# panama city to the elbow?



## dht

Hey, I'm going to panama city in a couple weeks with some friends. We dont normally fish around there so we were wonderin how far of a run is it to the elbow? Hows the fishin so far out there?

Thanks


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## dht

Im also wonderin about the dumping grounds and the nipple. How long a trip are they? 

Thanks


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## REEL STAMAS

'The Spur' (ofDesoto Canyon) is ~80mi. if that helps. I live in PCB & if ya'll have a boat to make a trip like that &need another crew member I'd be interested... I don't make it that far in my boat, but have been w/friends several times on trolling trips & swordfishing... It's actually a good bit closer out of Destin...


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## dht

Do you know how much closer from destin it is? Were going to be in Laguna Beach/Carillon Beach if you know where that is. We don't have a big boat. A 22' with a single 150 but weve been out 35-40 miles before comfortable so if theres anything within that distance were gonna go for it.


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## Magic236

You don't have enough boat (range) out of PCB for the Spur or Elbow. Check with Half Hitch for areas to try your luck, you have plenty of offshore opportunities out of PCB w/ your boats abilities. Good luck and give us a post.


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## dht

What about if we leave from destin or fort morgan?


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## Kim

From PCB the Nipple is 76.6 miles, the Elbow is 88.8 miles, the Spur is 76 miles, the dumping grounds are 66 miles. These distances are about double your comfortable trips one way. From Destin the nipple is 44.6 miles, the Elbow is 60 miles, the Spur is 59.3 miles, the dumping grounds are 32 miles. There is a lot of great fishing closer to PCB, might want to check it out.


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## dht

Where would you reccomend in PCB? Ive never fished there, or anywhere near it.


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## Magic236

I don't think PCB has alot of named areas for offhshore, but they enjoy better offhsore fishing than many expect. Half Hitch Destin provides a great chart out of Destin. I would assume Half Hitch PCB does the same thing. Florida Sportsman has a chart too. The 50 fathom curve is about 40 miles SE of PCB and there are alot of fish from 120' to 300.'


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## younghooker

go to the Squiggles/wings area out of PCB.. less than 50 mi.for pelagic fish.. mahia, wahoo , possible billfish..


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## Rag-Tag

I 100% agree that a trip from Panama City Beach to the Elbow is a very dangerous trip in that boat even in the best weather conditions AND with an even larger"buddy boat". Its pushing the envelope and asking for problems not to mention that IF that trip was a safe venture you would be passing directly through possibly even better water/fishing areas for the last 25miles or so at least of your run if you were to go to the actual Elbow to start fishing. On that course, by head memory no chart handy so don't carve this in stone, you would most likely run acorss the 100fathom curve miles south of the nipple and be running across it, through deep fishy water, then not too far south of the 131 Hole, then arrive at Elbow. As many others, who are most likely more knowledgeable of this area than I, have stated there is good to great fishing depending on current conditions far, far short of the Elbow and even the 100fathom curve even if the exact same heading were taken. There are areas overthere called "the flats" which I believe is around 375' deep and are a ways offshore but the depth shouldn't bother you or incinuate the chances of large bluewater palegics are less than say the 600' Nipple or the 800' Elbow due to the fact that there is nothing like the Mississippi River or Mobile Bay/Mississippi Sound etc near as close to there as to the spots farther west therefore the shallower water, 375' and even into probably the 120' edge, are commonly cleaner, bluer water than the spots much deeper. Also, as mentioned before the squiggle is a common Panama City bluewater spot on the 100fathom line(99% sure) but it and even the flats I mentioned I believe would still be actually almost twice the distance offshore I would take or be taken in the boat you described even with a Coast Guard Captain driving, a rescue swimmer riding shotgun, and an outboard mechanic on the beanbag with tools on the ready. Not trying to make light of a safety issue nor pick at you about your experience, knowledge or judgement etc but I have lost several friends to the Gulf(one never have recovered his body) one being in 2' seas good weather and in a boat larger than yours and only at the Russian Freighter about 7 miles out?? Not that it really matters I was curious to your age and years experience? I only mention this because at 31 now with 21+ years in the Gulf fishing I look back at my judgement progression over the years. We had a 20' Hydra-Sport that my "overly causious dad" wouldn't let me use without him and with him wouldn't even let me go to the Nipple which is where I was headed EVERY time I left the pass for 5 years! Never made it there and damn glad too. I MIGHT would take that boat to the Nipple today if it were new and had a flawless engine history(which it didn't at all) and my crew was all adults with experience. Not necessarly my age but out of highschool, driving a car for a whileetc and with a great weather report and on a weekend when there would be other boats within radio range. I would not even consider if I were the "dad" at 35-40 with an over eager willing to take risk for a big catch or adventure 8-13year old son as the only other person on board. My dad used to say "Creighton I know you and Cam don't understand but sometimes I would like to have another adult on here with us" used to piss me off BIG TIME, now I thank God for this and the 100 other "overcautious(which is not a word when it comes to boating safety) things he did, didn't do, and said. As I was older I realized he was unsure of his mariner skills and it scared the hell out of him knowing that by listening to me and doing what I asked to please me which is the only reason he bought the damn boat in the 1st place he could also be putting us both but more importantly me in grave danger and in a situation he was not in control of and therefore could not protect me from even at disregard to his own safety. He stopped fishing with me and made his peace with God when I got my 1st Contender in October of 1998 and was almost 21 years old that if I died out there I died doing what I loved and that his being there at that point only scared him and made him miserable and also would actually probably HINDER my safety protocall with clouded judgement guided by fear, and raw emotion. I have been known to strap 100gal of gas on the deck and run 200+ miles one way, cross over several states, and return all in a 12 hr day although one would say 200 miles is way the hell out but sometimes I was never more than 20-30miles from land. Sometimes never 10miles from land. The boat you described would be fine, except for lack of speed, for a run such as that. I ran from Panama City to fish rigs just east of the Chanduler Islands on the Miss/La border but ran ICW from Pcity to the west end of Dauphin Island if rough or a line from Pcity pass to about Destin Pass in the gulf then down the beach to between GulfShores and Dauphin Island or even until south of Pascagoula, Miss before turning southwest and ending up in 50'-80' of water 10 miles of the Islands I usually ran a 1/4 mile or less off the sandbar with a N wind in late October with no boat traffic and very few if any swimmers. 1/2 mile more appropriate in more seasonal times. Can be tough to see a raft or kiak in a 3' chop at 55mph in the glaring morning sun with no shades yet.

Anyways, brother I just wondered about experience etc when you asked about the Elbow from Panamacity then to hear the boat specs, then the follow up ? about what about if we leave from Destin or FT Morgan. And there could be a 110% valid reason for those two places like running the ditch to Destin in the PanamaCity scanario and your aunts condo on Ft Morgan to leave from in a whole different scanario but was thinking that there was also an outside chance you were still gonna be way down east and were somehow looking to incorporate Ft Morgan into the trip, thats where I worried a bit. Again I am not bashing you in any way but looking at it like with all of the ideas I've had and envelopes I pushed and got away with it means that playing the odds says this directly makes someone elses chance of gettng away with it worse. I will say that regardless of boat or engine etc I would feel MUCH safer 40 miles out of Ft Morgan than 40miles out of PanamaCity for the simple fact you can be quite possibly out of two way radio contact that far off Pcity and could drift for 3 days easy if nobody were looking and never see another boat where as off Ft Morgan in the 40 mile run you will never be in a spot where you cant see an oil/gas rig/platform with your naked eye and you will see a dozen or more helos on any day if you look and also see several crew boats or supply vessles too. not to mention the possibility of 3-30 shrimp boats from 10miles out to 80. Point being there is FAR more activity over there and while it is not used for help to the recreational boater except in a true emergency its pretty easy to leard all about the offshore industry and even have a .6watt flip cellphone roam off the Petro-com towers on select rigs. Dont call your girlfriend because it may be $3 a minute but in a life threatining situation use 300 minutes and there will be plenty of us to pay the $900 phone bill. Look at the rigs as great fishing structure and all that good stuff only after you regard them as worst case scenario life saving stations and dont rely on a whistly or shout to call them and maybe not ch 16 on the VHF either. Its easy to do and one last thing dont abuse or harrass them in any way by calling them to ask for fishing reports etc they just might be too busy to answer when the water is up to the steering wheel and rising quick. If they offer to chat or talk fishing or otherwise certainly no problem just as far as you asking them look at it like calling a busy businessman in the middle of an important meeting to ask about the water color and when he hangs up then calling the guy next to him at the same table then the next and so on then about the fourth dude wont answer nor any of the rest.

Sorry to get way offyour topic but just in case you are somebody like myself and 17 and bulletproof I was thinking back to funerals with no casket because no body had washed up etc and better to look like a longwinded fool on here than to read about PFF member and boat mising from trip to Elbow from PanamaCity yesterday! Good luck and be safe


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## dht

No offense taken. We werent planning to go out to the elbow after we were told it was 90 miles or whatever from pcb. We were plannin on squiggles or go out of destin. We can do destin because we are only going to do one long trip and the rest will be short trips. So we were going to stop by destin on the way to pcb and go out to fish. The boat is pretty new and has never had any engine problems. Has run perfectly for the last year. Were pretty safe although we're young. Im 20, and my friends are 18. One has been a deckhand for many years and we all have about 10 years experience on the water.


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## seeryfly

Destin to the edge is easily doable in your boat. I'm out there a lot as long as the weather and seas look good. The weather guessers have been a little off the last few weeks on their sea states. Been about 1 to 2 feet higher than their calling it. If you can pull all the way over to PCOLA, then you'll get closer to the action. Right now, the water color is not doing anyone any favors. I'm thinkng about staying hoem the next few weeks b/c of it. Things are really slow around the edge right now. You may do better bottom fishing around PCB.


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## spiderjohn

Fished the nipple area out of Pcola this weekend. It is less than 40 or so miles S/SE from the Pcola Pass. I wouldn't assume it is much more from Destin. It was not fishy though this weekend and I keep hearing it hasn't been in a few weeks. We were trolling....bottom fishing may be better. But you can probably find other things closer in to bottom fish.


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