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.