Fishing Bayou Chico Hours Before TS Claudette Landfall

Bayou Chico in Pensacola, Florida is my fall back area to fish when weather conditions are not favorable. The Gulf Coast area was experiencing high southernly winds due to TS Claudette. Bayou Chico is usually protected from south winds and that was the case on the trip. I stayed on the East side of the bridge and pretty much fished the perimeter all the way to the mouth of the bayou. Another reason I like Bayou Chico is I don’t have to peddle the kayak far to get bites. I caught a dink speckled trout very close to the boat lunch fishing around the sailboats. I don’t like staying on one area long if it’s dinks so I moved on. I proceeded to catch 3 dinks fishing structure staying on the south side of the bayou. I was hoping the bigger trout were around the piers at the mouth of the bayou as some of the bigger gator trout I have caught have been there. However I managed another dink but it fought like a 18” speck. I made my way back to the launch fishing the North side to the Oar House and didn’t get any bites. I crossed to the bayou to fish the South side once more and no bites.

All totaled I caught 4 dink speckled trout on the 4” Z-Man Slam Shady paddletail. I wanted bigger trout and was a little disappointed with the trip. I was hoping the trout would be on the chew just before the storm passed through. However, considering the conditions and I was fishing at time with very little tidal movement it wasn’t bad. It’s always to great to get out and enjoy the water.