Hassell adds a chunky yellowtail to the box.

Delph has a rule of thumb for how often big blacks rock light-tackle anglers. He says that a 20-pound black grouper will rock you once, and once more for every 10 pounds it weighs more than that, so a 30-pounder will rock you twice, and so on.

“Sometimes at the start of the fight you can bump the boat a bit. It moves the fish away from its cover. If he rocks you, release tension and let him run out of his hole.”

I had that sinking feeling of being rocked after a fish took my threadfin on a sliding sinker rig. As I pressured the fish, the line severed, possibly cut by a passing king.

“You have to expect to lose a few on light tackle,” Delph said.

On the next drop, I hustled up a fair-size red grouper, and then picked up a good mutton snapper.

Fishing is an “exact science” to Delph, and even a few random nuggets from his warehouse of knowledge which he shared on that trip proved instructive to me. For instance, even when bottom fish act finicky, as they were that day, sometimes they’ll strike on the upswing of a jigging motion, so you might have “to sell them that strike.” But, he cautions, “if they’re not interested after one or two drops, move on. You don’t want them to get used to the sight of that jig, because they’ll lose interest in it permanently.”

He also spoke about the ways that black grouper reproduce, and how a single big male black grouper will attract females for breeding, so that once you find a big male, you’ll have plenty of other younger males in the vicinity waiting for their chances with a female.

And he never, he said, puts a hook in the water without sharpening it first.

Tools of the trade for grouper-jigging.

As Ron Glinski fought a big grouper, I noticed how he leaned back on his heels to get the most pull on the rod by adding the weight of his body. It’s about leverage, not muscle, when you’re using light tackle. You can even time your pulls with the waves that lift your boat to get that extra foot of upward thrust to lift the fish off the bottom, as surfcasters use the waves to bring a fish to the beach.

That day down west, Delph and Glinski called the fishing only mediocre. In my opinion, it was a phenomenal day.

As we neared Key West, I remarked to Delph, “It feels different down there.”

“Doesn’t it?” he said. “It feels more alive.”

FS