Grouper Bottom Rigs How We rig it. There’s a lot more to grouper fishing than simply dropping a bait to bottom and letting it lie there until a fish finds it.
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Today I had the pleasure of taking Long Island Rich's brother, James, out for some offshore bottom fishing. James came down from the chilly north where he's only caught stuff like fluke and bluefish and never experienced anything like gags or amberjacks. Today was going to be a special day for him.
On the run out I found a ledge in 57' and it was covered in gags. The fish were really hungry and came 30' off the bottom to get the baits. We drifted a good 200' off the ledge while catching fish and I decided to swing back around for another drift. Big mistake, the fish followed the boat and when I spun around the ledge was abandoned. I should have known better since I've had gags do the same exact thing on some other spots. Oh well, you live and learn. I let the guys keep the biggest fish off that spot and we released about 5-8 keepers.
We moved to another ledge in 60' and it was stacked with nice keepers. We could have easily put 20 gags in the boat and been back at the ramp by 11am but once again I let them keep one fish off that ledge and we moved again. I had plans to put James on fish all day long, all day strong.
Next couple of stops were in the 70-80' range and same thing, lots of keeper gags but only allowing one or two fish to be kept. We rounded out the last couple of gags with some solid 15lb fish before turning our attention to some jacks. James was getting punished on the heavy tackle so I thought he might enjoy catching a few on the spinning gear. Well two butterfly jigs later and I decided that wasn't such a good idea, back to the baits you go.
Even when trying to catch mangos on 30lb leaders, John still was managing to crank up groupers..
. >>Forum Thread & More Photos
TOPWATER AMBERJACKS
By, PepperGun, 12/29/08
The man says crazy Amberjacks...7am is the time...5 knots is the forecast...Never caught one...I'm in...
The way to the bait:
The view below:
The first drop:
The subsequent drops:
My first Amberjack:
The topwater action:
The scared sardines:
The topwater plug:
The standard scene:
The international signal for fish box:
The invited dinner guest:
The surprise dinner guest:
The ride in:
The end...
...for now. >>Forum Thread & More Photos
GOOD TIMES
By, TwentyFourSeven, 12/21/08
We started of the day picking up my 4 pinfish traps from offshore in 25' that I put out the day before. Normally the traps are full but not many between the 4 this time. I had an old comercial # I wanted to check out that was around 100 miles out but, the fog was thick and the Loran would not work right. So we headed that way to a gps number I had in the dark and thick fog. Our eyes were pinned to the radar and we tuned it in so good it was picking up crab trap bouys and birds floating on the water. After 1 1/2 hours of running at 45 mph we finally reach our destination and start dropping Boston Mack's. Right away we start pulling up massive Red Snaps one after another. After a couple fish I decided to bust out the electrics to help fight through the Red Snapper's. Some of these Red Snaper were bigger then any I have ever caught probably going close to 20lbs. For the next 3.5 hours the action was none stop rod bending between the Grouper, Red Snapper and AJ's the fish had us wore out. We filled the box from one spot and was still throwing back keeper Gags before we left. The action was as soon as you hit bottom and I even got one nice Gag from a flat line. You could not ask for a better day of fishing or weather. The ride home was relaxing slick calm at 50 mph, everyone got a nice nap on the bean bags.
Steve with a pesky Red Snapper. We must have threw back 60 of these through out the day. They really need to re think the reg's on these things and the Gag's. >>Forum Thread & More Photos
SOUTH SHORE WADING
By, Heywood, 12/9/08
Met up with my friend Jim from Bradenton this morning, after dodging 3 mullet boats, we flat tore up the fish today. Over slot trout and way too many redfish to count. All caught on soft plastics. Jim taking me to school with one of his numerous redfish. >>Forum Thread & More Photos
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