The Destin pass can be extremely rough at times. It's too narrow. We have had to wait on bigger boats to enter the pass and follow right in their wake to make it safely through.

that narrow pass near Orange Beach is much worse in my opinion.

Nah perdido is easy as pie. Although don't ask the few who came in on auto pilot while asleep. Like the captain of the Tar Baby. Ouch

brother and I were fishing out of Stuart Fl and stopped at the mouth of the river to snook fish. There was a boat anchored nearby, but no one visible. Brother pulled over to the boat and there was an old man laying in the floor, arms and legs wrapped around a 100lb tarpon. Brother asked if he was ok. He said he was waiting for that damn tarpon to die so he could get the hook out of his hand.

Perdido pass is easy.


One day I was offshore with my grandfather, probably 10 years old. A storm popped up and we were surrounded by 8 water spouts. He says “which one of the gaps looks biggest to you?” So I picked one, and we hauled azz outta there. It got rough quick.

Have seen a lot in the Gulf. My family was with me once and we came up on a sunfish. That thing never went down. We circled him for probably 10 minutes looking and taking pics.

Last year while fishing my son hooked a leather back turtle. He ate a strip of bonita while bottom fishing. We got him by the boat and was finally able to break him off with only the leader hanging from his mouth.

Was doing a little trolling a couple years ago and came up on what looked to be two acres of fish on the surface. Right in the middle of them was what looked to be a whale shark. Trolled around it for a little while with no takers.

You never know what you’re going to pull up from the depths while fishing but a few strange fish have came up including a trumpet fish, nurse shark and lion fish on hook and line.

I saw that boat last weekend at Harbortown Marina. The brand of boat has been removed. It's bad ass, so long he had to back out of the marina. Those guys were armed to the teeth. I've been stuck like the OP, but just 3 of us 14 year olds for two days. It was so rough we had a live fish swimming in the boat when the coast guard finally got us. I've seen tons of stuff, the coolest was a submarine. Once saw something show up on the 72 mile radar that took up half the screen. Kinda spooked us pretty bad. About 2 hours later we could see it and it was an AirCraft Carrier. Been surrounded by waterspouts when we were too stubburn to leave a good bight. Been in a boat hit by lighting---twice. Been on a boat that landed a 888 lb blue and had 4 80w spooled simultaneously - it was either another sub or 4 big bluefins. And the best was wrapped kilo.

Hey Dallas county I've got my grandads old logbook from his charters. Dates back to 72. He noted all sightings of weird things. It's pretty neat

Boobies.....Fishing the Elf rig south of Venice...had a boat come up on us with a rather well endowed lady that apparently had run out of beer. We happily exchanged a few cans of the sweet nectar in return for the show.

Was trolling for kings years ago and had a #5 hook shoved thru my big toe from bottom to top . Whole leg went numb up to my knee. Couldn't get it out. Point was just under the nail. My dad found a dead guy floating off Texas and the deputy who showed up told him to pull the guy in the boat. Dad said you're the one getting paid here you do it! Saw a couple guys in a 14 ft. john boat 15 miles off Fort Morgan. Saw a boat tied up under an oil rig fishing and the rig had some kind of release and it dumped some kind of water/chemical all over them! Ha Ha

Was out with my college roommate taking his parents boat from Pensacola to Ft Walton. My roommate brought along his new girlfriend. She comes up from underneath butt naked to lay out.

Now that's just cool. I bet that's some fascinating reading.

We were trolling the rubble back in late 80's and a navy hovercraft came very close. Like almost on top of us close. It's was loud and fast

Had a coast gaurd jet give us a double fly by about 100ft off the water 2nd time he came by he banked right and did a double barrel roll right over the top of us. Like to busted my eardrums but it was dang cool. That was out of port mansfield texas bout not far from south padre. We were in a 25ft mexican panga so he may have thoght we was messicans. Was fishin the jetis at aransas pass(get very rough there) watched a dude and his buddy runnin up through there in a small bay boat. An rekin they thought it wudnt to bad till they started hittin some 3 an 4 footers bout mid ways through they tried to turn an when they did one hit the side an came over the gunall an it didnt completely swamp them but it washed have of their tackle and junk off the other side. They got the stern in the wind and got the heck out of there. That place was pure torture for little boats..that scared us for them but as the old sayin goes stupidity can be hazardous.

I plucked 2 20 year guys off an unmanned oil rig just after daylight one morning. Their boat (actually girlfriends daddy's boat) sank the afternoon before, they swam to the rig and climbed the ladder. Their clothes were soaked in gas so they had to strip to their boxers and spend the night on the pipe rig in the storms. This was the old #881 yellow pipe off Ft Morgan, about 17 miles from Perdido Pass. We took them to the Orange Beach Pass and dropped them with the police and fire and went back fishing.

Another time we saw what was either a Great White or extremely large Mako eat a porpoise just South of Horn Mountain.

I was taking a leak off the transom one night while we were swordfishing and a large mako appeared in the Underwater lights just off the props. I quickly moved back into the boat. We had another mako swim under the boat while tuna fishing one day in the winter and it had to be 13' long. I could see the tail on one side and the head on the other and this was in a 31' Cape Horn.

About 15 years ago we had a Blue Angel buzz us a couple of times and then come back and turn straight up and climb. This was really cool to a bunch of College Kids drinking beer and AJ fishing. He was so close we could see him wave.

I've seen a lot of strange things floating out there, but nothing stands out as just extremely strange. I've seen sunfish, old boats, pallets, 55 gallon drums, etc. Probably the most surprising thing - not offshore - but fishing in Big Lagoon here in Pensacola around the docks, my buddy in the back of the boat said, "What is that a car sunk in the water?" Then up out of the water comes a giant manatee blows a little snort at us and swims off on his way. There's always a few reported sightings around here every year, but that was a first for me.

2 years ago we're at orange beach...i'm 6-8 into a 12 pack standing in waist deep water and I see 2 really big shadows approaching. Bout pissed those 6 or 8 but one of the manatees topped and blew some air. That was pretty cool to have them swim 20ft or so away from me.

The weekend before Hurricane Katrina hit NOLA we were ~75 mile south of Venice in about 5300' of water. Greasy calm, hotter than hell. Only breeze was when we were running. About 1pm we decided to jump in and try to cool off. I dove off the tuna tower and went down about 25' thinking I'd hit a little cooler water - surface temp was in the mid 90's. Temp never changed. Floated around for about 10 minutes but the water was not even comfortable. No dive ladder on the boat so we had to step on the foot of the motor to drag ourselves out. I was the last guy to come out. Just as I was starting to pull myself out of the water the other guys start screaming for me to get my ass in the boat! I pulled up and looked back to see the biggest tiger shark I've ever seen (I've seen some giants) go right under where I'd been. Her dorsal fin hit the motor well - that's how shallow she was! I don't think she was there to eat - or one of us would have been dead long before we saw her - think she was just curious and checking us out. Got my attention though for sure! It made one more pass before leaving - it had to be 14-15' long! We pitched a 40# YFT on a 130 we had rigged for shark and she swam right past it and didn't give it a 2nd look.

1 more: About 20 years ago had my wife, sister and BIL in my boat heading out Destin Pass one early afternoon. Boats were EVERYWHERE and the pass was really chopped up so we were going pretty slow. Look down and see a wallet floating by - reached down and grabbed it. It hadn't been in the water too long because there was still papers in it that were dry. Took it back to the condo and dried everything out good. Tried to contact the guy while we were in Destin to get it back to him - figured he was sick because it had over $600 in cash in it. Finally reached the guy the following week - he lived in Louisiana. Told him I found his wallet floating in the pass - he lost it on a snorkling boat. He asked what all was in it - I messed with him and told him him there was no cash... then said "just kidding, there was ~$600 in it". He told me to keep $100, which I declined and sent it back to him with everything in like I found it. About a month later he sent us a beautiful slate tile with a picture of NOLA painted on it - still hanging in my house today!

Retarding; opps Retiring from Charter Fishing out of Destin Fla., after 25 years....The most unique/weird/never do it again thing I did/saw in the Gulf was to pick up a Navigational hazard, reported to the U.S.C.G,and requested to pick up; was a 55 Gal. Barrel floating out in the middle of no where. Long story short; radioed C.G. we were in bound and were I birthed; They met us, and after opening said barrel, Me, my crew and 6 customers spent 5 hours of integration and peeing in bottles, to ensure that we were not importing Cannabis into N.W Florida. I have stated since that "meeting", if I were ever to seen another one, well, lets just say it would have been sold...

Wapiti