Excerpt from CATCH FISH NOW! in the Florida Panhandle

If you're going to head out for some Pensacola area Inshore trolling, you need to be ready to fish as soon as you enter the Pass. At various times of the year, the Pass itself and for about a mile around its mouth are choice areas for kings and spanish mackerel, cobia, redfish, blackfin tuna and occasionally tarpon. You'll want to check the immediate areas around the channel markers for sure. You can usually catch your live bait on these markers too.

The listing of Inshore fishing spots that follows is designed for use by LORAN equipped boats. The LORAN coordinates are uncorrected for plotting on navigational charts. Also, and due to the varying approach of local artificial reef programs on reporting location by LORAN coordinates, there can be no guarantee that the numbers provided correspond to the center of deployed material. If, when trying to locate an artificial reef, your depth finder does not indicate material on the bottom, start a circular search pattern and gradually expand it until material is located.
 
 

In addition to the numbered spots shown in Figure 2.5, one other location is indicated with an asterisk. It is by far the most interesting of all. The asterisk indicates the final resting spot of the oldest existing American battleship, the USS Massachusetts. Officially commissioned by the Navy on June 10 , 1896, she was over 350 feet long, with a beam of 69 feet and a draft of 24 feet. Today, the remains of the USS Massachusetts are in 26 feet of water a mile and a half South - Southwest of Pensacola Pass. The site is easily located because the ship's two main gun turrets are awash most of the time. The wreck is also marked by a red bell buoy shown on the charts as WR2. Applicable LORAN numbers are: 13215.0 / 47108.9.

Two other spots slightly farther offshore may be of interest to you. The first is a 1/10 square mile of bridge rubble located in 80 feet of water, LORAN: 13278.0 / 47091.8. The second is a barge sunk in 75 feet of water, LORAN: 13306.9 / 47102.8. The majority of the time, the entire area covered by the map can be easily and safely fished in a relatively small boat. In stormy or excessively windy weather, however, just getting out through the mouth of Pensacola Pass can be harrowing, if not plain dangerous. Before heading out the Pass, and as a minimum, always check for small craft advisories and whether or not the charter boat fleet has gone out.  If it hasn't, you know the Gulf is no place for a small boat that day.

As a final and fundamentally obvious note, while fishing Inshore, keep you eyes on the charter boats.  The professionals that run these boats have the experience and sophisticated electronics to always find the fish.  Watch them, emulate what they do, and stay with them.  But, and most importantly, don't get in their way while they're making their living.  In this regard, when you see a group of charter boats working a particular area, DO NOT head for the middle of them.  Lay back and look for the pattern of movement.  More often than not, they will be following each other in some sort of circle.  If this is the case, start your own circle just outside theirs.  You'll catch plenty of fish -- while not provoking an incident at sea.