Gulf grouper basics: Tackle up, lock up-and hopefully don't get rocked up.

Scattered across the Gulf bottom, somewhere between Egmont Key and Anclote Key, anywhere from a mile to 100 miles offshore, are at least a dozen of the best-kept secrets known to certain local offshore anglers.

They are freshwater springs and sinkholes--inverted wrecks--in the limestone bottom where a steady flow of 68- to 72-degree water creates a dining mecca for fish of all skins. When the surrounding Gulf is cold, the warm water of the spring attracts pelagics like amberjack, kingfish, blackfin and yellowfin tuna, wahoo and dolphin.

When the surrounding Gulf is warm, the cool fresh water attracts the same roster of temporary residents. And 12 months a year, the cave-like limestone perimeter will hold grouper, snapper and jewfish.

Springs and their similar but flowless brothers, the sinkholes, are catalysts of a seldom-fished, seldom talked about offshore food chain and their loran or GPS coordinates are sacred gems guarded with pitbull tenacity.

Which is why I was starting to lose just a little faith in the validity of the numbers Capt. Ken Orthner had secured the night before we were to head offshore.

It was exactly what you don't want to happen when you wake up at 5 a.m. and scream 42 miles offshore to fish a spot you've never been to before. To new loran numbers given to you by a close friend, but a fisherman nonetheless. Given to you at the tavern. Probably a little too late the night before.

But, all things considered, Orthner was still confident we'd find the spot.

"Let's jug the numbers anyway and run some lines," said the longtime Pinellas County guide who had secured the numbers the night before from the close friend who had been nailing consistent catches of large amberjack off it. "Maybe we're just off by a minute or so."

The crew of the K.O. Kid wasn't exactly desperate, just a little restless. After an hour and 20 minute run and several turns at zeroing out the loran, we still hadn't found The Spot--a freshwater spring hidden beneath 122 feet of blue Gulf. There are dozens of similar springs dotting the deep water off this coast but this one was hot. Just two days ago it was covered up with fish.

Expecting to pull up to a massive display of bait stacks and predator fish, we were a little perplexed by the flat nothingness of the bottom that moved across the screen of our fishfinder. The bottom was hard but lacked the fish shows and bait schools that are indicative of a spring. There was life on the surface however, as flying fish periodically skittered out from under our idling bow and giant, unidentifiable crashes turned our heads with regularity. All hope was not lost.

If we could just find a little life on the bottom.