Panhandle Dune Lakes

I'm going to Destin in late September and want to daytrip to either Topsail park or Grayton. Grayton seems more kid friendly- less walking - with a 2 year old. Be sure to report back your experience after your trip!

Get a saltwater license. Caught a limit of trout each morning of our vacation last year. When are you going down? Those lakes can be shallow and the bite will stop once the sun comes out.

I've never caught trout, but I've caught redfish, black drum, and gar in there. There are definitely bass, bream, and gators among other stuff. Technically you are required to have whatever license you catch, which is BS but that's the rules. I'd just get a saltwater so you can fish the beach and bay, and throw back any freshwater you catch.

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I went to Big Redfish Lake this morning and caught 6 15"-24" barracuda. I had another 2 or 3 break my line. I was fishing with 17lb mono so they cut it pretty easily

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Are you positive they were barracuda? I've never seen them that thick around here. Are you sure they weren't lady fish or spanish macks? Both of which would be very normal. I haven't fished that lake in a long time so something may of brought Barracuda in.

I am about 90% sure. There was a guy who was in the lake running a ferry from one of the condo resorts there and I asked him and he said they have speckle trout redfish and barracuda in the lake. It feeds from the gulf at high tide and there were tons of bait around.

The head and The shape/placement of the fins didn't look like a Spanish. It looked like the mouth/head were too big and they lacked spots

definitely juvenile cudas

Big Redfish lake in front of Sanctuary by the Sea?
Hope so, I'll be there from the 22nd-29th and plan to bring a rod along with a castnet..

Dang I stand corrected, that's nuts. I've fished a couple of those lakes and never caught one and we really don't have many of them offshore here. They are around but certainly not 10+ in a day around. I wonder what drew them to that lake? I can imagine they'd be a blast on light tackle.

I wonder if barracuda can live in brackish water fairly well? The tropical storms in June may of made that lake saltier than normal but it sounds like it's well known those fish are there if the tram driver knew about them. I said spanish simply because they are very common off the beach right now but they had fresh water. There's black drum, redfish, and trout that live in many of those lakes year round. First I've heard of barracuda.