What was once on the bottom showed up on the racks Monday afternoon along Destin harbor.
Capt. Stan Phillips of the Destination and his crew from Ohio brought in a good catch of bottom fish. They filled the racks with mingo, triggerfish, white snapper and porgy.
Anglers on the Full Draw with Capt. Justin Destin came in with a good catch of white snapper and mingo.
Kentucky anglers on the First Light with Capt. Steve Haeusler pulled in some huge triggerfish off the bottom as well as mingo, porgy, white snapper and a squirrel fish. Not to worry, the squirrel fish does not resemble a squirrel at all; it's red in color and looks similar to a snapper or mingo.
Capt. George Eller on the Checkmate 2 came in with a good bottom catch of mingo, porgy and triggerfish.
Kentucky anglers on the Special K with Capt. Andy Vaughn pulled in with a scamp, several mingo, porgy and white snapper. Capt. Vaughn said they had something big on line that latched on to a butterfly jig. Whatever it was, hit hard and pulled good, Vaughn said. However, they never saw what it was before it got away.
Capt. John Gibson and the crew aboard the Gulf Breeze pulled in several mingo, white snapper, porgy and triggerfish. However, Capt. Gibson said they lost about two-thirds of their catch to dolphin.
"You can't get away from them. They act like they haven't eatin' all winter," Gibson said.
Capt. Billy Teems on the Fish-N-Teem and his group from Indiana and Illinois reeled in several fish on the eight-hour trip. The biggest was a pair of 25-pound red grouper hauled in by Jim Fields and Tom Gockman.
"They were strong," Gockman said of the grouper.
"My peck muscle still hurts from pulling on it," Fields said.
In addition to the red grouper, the crew filled the docks with mingo, white snapper, porgy and triggerfish.
Capt. Jim Green and his group of 35 anglers came in from a seven-hour trip on the New Florida Girl's American Spirit with several stringers filled with mingo, white snapper and triggerfish.
Anglers on the Silver Lining with Capt. Ed Shields had a good mix from the bottom. They had mingo, black snapper, amberine, triggerfish and lane snapper.
Bottom fishing is heating up. So come on down and see what you can pull up.
See you at the docks.