This sure didn’t feel like grouper water to me. We were only six miles from St. Marys

Inlet in 40 feet of water. The shoreline was clearly in view, and we were rigging up heavy bottom fishing gear with a variety of grouper baits. It was the kind of game plan Northeast Florida fishermen traditionally execute some 15 or 20 miles offshore. This close to shore we’d expect to tangle with kingfish, cobia, tarpon and other coastal fish.

But large grouper?

“I landed a nice grouper here last week,” Stan Mankovich commented as he dropped his baits to the bottom. “However, the largest fish on that trip was a 30-pound redfish.”

Mankovich added that he had recently horsed a 20-pound gag grouper off this pile of concrete that comprises part of the KBY artificial reef complex. We were impressed, if a little skeptical.

It was a picture perfect day for fall bottom fishing. The ocean was calm, dimpled here and there by schools of glass minnows and cigar minnows. Every so often some bonito or Spanish mackerel would charge the baitfish. With land clearly in sight, I began to wonder. On a day like today a flats boat could make this short journey.

The second Stan’s grouper baits hit bottom, the seasoned angler detected a solid strike. With his rodtip aimed straight down, Stan power-lifted his rod and began to force a large fish up off the bottom. Everyone on board began shouting words of encouragement.

“Reel Stan, reel, reel! Don’t let that grouper get the best of you! Reel, reel!”

Stan, however, did not need any encouragement; he knew exactly what he had to do to work his fish away from the sharp hazards of the concrete rubble

below. Much like they do around wrecks and rock ledges, large grouper will use broken concrete and culvert pipes to escape to safety when danger comes calling. A fish gets the upper hand—er, fin—when it reaches a snag and parts the fishing line.

On this particular morning, Stan won the tug of war with his grouper. Within a matter of seconds, the fish came easily to the waiting hand gaff and finally, the fish box. The 10-pound gag was a perfect beginning to our day of shallow-water grouper fishing.

The name of the reef we were fishing—KBY—stands for Kings Bay, which is an artificial reef project located some six miles northeast of the St. Marys Inlet. A buoy with a flag marks the center of the reef, latitude 30-46.65′N, longitude 81-17.32′W. The KBY reef was constructed of materials from the old Kings Bay wharf, and consists of broken concrete and pilings. The reef system encompasses some one anda half square miles of bottom.

The purpose of this artificial reef project was to attract pelagic and permanent resident species closer to shore. Judging by the reports of good grouper fishing, the 7-year-old project is a complete success story.

The Kings Bay reef was constructed over flat, sandy bottom, where an absence of structure usually means an absence of fish. Here, the piles of broken concrete have done an outstanding job of attracting a wide variety of saltwater species, and KBY represents important groundwork for future artificial reef projects in both Georgia and northeast Florida waters.

We were extremely pleased with our day of shallow-water grouper fishing at KBY. However, we had to work at making our day a complete success. We kept a close eye on our fish-finder, making sure that we marked the piles of concrete, allowing us to drop our group-er baits right down to the best structure. Although the KBY flag and buoy are marked with coordinates, the surrounding piles of broken concrete are not marked. When you locate a new pile, you enter the coordinates in your GPS, then do some exploring with baits. As in many bottom-fishing situations, the action tends to diminish after you catch a few of the larger fish. However, there are several small piles of broken concrete located at KBY, making your fishing trip here sort of a treasure hunt.

Although gags can be found at KBY year-round, the cooler months offer the best fishing. Baitfish schools thin out as water temperatures drop to the lower 60s during the winter months.

During our day at KBY, we landed several nice grouper to 15 pounds, a coolerful of delicious black seabass to three pounds and a small redfish. We also released several red snapper which were just under the 20-inch minimum size limit. It seems as though the red snapper mature in the shallow waters of Northeast Florida, 40 to 70 feet, and then migrate to deeper water once they have reached adult size.

Fishing for shallow-water grouper calls for a few adjustments in tactics and rigging.

Selecting the right bait is important. Fresh, locally caught squid are the premier bait for KBY grouper. Squid are plentiful in these waters, and represent a convenient food source for the grouper. However, bottom fishermen here often make the mistake of fishing with frozen squid, which come from faraway waters. Many of the local shrimp boats will sell freshly caught squid to fishermen who work these waters on a day-to-day basis.

We often purchase 50 pounds of local squid at a time and freeze 1-pound quantities in plastic freezer bags. A couple of bags of frozen squid will do for a full day of grouper fishing.

A live pinfish, grunt or cigar minnow will also attract the attention of a hungry grouper. We always try to keep at least one live bait anchored to the bottom while fishing with squid. Often, shallow water grouper will show a preference for one over the other. Live baitfish can be secured while jigging a bait-catcher rig (or sabiki), or fishing right on the bottom with a No. 6 hook and a small piece of squid.

Small octopy also frequent the inshore fish havens and are often attracted to grouper baits. If you are lucky enough to catch one, cut off one or two of the legs and use small pieces for bait. Grouper absolutely love octopus. Another great bait is cut black seabass. When small pinfish and other scavengers are stealing your squid, a piece of cut seabass will stay on your hook longer.

Heavy bottom-fishing tackle is recommended for working grouper away from the sharp edges of the artificial reef. A short, 5-foot boat rod with an extra-stiff tip section will give you some advantage, matched with monofilament fishing line in the neighborhood of 80-pound test. Several bottom fishermen have switched to 80- or 100-pound-test braided line, a no-stretch option that some use to snatch large groupers off a reef in a head-jerking second.

A typical grouper rig begins with a 100-pound, three-way swivel tied to your fishing line. Next, tie a 3-foot section o
f 150-pound-test shock leader to the bottom ring of the three-way swivel, and then tie on a second three-way swivel. Now tie

two 2-foot sections of 150-pound mono leaders, one to the top swivel and one to the bottom

swivel. To both of the dropper leaders tie a 5/0 or 6/0 extra-strong bait hook. Finally, tie a 10-inch piece of 50-pound mono to the remaining ring on the bottom three-way swivel and tie a loop knot in the end. The loop allows you to swap out bank sinkers in a hurry when different size weights are needed. Sinker size can be determined by the drift and the depth of water; typical size runs 4 to 12 ounces.

Another popular grouper rig employs a single hook. Here you attach a fishfinder sleeve to the fishing line and clip a pyramid sinker to the snap on the sleeve. An alternative is to slide on an egg sinker, but the fishfinder is nice because it lets you change sinkers quickly (you could also rig up the pyramid sinker on a light mono dropper, as above). Tie a 100-pound swivel to the terminal end of the fishing line, and then tie on a 3-foot section of 150-pound monofilament. Finish with a livebait circle hook, size 4/0 to 7/0. This is a deadly livebait grouper system. Hook size should be determined by the size of your baitfish. Hook the bait through both eye sockets. This keeps your baitfish nailed to the bottom, where a nearby grouper will be sure to come in for the easy meal.

When fishing with the double dropper rig, bait the bottom hook with a whole or half of a cigar minnow. The top hook can be baited with squid. As mentioned earlier, on some days, grouper show a preference for either cigar minnows or squid. After a few minutes of testing the grouper bite, you may elect to bait up both hooks with the preferred bait.

A few special angling tactics also bear mentioning. In depths of less than 50 feet, you can actually finesse grouper off of the sharp hazards of the bottom. This begins with a locked-down drag on your 4/0 fishing reel. Some fishermen will even take a pair of pliers and tighten up the drag so that not even an inch of fishing line can be pulled from the reel. Once your bait hits the bottom, keep your rod tip pointed toward the water. When a grouper snatches up your bait, lift up your rodtip and at the same time, place the butt end of the rod handle under your arm. Reel, and reel fast! Don’t you dare drop your rodtip, or your hooked grouper will certainly swim into the artificial reef or ledge.

This type of heavy tackle operation often seems like it demands some sort of superhuman strength. In the case of very large grouper, you may actually feel as though you’re going to be snatched right out of the boat. The main hurdle is working the grouper that first few feet off the bottom; the rest of the fight is a piece of cake.

The KBY reef has been a pleasant surprise for many Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia salts. Not only has the grouper fishing improved with the aging of marine growth on the sunken concrete, but pelagic fish action has improved as well.

Jim Wormhoudt, one of our angling partners on the KBY trip, recalled a summertime trip to the shallow reef.

“KBY is rapidly becoming my favorite fishing hole,” he said. “Just last summer, we caught and released a pair of sailfish in this very same grouper hole. Another angler landed a 60-pound wahoo here as well.”

Capt. Keith Edwards has also scored well with St. Marys grouper. “I look for small ledges to hold some of my largest grouper,” he said. “Some of these rock ledges are so small, they are sometimes difficult to detect with the fishfinder. However, when my GPS indicates that the Miss Kayla is right over the ledge, we will normally hook into a school of giant grouper.”

“One thing I have definitely found out though,” Edwards added, “is that you have to be right over the ledge before you can hook up to grouper down below. If you drift a little bit off from the ledge, your chances of catching grouper here are zero.”

Trolling large, minnow-type plugs, particularly the mackerel and orange color patterns, also works well for shallow-water grouper here. Most grouper fishermen use downriggers to get these large plugs down to the bottom.

For a little extra sport, I enjoy scaling down my tackle. I’ll use 20-pound-class spinning gear rigged with a sliding sinker and a live bait. First, I’ll tie 10 feet of 50-pound monofilament to my fishing line with an improved blood knot (doubling the lighter line before tying the knot). Next, I slide a 4-ounce egg sinker and a plastic bead onto the 50-pound line, then tie on a 50-pound barrel swivel. To the outboard end of the swivel I tie 3 feet of 50-pound mono, and finally a 6/0 circle hook.

My favorite live bait is a live menhaden, or pogy, which can be cast netted just off the beaches of the St. Marys Inlet. First, I cut the bait’s tail off, which gets the fish smell into the water. Next, I barb the circle hook through both eye sockets of the pogy. The idea is to cast the injured pogy a few feet away from the bottom structure, where it will lure a good-sized grouper from its snag. Once the grouper takes the bait, I set the hook, bend the rod…and pray.

Other shallow-water reef projects are in store for the St. Marys Inlet, including the Captain Daddy’s artificial reef. The Nassau Sport Fishing Association is heading up this reef project, which may consist of old concrete and rebar from the Jacksonville Fuller Warren Bridge.

Another shallow-water reef is located some five miles offshore of Amelia Island and Nassau Sound. This artificial reef consists of a spoil area and dump site. It’s called Shultz’s Fish Market, and is located at lat. 30-30.03′N, long. 81-15.80′W.

The addition of close-to-shore, shallow-water artificial reefs is likely to ease some of the fishing pressure on the deepwater fish havens. Moreover, it will put a lot more possibilities within reach of small-boat anglers. As I mentioned to my fishing companions, I can’t wait to visit KBY in my 18-foot flats boat—on one of those picture perfect days, of course.

FS