UTERThe best time to fish Destin and the Florida Panhandle is April and October. April is cobia month on the beaches, with Spanish mackerel and the first kingfish in the passes, and October brings bull redfish to the passes, the fall pompano run to the surf and Spanish all along the beach. Summer belongs to beach tarpon, red snapper and the offshore boats. Winter is sheepshead on the pilings and trout deep in the bayous.
This guide covers the Florida Panhandle from Pensacola to Apalachicola, including Destin, Fort Walton, Navarre and Panama City. It's a coast of deep bays behind long barrier islands (Pensacola, Choctawhatchee, St. Andrew, St. Joseph and Apalachicola), with grass flats on the bay side, bayous and creek mouths, passes cut through to the Gulf, and emerald water on the beach side where the surf is a real fishery. The months come from the Panhandle page of Fish Scouter's season calendar.
Destin and Panhandle fishing calendar at a glance
| Month | Headline | Top targets |
|---|---|---|
| January | Sheepshead on every piling; trout and reds deep | Sheepshead, black drum, trout, redfish |
| February | Sheepshead spawn on the passes and reefs | Sheepshead, black drum, redfish, whiting |
| March | First pompano in the surf; cobia start the run | Pompano, cobia, Spanish, trout |
| April | Cobia month; Spanish in the pass | Cobia, pompano, Spanish, kingfish |
| May | Kings on the wrecks; first tarpon | Kingfish, trout, Spanish, tarpon |
| June | Beach tarpon; snapper on the reefs | Tarpon, mangrove snapper, red snapper, kings |
| July | Dawn or nothing; peak tarpon | Tarpon, snapper, jacks, tripletail |
| August | Hottest water; shade and moving tide | Mangrove snapper, redfish, tripletail |
| September | First bull reds; fall bait run | Redfish, trout, Spanish, kings |
| October | The best month of the year | Bull reds, pompano, Spanish, flounder, kings |
| November | The flounder run; trout schooled | Flounder, trout, redfish, pompano |
| December | Winter sets up; roe mullet run | Sheepshead, trout, redfish, black drum |
Winter: December to February
December
Slow down. Docks and pilings hold sheepshead, the deep bayou bends hold trout and redfish, and live shrimp on the bottom finds black drum. The last fall pompano leave the surf as the water cools. Big schools of roe mullet pour out of the bays and passes to spawn offshore after the fronts.
January
The Panhandle has the coldest water in the state, down to the mid-50s in January. Sheepshead gather on the deep structure at the lower ends of the bays: bridges, docks and the pass jetties. Put a fiddler crab or shrimp tight to the piling. Reds school in the deep bayous, canals and the ICW, and you can sight-fish them on sunny afternoons. Trout sit in the deep bends, and trout rules vary by region in winter, so check MyFWC. Sand trout school in the deep channels and under the bridges, and blackfin tuna are on the offshore rigs.
After a cold front: trout and reds pile into the deep bayous, canals and the ICW. Fish slow and deep for two days, and the flats reload on the first warm afternoon.
February
The sheepshead spawn. Big fish stack on the pass jetties at Pensacola and Destin and on the nearshore reefs. Black drum spawn in schools at the pass mouths and bridges, so drop a crab on the bottom. Whiting keep the surf interesting until the pompano come back.
Spring: March to May
March
The spring pompano run starts when the surf passes about 65°F. Fish sand fleas in the first trough at Navarre, Pensacola Beach and Okaloosa Island. The cobia run starts mid-month, as fish that wintered off south Florida move up the peninsula and turn west along the Panhandle beaches toward the Mississippi. Trout push back onto the flats, and bluefish pass through the passes.
April
Cobia month, and the reason so many Destin boats carry towers. The peak runs from mid-March to mid-April. Run the beach in clear water, spot fish riding rays or cruising the bar, and cast a bucktail or a live eel well ahead of them. Pompano are in every cut in the bar: pink and yellow jigs in the passes, sand fleas and Fishbites in the surf. Spanish mackerel arrive in Pensacola Pass, Destin's East Pass and St. Andrew Pass on the bait, and the first kingfish of the Gulf group show on the nearshore wrecks and pass tide lines. Throw topwater for trout at first light on the flats.
May
Slow-troll live cigar minnows and hardtails over the nearshore wrecks and reefs for kings. Spanish peak on the beaches, the passes and the pier ends. Trout feed early and late on the grass, and spawn on the grass edges and pass mouths at dusk into summer. The tail of the cobia run settles on the wrecks and buoys. Late in the month, the first tarpon pods show off Perdido Key and Pensacola Beach once the Gulf tops 80°F.
Summer: June to August
June
The beach tarpon run: pods cruise 10 to 20 feet of emerald water from Pensacola to Mexico Beach. Run the beach on a glass-calm morning, get ahead of the pod and never run over it. Mangrove snapper are on every nearshore reef and wreck, so use live shrimp. Summer kings feed off the Pensacola Beach and Okaloosa Island piers. Offshore, red snapper season opens for a short window (check MyFWC for the year's dates), and mahi hang on the weed lines and rigs. Fish the flats before nine.
July
Dawn or nothing. Peak of the Panhandle tarpon run is late June into July, so lead live menhaden or a big swimbait well in front of rolling fish. Apalachicola and St. Joe bays hold fish too. Jack crevalle run in packs on the beach with the tarpon at first light. Tripletail sit on the crab-trap floats. Mangrove snapper spawn on the reefs around the full moon. The flats are a night fishery now, and blue marlin are out at the DeSoto Canyon.
August
The hottest water of the year. Fish the shade lines under bridges and docks on the strongest tide for snapper and reds, and fish for trout only at dawn or after dark. Tarpon thin out, with late fish laid up in Apalachicola Bay and off Cape San Blas. Bull reds begin to gather off the beaches and in the passes late in the month.
Fall: September to November
September
The bait moves and everything follows. Big bull reds stack in Pensacola Pass and off the beaches on the fall bait run. The red drum spawn runs from August into November in the passes and nearshore. Trout come back to the flats as the water cools past 85°F. The fall king and Spanish runs build, and a calm morning can still turn up a late tarpon on the beach.
October
The best month of the year on the Panhandle. Bull reds fill the passes, while slot fish are on the flats. The big spawners are old fish, so release them fast. The fall pompano run comes back to the surf and the passes as the water cools into the 70s. Spanish blitz glass-minnow schools along the beach and in the passes, and big smoker kings sit on the nearshore reefs and pier ends before they head south. Flounder stage at the pass edges. Wahoo show on the rigs and the edge.
November
The flounder run. Fish pour out through the passes on the outgoing tide, headed offshore to spawn, and a strong front can send them all at once. Drag a jig or a mud minnow along the sand edges (FWC has a fall flounder closure, so check MyFWC). Trout school on the grass edges as the water drops through the 60s, sheepshead come back to the docks and pilings, and pompano peak in the cuts on a moving tide. Roe mullet start schooling up to run.
Tides on the Panhandle
West of Apalachicola, the tide is diurnal: one high and one low a day, with a range of about 1 to 2 feet. A small tide means two things. A moving tide matters twice as much, because you only get one good push a day. And the wind can move more water than the moon, so a few days of north wind after a front leaves the bays low, and a south wind stacks water into the bayous.
- Passes: the outgoing for flounder and bull reds; the incoming for clean water and Spanish.
- Surf: the rising tide for pompano in the first trough.
- Bayous in winter: the warmest afternoon, whatever the tide is doing.
- Summer: whatever tide falls at dawn.
Baits that work on the Panhandle
- Sand fleas, Fishbites and pompano jigs: pompano and whiting in the surf and passes.
- Bucktails and live eels: sight-cast cobia on the beach.
- Cigar minnows, hardtails and menhaden: kings on the wrecks, tarpon on the beach.
- Live shrimp: trout, reds, mangrove snapper and black drum.
- Fiddler crabs: sheepshead on the pilings and jetties.
- Cut mullet and menhaden: bull reds in the passes.
Rules
The Panhandle sits in FWC's western management region for several inshore species, and Gulf reef fish like red snapper, gag, amberjack and triggerfish have short seasons that change every year. Read the current rules at MyFWC before you keep a fish. Snook are not part of the Panhandle calendar.
Know the day, not just the month
April is cobia month, but the cobia show up on the calm, clear days after the wind lies down, and those days don't come with a calendar. We built Fish Scouter to tell you which ones. We think it's the best fishing app for the Panhandle because it puts the pieces on one screen: this season calendar, the live water temperature from the nearest reporting sensor, the NOAA tide for the nearest station, the wind and the seven-day outlook, with every species ranked for the spot you're on, hour by hour, and the reasons spelled out. For more, see our Florida pompano guide, the king vs. Spanish mackerel guide and the Florida fishing calendar, or try Fish Scouter free.