August 24, 2017
By Florida Sportsman
Recent offshore fishing reports from the Ten Thousand Islands region.
Red Snapper Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: nightfly
We moved to our spot in 180' and it was instant action from the start. We pulled in six red snapper and one jumbo red grouper in the first 30 minutes. While running back in, we found some good bottom in 70' and pulled in four keeper red grouper. All red snapper and one grouper were caught on threadfin and squid. The rest of the red grouper were caught on diamond/vertical jigs.
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Red Snapper Hot Bites
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Florida Sportsman member: strykeone
The Gulf was a light chop most of the way out and then laid down as we got closer to our numbers. On the first drop, the bite was heavy and fast. We all brought home fish in the 26" range. We were all pretty well tired when we arrived back at the dock. The fish are out there, if you want to make that trip to bring some back to the table.
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Everglades City: Calm Weather, Slow Bite
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Florida Sportsman member: blewitupsir
We shot out to live bottom areas in about 40' of water and found a few grunts to send back down in big pieces. The Red Grouper happy to oblige. Caught six good fish with the biggest at about 28", a few fat lane snappers and headed back to the hill as the winds started in from the Northwest.
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Evening Gags and Snapper Limit
Florida Sportsman member: sololobo30
I went offshore to get a late-day bite on the last part of the outgoing tide while the moon was rising. I caught some nice gag grouper and after sundown limited out on mangrove snapper.
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Offshore Grouper and Variety Bites
Florida Sportsman member: sololobo30
Tide was about high/switch and figured I'd see if we could box a gag or two. We fished an old spot that was on fire for a solid hour. We caught a limit of gags to 34" and released three to four keepers, then got the mangs chewing. I caught all these fish on light spinning gear 20lb braid.
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10K Islands Nearshore
Florida Sportsman member: blewitupsir
Now that the winds laying down more days than not been really spending more time offshore. Tripletail fishing has been good lately, with free swimmers being found all through the region as well as the typical fish hanging around the floats and crab traps. Live shrimp as well as artificial lures will get the job done.
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Mutton Bite
Florida Sportsman member: nightfly
We had a spot far away were this time last year we were catching large mangroves. We had the bait and the weather to do it, so we went for it. We got there and bottom machine looked great. Right away the bite was on, lots of muttons, one after the other.
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Gulf Grouper Action on the Drift
Florida Sportsman member: Doc1
A couple of buds and I ran out of Marco about 20 miles this morning. The bite was slow, but steady. We picked up 4 keepers over the 4 hours we fished. The largest was about 24 inches and was caught on a live blue runner. Others were picked up on bucktails with curly tails. The bite shut down when the wind started to run against the tide.
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Successful Offshore Run
Florida Sportsman member: NervousWreck
So with all this weather we have been having last Thursday and Friday were finally perfect. Wednesday evening topped off fuel, got 60 pinfish, then picked up the rest of my crew and headed out around 12:30 am Thursday. By sunrise we were 75 miles out dropped trolling rigs in and ran 15 knots out to 125 miles. Took forever hanging up on bonita every mile, some tunas. Fished the big 25 foot ledge for about 5 hours, mostly scamps, 275 feet deep is fun bottom fishing... Before dark we anchored up on a wreck in 190 feet. Unbelievable yellowtail, but also unbelievable barracudas. Friday morning we fished the ledges back to 120 feet and did good. Lots of weed and fish out there. Seas were 1' or less the whole run, 340 miles.
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Great Day on the Water
Florida Sportsman member: blewitupsir
Today was one of those days that make a guides job to easy and spoil you. I had 2 paying customers, and a buddy/mate on board for a full day offshore. We got off the trailer on a low tide, 12 dozen live shrimp and we were on our way. It was a little bumpy but I trusted the weather man that it was gonna lay down as soon as the land heated a little and the wind layed down. Headed out to the longest run to some underwater structure, got some dons potbellys jigs, and shrimp with pinch weights and went to work. Lots of nice sheephead were coming in.The average fish being about 16 inches or so. A ton of big bluefish, a few went in the box for the smoker. We caught Jacks, bluerunners, pigfish, and had a real nice fight with one of the big goliaths, but he finally got tired of playing with us and humbled us right down. A nice suprise came from this 26.5 inch redfish. Caught on a dons glass minnow tipped with shrimp. Beautiful fish, I love the pale color of the ones I get on the wrecks[...]
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Groupers are Chewing
Florida Sportsman member: sololobo30
I fished full day Saturday with four anglers from Ocala and they had a blast. They wanted to take fish home so we headed out after some grouper. Loaded up with the usual livebait. Started out around 24 miles with a strong incoming tide but the red grouper were chewing. Ended the day with 12 big reds and went to a gag spot and put four fish in the box to 30 inches.
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Ten Thousand Islands Offshore Report
Florida Sportsman member: tg.
Went out yesterday with some friends. Managed 2 permit at about 27 inches, 8 grouper (one gag), and various snaps. We were out around 30 miles. Grouper were hitting just about everything we there: livies, octopus, frozen threads. They were spitting up everything imaginable. Permit hit freelined crabs. Good fun on a light spinner. Missed a couple chances on big cobia...gotta be more prepared for that!
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Grouper and Snapper Trippin'
Florida Sportsman member: dcheek2112
Was able to get out two of the last three weekends or red snapper season. We fished 150 to 170 almost due west of Naples. Both trips were the same. Long run, two to three hours of catching BIG fish, and a long run back. The first trip we hit two spots. First one we landed 5 gags and close to a limit of red grouper [...]
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Bottom Bite off Naples
Florida Sportsman member:Â
Fisherman12Â
Went out with a bunch of hardcore anglers for a trip to the great beyond. Our goal was to fill the box, and bring home some studs, this group would not let down! Captain Vic Vazquez ran the boat and we were joined by Captain Chris Turner, Captain Chris McCubbin, Captain Chris Emerine and Vic's buddy Sam. We met at Bayfront at 5, and shortly after set out [...]
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Grouper Slayin'
Florida Sportsman member: sololobo30
Fished yesterday on a fun trip with friends and family, just diggin up some grouper. Loaded the well with livebait and pushed out to around 30 miles out. There was a perfect falling tide and moon which had the fish chomping. First spots were targeted mainly for gags, which we landed 8 to 30 inches. Then we bounced around getting some red grouper. Finding a new chunk of bottom we ended up landing 7 keepers on one drop. Gotta' love virgin spots [...]
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Tortuga Diggin'
Florida Sportsman member: tortugadigger
Had a 2 day trip planned for this week (Monday-Wednesday) to go kill some snapper but with the wind forecast for this week we decided to just go for a 1 day trip last Friday. It was not the best fishing forecast with the moon and tides but since this was the only time I was going to be able to get out there, we made it work. We got our crew together on short notice, which is not always the easiest thing to do but we managed to find 5 guys and off we went [...]
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Tortugas!
Florida Sportsman member: NervousWreck
The weather really messed us up, but we ended up with 30 American red snapper, kept 10, also caught muttons, mangrove snapper, some yellowtail, a 35 pound cobia, big red grouper, a single mahi, and 1 permit.
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Florida Sportsman member: Indianoutlaw
Made a 40 mile run South to some other spots and immediately start catching more ARS. We really wanted to get into some scamps and big red groupers, but the red snapper were EVERYWHERE! We picked through these as well to get our 10th and final red snapper. Around sunset we got a really good hookup on a large squirrelfish and Glen hands the rod to Dale thinking it's a big AJ. Five minutes and some pictures later, I see the very large head of a huge Black grouper hit the surface [...]
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Grouper Sunday
Florida Sportsman member: JBowles
Went out fishing Sunday, we went out 35 miles to some some numbers a guy gave us. Then decided to work our way in with some of our new spots. In the end we ended up going to our proven fishing spots and they produced fish like they normally do. Since we wasted half the day on bad numbers we only got five keeper reds ans a bunch of lane snappers [...]
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Great Offshore Report
Florida Sportsman member: sololobo30
Its been a great week fishing offshore this week in Naples,Florida. Most trips have been half days and with red grouper open that has been the main target species. Lots of action and fish for dinner. The big kings are still around and on the same hard bottom we are fishing for grouper. Permit and cudas around the local wrecks along with big goliaths to play tug-o-war.
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Opening Day
Florida Sportsman member: JBowles
On opening day of red grouper season we went to some hard bottom out 23 miles to jig some up. By the end of the day we had 7 keepers some lane snapper and grunts. Then on the following day we went to some ledges out about 12 miles and caught a lot of gag grouper (4 keepers) but had to throw them back. Had a big Goliath grouper chase up a 30 inch gag all the way to the surface, but he did not get him. then we went to some hard bottom about 9 miles out and got some short red grouper and a 17 inch hog snapper on a shrimp [...]
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Two Days out of Gordons
Florida Sportsman member: Gamekilla
I just bought a new 10 foot cast net from a local guy who hand makes them and what a difference it makes in catching bait. The good old tri-pod got my last net so I am being a bit more conservative with this one...so on Saturday we are on the water at 8 a.m., to catch bait (some really big bait) and head out to the Cuban, surprisingly we were the only boat most of the day [...]
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The Offshore Bite
Florida Sportsman member: sololobo30
The fishing has been red hot and the weather is getting that way too. Big kings are still around along with some big sharks and barracudas. Fought over 2 hours and landed 12 ft tiger shark in 20ft of water. The permit have started to show especially on the farther offshore structures. I fished with one of our best customers Pete Lyons and family today and had a blast [...]
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Donkey Diggin'
Florida Sportsman member: sololobo30
I fished a fullday trip with a great customer and the gulf was a solid 3-5 ft but the fishing was great. Stopped and loaded the well with pinfish and pigfish then pushed through the sloppy conditions to wreck to target amber jacks and we weren't let down.It was non stop rod bendin action as we ran through our live well of baits on aj's.Tried to muscle up a goliath but broke off the only chances we had and seas layed off for the ride home [...]
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Naples Offshore Spearin'
Florida Sportsman member: SnookMagnet
Headed out with TG and JoeSnook yesterday morning looking to put some blood in Terry's beautiful cat. Joe and I dove a couple tanks at a 40 foot wreck and shot a mess of nice sheepshead and snapper. Ran further out to the 60 foot range and regular-old-fished up a bunch of red groupers. Most of them went back in the drink as we thought the minimum size was 24 inches. Still brought home two good ones, the biggest about 12 pounds [...]
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