Bug Hunting in the Emerald Coast

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Crowell

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Location
Andalusia, AL / Pensacola, FL
I'm looking up information on bug hunting around the Emerald Coast (Panama City Beach, Destin, Ft. Walton Beach, Pensacola) area.

Any tips, information, or just general advice from you folks out there.

What do I need? Where is more information on the season, and what rules to adhere to? What licenses will I need?

Any other technique information out there - or even where/how to find them?
 
Crowell:
I'm looking up information on bug hunting around the Emerald Coast (Panama City Beach, Destin, Ft. Walton Beach, Pensacola) area.

Any tips, information, or just general advice from you folks out there.

What do I need? Where is more information on the season, and what rules to adhere to? What licenses will I need?

Any other technique information out there - or even where/how to find them?

Valid Fla fishing license with the appropriate bug stamp. Season is open now, thorugh about hte end of march. Fla has a method of getting your fishing license and bug stamps on line, but I don't have the link.

Along that stretch of the coast spiny bugs are out there, but tend to be deeper than the "normal" half day charter will want to take you. Depths of 120' to 180' often turn up a bug or two.

OTOH after Ivan just finding productive bottam at any depth may be a challenge. Wrecks will have been rearranged and/or moved by the surge. New ledges will have been uncovered, and other ledges may have been either buried in sediment or more exposed. For the next few years it may be a crapshoot when you try to hit "old" structure numbers that haven't been visited. Also expect a layer of very fine silt on top of the sand for the next couple of years. The sediment will have been sorted according to size by the surge, with the small stuff dropping out last.

FT
 
mbtdivers.com scubaboard.com and PM some of the members there who have posted in bug threads(do a search for them)FredT is 100% about it being awhile before the effects of the storm surge are known.
 
Are you just interested in spinys? You can find the shovel-head lobsters on alot of the closer dive sites. I've never caught them, but have seen people catch them... They just grabbed em and stuffed em in a goody bag.
 
I'll be hunting bugs out of Destin on Saturday. . . actually I'll be hunting for the wrecks that used to hold the bugs. I probably won't chop the throttle until I'm at least 20 miles out and in 130 ft of water. I have a feeling that inshore (<10 miles) wrecks are messed up. My organization has a side-scan sonar that will definitely earn its keep over the next months/years. I'll post a report.

Edit: I just checked with ScubaTech in Destin. Their dive operation came through okay. They have checked some of the usual sites and they are still there.




Crowell:
I'm looking up information on bug hunting around the Emerald Coast (Panama City Beach, Destin, Ft. Walton Beach, Pensacola) area.

Any tips, information, or just general advice from you folks out there.

What do I need? Where is more information on the season, and what rules to adhere to? What licenses will I need?

Any other technique information out there - or even where/how to find them?
 

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