Fishing

Locals like to boast that Destin is ‘the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village.’ And there is a compelling case to be made that Destin can indeed lay claim to that title.Destin is unique among Gulf Coast communities in that deep water is within a relatively short distance of shore. Within a half-hour of leaving Destin Harbor, anglers are in waters as deep as 60 feet. In fact, 100-foot depths are easily within 10 miles of shore, and the 300-foot mark isn’t a great deal further. It’s this access to deep water, and the fish that run there, that most accounts for Destin’s popularity with anglers. Throughout most of the rest of the Gulf, it takes at least twice as long to reach these depths. Destin is unique among Gulf Coast communities in that deep water is within a relatively short distance of shore. Those who enjoy bottom-fishing will tend to the famous 18-fathom line, while offshore trollers head farther out to the 50-fathom curve. As a fathom is equal to 6 feet, those fishing in eighteen fathoms are in roughly 100-120 feet, and those fishing the fifty-fathom curve are in 300 feet of water. The ‘eighteen,’ as it’s known to locals, has along its bottom reefs, rocks, grasses and mud that shelter and attract fish. Not content with these, man-made artificial reefs have been created. These are formed from a variety of materials, most notably sunken ships, boats, and barges. Also used were steel cages containing concrete blocks, rocks and automobile bodies. This accumulation of underwater debris, carefully drained of pollutants, together with the natural vegetation and structure, has resulted in a fecund habitat for a large variety of fish. This is turn leads to excellent fishing. How excellent? Well, the world record Warsaw Grouper was taken in 1985 by an angler out of Destin. Its size? 485 pounds! That’s a six-foot long, four-foot wide hunk of fighting fish! Destin is home to over 140 charter fishing boats. This in itself is an indication of how productive and ‘lucky’ the waters off Destin are… that’s enough deck space to carry just about the entire population of the little town.