I remember reading one of those "It happened to me!" type stories in some outdoor magazine years ago about a guy who went out alone deep sea fishing, and had a marlin jump in the boat with him. Its bill impaled his HEEL, and as the fish flopped around in the boat, it bashed the guy unconcious and, of course, broke his radio. At least the bill was broken off of the fish when he woke up, but it was still through his heel.

Lesson: Don't go out alone.

~Rick

I know some good ones out of Panama City that I have used in the past. Go to St. Andrew's marina. There is a good deep hole off the coast there, and I caught a TON of snapper and grouper, plus spanish and king mackeral. Brought home over 100 lbs of filleted fish. It is only about 45 minutes from Destin.

I got a 10 hour offshore trip for a party of six for $800.

Hello, new here (kinda getting a late start looking for a father/son hunting lease).

Anyways, to your question I've fished every operator out of Port A one time or another.

A 40 hour on Dolphin Docks will put you on either the La Pesca or the Dolphin.  I prefer the Dolphin - there isn't a better crew in Port A and only one better Captain (IMO).

The only bad thing about their boats is that they are slow. I primarily target yellowfin tuna, the 40 hour trip is a too short for them to run out to the deep water floaters (it can take 15 hours each way for the Dolphin to reach Hoover/Diana).

Therefore what they will do on the 40 hour is get you 2 days worth of limits on snapper, amberjack, kings, and probably scads of blackfin tuna which are just as good to eat as yellowfin.

I was down visiting family week before last and did a 12 hour on the Pelican out of Deep Sea Headquarters.  We caught limits of snapper, amberjack, and quite a few blackfin.  The blackfin were very close in, we were still catching them only 1-1/2 hour out of Port A.

There is no limit on blackfin so be sure to keep only what you can eat - a good size blackfin will run 20-25lbs, they can get a bit bigger.  AJ's can get very big but you'll need something other than the boat tackle to get the big ones.  Snapper and grouper should be plentiful.  The Captain on the Dolphin knows some excellent snapper and grouper locations. 

Boat tackle will work - with the exception of large AJ's. 

If you want to pick up any tackle snapper slapper lures work well tipped with sardines for snapper, grouper, and aj's (though bigger AJ's will cause the hooks to fail).

4/0 to 7/0 Circle hooks direct tied to the line work great with sardines for blackfin and dolphin - the boat should have plenty of sardines.

For a little added spice, look for some iron jigs such as "knife" jigs to fish the botton for snapper, aj's, and grouper.  Also, at night the blackfin will absolutely tear up Yozuri poppers cast on the surface and worked like a bass popper.  Best models to get are the Yozuri Bull GT (really best for yellowfin but blackfin will hit it too) or especially the smaller Yozuri Hydro Poppers.

Good luck!

Earl