that favored the Caribbean more than the Gulf of Mexico. The tide was a little low and there were some beautiful Gin clear flats on the first gut line that were full of finger mullet, fairly still and should have produced fish. I stalked some rat reds and slot reds in these flats but didn’t get any to commit they were pretty spooky. I settled about the 46 MM and decided to spend the rest of my day there. I did get a couple of Lady Fish to hand. I fished some soft plastic and silver spoons in the surf looking for takers this produced 1 lonely lady fish and a snagged sea turtle the size of a Volkswagen, fortunately I broke off quickly from her and she kept going. There were people catching fish, most on live bait or cut bait. I saw some kayakers with limits of Kings and Red Snapper from the beach front I found that catching red snapper on the beachfront was incredible.

Heading South 5MM