Going to my parents place there and my brother asked me if its legal to fish off the beach there early in the morning, before sunrise?

I can't find anything saying yes or no but on some level of common sense it seems the answer should be no.

My question is, can someone do this? Legally.

I did it all the time when there. granted I bought a fishing license.

Not trying to flame, but why wouldn't you be able to fish from the beach? Unless you're talking about fishing inside resort property or something...

This may make no sense at all, I'm just a dumb Yankee but with it being a swimming area for people I didn't know if it would attract anything that you wouldn't want to swim with, which I understand is probably already around anyway.

I've fished off the Grayton beach for a week every summer for the last ten. Yes it's legal if you have a license. We usually start fishing around sunrise, and usually quit around 8am when the beach goers start to arrive. There is no law about fishing around other people, but it just seems like common courtesy to not fish near where people are playing in the waves.

And yes, we catch sharks all of the time. Mostly small juveniles, but every once in a while a 3-4 footer. I've never caught one larger than that from the beach even though you know they are around.

As far as legal I don't know but we just left there a week ago and everyday 2-4 people were fishing off the beach and 1-2 more had yaks with poles. They were catching sharks lady fish and blue runners on just about every cast 2 at a time. The sherif even came by one day and didn't say anything.

Did it last summer

Get a license

Thanks for the replies.

We will give it a try and see what we can catch.

Not an issue at all just be sure to get a license.

and if you want to get anything decent, see if you can get a buddy on a yak to get your line past the sand bar. any closer at you'll get catfish and baby sharks - or maybe I just suck at surf fishing.

We are at Destin going out on a yacht today for 5 hours.

I'm good staying on land. No motion sickness with that.

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I'm good staying on land. No motion sickness with that.

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0-1 ft waves

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I'm good staying on land. No motion sickness with that.

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The Emerald Coast is not known for surf. It's generally really calm.

As for fishing, depending on the tides you should be able to get a mixed bag of trout, pompano, reds, spanish mackerel, jacks, and ladyfish.

I would also recommend a near-shore fishing trip with Shallow Water Expeditions. You'll be within a mile of shore 99% of the time and the action can be hot & heavy. FirefightAg just went out with them on this trip last week. Excellent trip for people who don't fish much.

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We are at Destin going out on a yacht today for 5 hours.

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I'm good staying on land. No motion sickness with that.

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The Emerald Coast is not known for surf. It's generally really calm.

As for fishing, depending on the tides you should be able to get a mixed bag of trout, pompano, reds, spanish mackerel, jacks, and ladyfish.

I would also recommend a near-shore fishing trip with Shallow Water Expeditions. You'll be within a mile of shore 99% of the time and the action can be hot & heavy. FirefightAg just went out with them on this trip last week. Excellent trip for people who don't fish much.

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I booked with SWE last week also but I guess wasn't as lucky. Very unprofessional experience.

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I'm good staying on land. No motion sickness with that.

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The Emerald Coast is not known for surf. It's generally really calm.

As for fishing, depending on the tides you should be able to get a mixed bag of trout, pompano, reds, spanish mackerel, jacks, and ladyfish.

I would also recommend a near-shore fishing trip with Shallow Water Expeditions. You'll be within a mile of shore 99% of the time and the action can be hot & heavy. FirefightAg just went out with them on this trip last week. Excellent trip for people who don't fish much.

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I booked with SWE last week also but I guess wasn't as lucky. Very unprofessional experience.

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Can you expand on this?

I booked with them Monday after the recommendation here. Not exactly what I wanted to hear especially since my worst charter experience ever was with an outfit out of the Destin area.

I'll be in Destin in August. Hoping to do some fishing from the beach as well. Thinking of taking the kids on a party boat just to let them catch something. Anyone have any recommendations?

I also booked with them based on the rec of this board.

I was scheduled to fish with them last Tuesday and they called late Monday night saying that the conditions weren't great for Tuesday and asked to reschedule to Wednesday or Thursday. No big deal but after the fact I questioned if this was true since the conditions were almost the same all week. During this time I was dealing with Mike Mangum, who was supposedly my guide.

Fast forward to Wednesday, Mike calls and ask what my expectations are for the trip. I mention that we would like to keep a few for the grill. He asks that I buy a license for myself, which I do but think is strange since it was supposed to be included.

The morning of the trip my daughter and I are at the place that we are supposed to meet, Harborwalk. No Mike. I get a call from some new guy saying no you are at the wrong place. Drive to Fort Walton and meet at a public boat launch...which we are the only ones there. No communication from SWE at all about the switch. Turns out that the new guide is a third party and may or may not be licenced for guide services.

Fishing itself was fine but the whole booking experience left a bad taste in my mouth. The guide I got was fine but I booked with SWE. I don't get the chance to do this a lot so maybe its par for the industry but it is expensive and I felt like I was taken.

Wow that is pretty bad. I have never in my life been asked to buy my own license either. Especially since it specifically says on their website in big bold letters you don't need a license in Florida because you are covered under their guides license.

The fishing was at least good?

It was ok. Caught cobia, kingfish and many undersized amberjacks.

That sucks man, I'm sorry to hear that.

I fish with them annually but I've never fished with Mike. He's the owner/head guide but I've always fished with Preston Sutter (4 years running now) who will say that Mike is a real mentor to to him.

Frankly, I'm shocked they told you that you'd fish with Mike. This is the height of tarpon season and he's known as a tarpon guide and guides fly fishing trips almost exclusively, especially this time of year. During tarpon season these guys are booked for 90-100 days in a row and usually with the same people year in, year out.

I'd call Jennifer in the SWE office who handles the booking and make your complaint known.

I believe Mike is the younger brother of David and David is the lead guide/owner.

I emailed them with no answer. I'm not looking for a refund or anything just more of an explanation. Its just not something that you want to deal with when you are on vacation. What probably happened is they got real busy, double booked and I got the short end of the stick. Like getting a bad meal at a well reviewed restaurant I am sure that my experience is not indicative of the company as a whole...at least I hope so.

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I believe Mike is the younger brother of David and David is the lead guide/owner.

I emailed them with no answer. I'm not looking for a refund or anything just more of an explanation. Its just not something that you want to deal with when you are on vacation. What probably happened is they got real busy, double booked and I got the short end of the stick. Like getting a bad meal at a well reviewed restaurant I am sure that my experience is not indicative of the company as a whole...at least I hope so.

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I've used guides that have other guides they have agreements with. If someone calls them and they are booked, they refer them to the other guide.

Sounds like they got in a pinch and did it without letting you know. And it sounds like they put you with a decent guy and the fishing turned out ok.

Like someone said, they are probably running around right now with their hair on fire. No excuse, but someone didn't check the box of letting you know.

You seem reasonable and are letting them address it with you. Good to do.

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I believe Mike is the younger brother of David and David is the lead guide/owner.

I emailed them with no answer. I'm not looking for a refund or anything just more of an explanation. Its just not something that you want to deal with when you are on vacation. What probably happened is they got real busy, double booked and I got the short end of the stick. Like getting a bad meal at a well reviewed restaurant I am sure that my experience is not indicative of the company as a whole...at least I hope so.

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That's right, David is the older brother and Mike is the younger. Brain fart.

We are supposed to go out with Kyle Pitts so I guess we'll see. It's booked now and there ain't no changing it.

Can't say I'll be too happy though if we get switched, have to buy own licenses and have to drive to a different place than we were told.

Ok we got 9 good size snapper, 3 large king mackerel, some triggers that we couldn't keep because they aren't in season, and a bunch of Bonita that you don't eat I guess

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Ok we got 9 good size snapper, 3 large king mackerel, some triggers that we couldn't keep because they aren't in season, and a bunch of Bonita that you don't eat I guess

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The reason I recommend the beach trip for kids and people who don't fish much isn't to get fish for the table but because you're likely to get bit more often, the fish fight hard, and you often get to see the fish eat.

It's more action and more interactive than just trolling offshore or dropping bait to the bottom. Kinda the saltwater version of taking kids bream fishing with a can of crickets.

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We are at Destin going out on a yacht today for 5 hours.

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I am here right now as well. No fishing for me though, but the water was awesome today.

I did meet one other Ag yesterday, class of '13 i think he was.

Guess I should have mentioned they (SWE) subbed out my trip to another guide as I'm sure they are in the height of tourist season and tarpon season. We ended up with capt Phil from anchored charters, he was a pretty solid dude and a local guy. He said next time just book directly through him.

We had booked a wreckage & short run off the beach trip but the weather just wouldn't allow it. We did make it not far out of the cut exiting the bay and headed into the gulf a mile or so and landed 20ish AJ then headed back to they bay for eaters and fast action.

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We are at Destin going out on a yacht today for 5 hours.

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I am here right now as well. No fishing for me though, but the water was awesome today.

I did meet one other Ag yesterday, class of '13 i think he was.

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Are y'all the ones with the aggie tent on the beach outside the cash property?

Nope, i gave up camping on the beach many years back. We are in the Emerald Grand. Penthouse baby, hell of a view.

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Guess I should have mentioned they (SWE) subbed out my trip to another guide as I'm sure they are in the height of tourist season and tarpon season. We ended up with capt Phil from anchored charters, he was a pretty solid dude and a local guy. He said next time just book directly through him.

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Another example of this?! Great.

Hopefully ours goes as planned. I'm not a big fan of bait and switch.

I had a heads up from Jennifer (call her again and ask for a heads up on how you're set up) when I talked to her. Said guide would call the night before and go over location and fishing forecast etc. I didn't have to have my own license and the capt has his own charter company so it was a really good experience, and handled professionally thus the reason I didn't mention it.

We've done this in LA as well where we have a large group and once capt will hire another to have 2 boats , so I didn't see it as unusual.

Yeah, the subbing isn't unusual. The lack of communication and getting your own licenses is.