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 of 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