Red Grouper Fishing Can Be Feast or Famine

I could not budge the fish. It had wedged itself in a crevice on the seafloor at a depth of 90 feet.

I thought my 8000-series spinning reel with 50-pound braid and 80-pound fluorocarbon leader could wrestle up anything that swims in the eastern Gulf. But each time I thought I had winched it free, the adrenalized fish dug back into its cranny.

Twenty minutes earlier, I had arrived at this acre of hard bottom 32 miles west of Boca Grande. From the 28-foot center console I deployed the Rhodan 36-volt GPS ANCHOR and dropped a frozen sardine to the Swiss cheese limestone below. I had worked this same location twice before, where I hooked several other fish I had failed to boat.

The first time, the hook straightened and pulled free. The second time, I weighed anchor and opened the bail in an effort to cajole the fish to wriggle out on its own from the hole in which I believed it was stuck. But as soon as the line loosened, the fish was gone. The third time, I put on gloves, grasped the line ahead of the rod tip, and attempted to muscle it up: Bust off.

Now confronted with what felt like a creature with the same size and modus operandi as the others, I wondered if it might be a goliath grouper. I secured the rod in a rodholder and went to find my gloves. But after the left glove was on, and before I put on the right, the rod straightened and my heart sank.

But then the rod jerked and bowed again, and straightened again. Translation: The fish was tiring. And was also unstuck. I grasped the rod. This time, I was able to reel and retain six feet of line, then 10 feet, then another 10. The fish kept tugging, bulling, veering left and right, ascending higher and higher until I saw color, cranked it to the top, and netted what turned out to be a stout 30-inch red grouper.

The first question in my mind was whether all the other fish that bit, but which I could not previously catch here, were magnificent firetrucks like this one?

My second question, more significant, was whether any of the other grouper still swimming free were incorrectly counted in NOAA’s surveys as having already been caught, helping to prompt early season closings the last two years? The latter loaded question, of course, merits further explanation.

Questionable Counts, Early Closings

In each of the last two years, the year-long recreational red grouper season closed after only six months since NOAA declared that the total allowable annual recreational catch had been reached prematurely.

Some were skeptical of NOAA’s findings. Few have forgotten, for example, how NOAA undercounted red snapper for decades. More recently, “NOAA’s data collection debacle named MRIP (Marine Recreational Information Program),” as described by Florida Sportsman Senior Editor Blair Wickstrom in his April “Call to Action” column, led to greater skepticism.

MRIP’s conclusion from dockside interviews and mail-in surveys for a 49-day season in 2023 was that 1.6 million pounds of gag grouper had been caught, including 106,602 pounds from shore. From shore?

A hundred thousand pounds of gag caught by shore anglers defies belief, especially after NOAA reported that absolutely zero gag were caught from shore in 2022.

Wickstrom explained the incongruity, writing that MRIP arrived at that number by extrapolating the catch by a single fisherman on Tampa’s Sunshine Skyway Bridge into 106,000 pounds of other gag that, statistically speaking, must have been caught by other shore fishermen statewide.

Such an overestimate manifests an obvious problem, and I asked NOAA Southeast Regional Administrator Andy Strelcheck if NOAA is contemplating a more accurate system for anglers to report catch totals in real time.

“The agency is not contemplating apps or phone numbers for reporting catches,” Strelcheck replied in an email. “Currently, the agency is conducting a new stock assessment for red grouper to evaluate its status. The assessment incorporates private landings and discard data from the Florida State Reef Fish Survey in place of data from the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP). The assessment is scheduled to be completed later this year.

“The agency is also closely working with the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission and Gulf of Mexico states to develop improved approaches for estimating and validating angler fishing effort (numbers of fishing trips) and discards (fish released by anglers).”

Apparently, NOAA has already learned that switching the order of questions in mail-in surveys cuts down on inflated numbers of fish catches reported. For example, anglers were less inclined to claim more trips over a 2-month period than over a 12-month period when prompted to describe the 12-month period first.

“Findings from a pilot study,” explained Strelcheck, “found that switching the sequence of questions in the NOAA Fisheries Fishing Effort resulted in … estimates that were generally 30 to 40 percent lower for shore and private boat modes than estimates produced from the current design.

“We are conducting a large-scale study (based on pilot study findings) to gain a clearer understanding (across a larger sample size and for the full year) of the differences in respondent recall and resulting effort estimates between the current design and a revised design that changes the order of two fishing effort questions and also increases the administration of the survey from every two months to monthly.” In other words, when the 2025 Gulf of Mexico recreational season reopens in January, NOAA’s revised questionnaire should more effectively prevent overestimates that could trigger early closings.

Tactics for Grouper: Easy, Peasy

My neighbor Dick Nolan is helping me get the boat ready to go out on the Gulf. With no storms in the forecast, our plan is to head offshore to the grouper grounds.

The Gulf is friskier than forecast with 2- to 3-foot seas, and the ride in the 28 World Cat is tolerable if I keep it under 27 mph. After a little over an hour, I throttle down and shut off the engine and deploy the GPS ANCHOR. We are utterly alone, as far as I can see.

I send a pre-written text to my wife with our coordinates and “okay” status, using a satellite Spot X phone, and then I shut off the sonar. Smart and wary, grouper can get spooked by anything unnatural, including the ping of a Garmin ECHOMAP. I extract several frozen sardines from the cooler to cut up for bait. Dick offers to help, but knife work on a rocking vessel is reserved for the captain. If any blood is going to be accidentally shed aboard my boat, it’s best if it’s my own.

Grouper go nuts for frozen chunks, a considerable boon in the bait desert where I live. Two of the local shops I used to rely on for shrimp, pinfish and crabs have closed down: Patsey’s Bait Shop in Placida capitulated to new development, and TNT’s in Port Charlotte never recovered from Hurricane Ian. So now I shop at Publix or Walmart for frozen sardines, cigar minnows, mullet and ballyhoo.

Chumming is unnecessary, since at any location over hard bottom on the Gulf at 70 feet and beyond, and where fish are visible on the sonar screen, the action with frozen bait is non-stop. And not chumming helps reduce or eliminate shark depredation.

Granted, live bait does tend to attract the bigger grouper, and we usually get some as bycatch. Sand perch, a.k.a. squirrel fish, for example, which are everywhere offshore, are like chocolate for grouper. When I happen to catch one, I use it to arm a conventional rod and reel pre-rigged for the purpose. I pierce the squirrel through the lips with a 6/0 circle hook, drop the bait to the bottom with a few feet of slack, place the rod in a holder, and forget about it until the reel clicker goes off.

Grunt are even better. Their highly audible grunting often attracts the biggest grouper in town. Dick hooks a heavy fish. Originally from New York, he’s an experienced salt and reels aggressively to horse the fish up and away from the holes. He’s got control, and I get the long-handled net. Since it’s over 20 inches, Dick poses for a picture before icing it down in the cooler.

Saving the Young’uns

After cutting a frozen ballyhoo in half, I hook the head portion and drop my line off the port side. A 6-foot heavy action Ugly Stik jigging rod with a 6000-size spinning reel with 40-pound braid lets you feel every peck and bite in deep water, while a knocker rig with a 3-ounce egg sinker sliding down a 4-foot leader minimizes twists and tangles.

The World Cat has two swivel fishing seats in the stern, but there is no time to sit. The tick-tick I feel in the rod handle means the ballyhoo was swallowed as soon as it hit bottom. Following Dick’s lead, I crank furiously to keep the fish out of the cracks. It turns out to be a feisty but undersized fish, and when I lift it over the gunnel with my rod, I can see a swollen stomach in its mouth indicating barotrauma.

I lay the 18-inch grouper on the bait table and inject the venting needle behind the pectoral fin. The boat is rocking, the wind buffeting, and I cannot hear the hiss of released air. With the hypodermic still inserted, I gently and slowly massage the fish’s belly to squeeze it out. I bend over and peek into its mouth to confirm that the stomach’s deflated. The grouper torpedoes back to the depths as soon as I let it go.

Though I have a descender tool on board, venting is faster when two or more anglers are boating multiple undersized fish, as we were the rest of the morning. Our tally: 20 grouper ranging from 15 to 22 inches, a dozen lane snapper, 10 mangrove snapper, and a dozen squirrel fish and grunt. No complaints when you catch one fish every four minutes. Of course, we did not count the ones that we lost. And it’s hoped that NOAA will not, either.

Red Grouper Recreational Regulations

Gulf of Mexico

• Open Season: Jan. 1 - Close TBA (see chart for closed areas)
• Minimum Size: 20 inches total length.
• Bag Limit: 2 per person within the 4 grouper aggregate, 0 fish bag limit for charter captain and crew.
• Gear requirements: In state waters, must possess and use non-stainless steel, non-offset circle hooks when fishing with natural bait (same for federal waters, but the circle hooks may be offset, if desired). Must also have a de-hooking device and a descending device or venting tool rigged and ready for use.

Atlantic Coast

• Open Season: May 1 - Dec. 31.
• Minimum Size: 20 inches total length.
• Bag Limit: 3 per person within 3 grouper aggregate.
• Gear: In state waters, must possess and use, when fishing with natural baits: north of 28° N latitude: non-stainless steel, non-offset circle hooks; south of 28° N latitude: non-stainless steel hooks. Must possess and use a de-hooking device and have a descending device or venting tool rigged and ready for use. In federal waters same gear requirements, except descending device must be on board and readily available. Special regulations apply in Biscayne National Park.

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• This article was featured in the December-January issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe.

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