February 02, 2020
By Florida Sportsman
Recent offshore fishing reports from the West Central region.
First Bacon on the Boat
Florida Sportsman member: hook_em
Our first stop yielded nothing but squirrel fish, so we hit a ledge number that we had never fished. First drop down - bingo! The first hogfish on this boat. The second was a keeper and my wifes first. We caught three more undersized hogs, some huge grunts, and one mango. It was a pretty successful spot. I also put a pinfish on the flat line and it went straight to the bottom. The rod bent over not too long after, but whatever it was got off. I put a second pin on and the same thing happened almost immediately.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Late January Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
In 2019 the anglers of the Florida Fisherman ll were very successful braving the cold of late January. This late January is predicted to be much colder. But they are fish to be caught: various snapper, grouper, particularly red grouper, tuna and the occasional shark.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Motherload of Hogfish
Florida Sportsman member: HFF
We depart from Clearwater Pass Florida and head a special fishing spot that holds lots of fish. With some searching on the Simrad Go 9 XSE, using sidescan and downscan, I was able to find the right ledge for hogfish and it was the Motherload of Hogfish BACON! The action was nearly non stop.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Fishing Blackthorn Reef
Florida Sportsman member: HFF
We fished the reefs in the vicinity of the Blackthorn Wreck. There are a wide variety of natural structures in the area which provide homes for every kind of coastal fish you can imagine. We were visited by the tax man a couple times and lost a couple good fish. Amberjack, rudderfish, gag grouper, lane snapper, strawberry grouper, mangrove snapper, porgies, and triggerfish all make a showing in this trip.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Secret Weapon for Hogfish
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
The hogfish uses its elongated pig-like snout to rummage and graze for crustaceans. Most hogfish are harvested by spear fisherman. They can be caught on hook-and-line, but, due to the nature of the beast, it's not easy. Hogfish bite is super hot right now, especially around 40-70ft of water we are seeing the hogfish chewing well. They take a bit to get dialed in on but once you find their areas they are really loving the live shrimp! These guys love hanging around adjacent to the harder bottom areas. Small ledges, rock piles, or flat hard bottom with lots of relief seems to work best to keep those hogfish around. Right now the ‘secret' weapon has been our use of 8mm red beads on our knocker rigs. So we use the methods described above to make a knocker rig style set up but between the weight and hook we ad around 4-5 of these 8mm red beads. Seems pretty silly and goes against my minimalist approach to hog fishing but we cannot deny it's results as of late.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Hogfish, Grouper, and Amberjack
Florida Sportsman member: HFF
Many species such as hogfish, grouper, and amberjack congregate on the shallower ledges off Pinellas County Florida and Tampa Bay. This provides an excellent opportunity to catch the tastiest fish of all, the hogfish. As they slowly hover above the limestone reefs, they search for crabs, shrimp, snails, mussels, and other critters. Dropping down frozen or live shrimp, fiddler crabs, or sand fleas is an excellent way to target these fish.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Mango and Red Snapper Roundup
Florida Sportsman member: swordawet
We have been doing pretty good lately and are very fortunate to make it out often for the American red snapper season. Weatherwise, our last trip out was much more pleasant 40 miles out than it was on land. Occasional storms in the distance, but light winds and smooth seas. As mentioned in other posts, the red snapper have been harder to find as the season has progressed. We encountered a lot of predators and amberjack at spots with great shows. Depths of 100'-130' seemed to work out best and, surprisingly, drifting hard bottom with no fish shows produced our largest red snapper. Yesterday's tally was two red snapper, three mangrove snapper, amberjack, short red grouper, short gags, short red snapper, sharks and huge barracuda.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Reporting on Red Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
They definitely haven't been as thick and as widespread as before, but we have found a few spots holding some rather large ones up to 31". We head out of Hudson and have found them west of there in 90-100'. All our spots that held them the past couple years in closer just aren't holding them in numbers this year. The weather has been squirrelly and not the 1' they have promised. But luckily, we've been running our butts off and found the fish. Frozen sardines have been our go to, but we have been catching live 'dines that worked the best.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Red Grouper Off Tampa Bay
Florida Sportsman member: FloridaIR
Grouper were on fire early on, between 95 and 100 feet. Snapper fishing was slow, but steady. We ended up with four red grouper between 24" and 30" and lost a couple larger ones. There were no big snapper this time around, but they were good enough to restock the freezer.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Full Moon Fishing the Middle Grounds
Florida Sportsman member: harbison & john martin
Fishing during the first full moon of 2019, the Florida Fisherman II produced some great fishing during this blood moon. Including a few rare catches, such as this african pompano. For more details check out the reports below.
Click here to read harbison's forum report.
Click here to read john martin's forum report.
Grouper and Snapper Reports
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa & micklej2
clarosa: The current was almost slack when I found my spot and threw the buoy, so we parked on the buoy and drifted. We picked up three or four keepers within 30 minutes. A couple over 30". The current picked up and the bite slowed down. I headed to a small wreck that was nearby, figuring the big blow had the gags stacked up on high relief. My guess was right and we caught a few in the 23-24" range that we released in anticipation for the couple in the 28-29 inchers that followed. The weather was beautiful, so the ride out/in was nice. Most keeper gags were caught on live pinfish, with the dead bait attracting the red snapper a little too much.
micklej2: Clean water was eventually found and fish were caught. There were not as many gags as anticipated, but a handful were landed. What did show up in numbers for the more experienced fishermen were the mangrove snapper, the vast majority of them being big to jumbo. One hour before, during and after the moon-rise, they chomped. Not all the fishermen caught them, but those who did were rewarded with fatties.
Click here to read clarosa's forum report.
Click here to read micklej2's forum report.
Middle Grounds Grouper and Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: micklej2
As usual, the middle ground are full of quality catches, including some nice red and gag grouper, mangrove and red snapper, and the occasional stray dolphin. For more details and pictures, check out the full forum report.
Click here to read the full forum report.
The Latest from West Central Florida
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Dan Medina
The streak of nice fish continued from June 22nd through the 24th, with limits of american red snapper coming on all trips. Among the red snapper were also some nice gag, black and red grouper, triggerfish, yellowtails, vermillion, and a few stray porgies. Some tripletail were sighted, but were obviously on a diet, since they refused everything presented.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Red Snapper and More
Florida Sportsman member: micklej2, releasegear, trs912 & bigun
Fishing out of the West Central region has been very productive lately, for most. There are tons of red and other snapper waiting to be caught along with kings, grouper, porgies, bonito, sea bass and you might even be as lucky as releasegear and snag a cobia off of a whale shark! Read the details in the reports below.
Click here to read micklej2's middle grounds mixed bag report.
Click here to read releasegear's snapper and cobia report.
Click here to read trs912's unproductive pipeline snapper and lionfish report.
Click here to read bigun's St. Pete grouper and snapper report.
Mixed Bags in West Central
Florida Sportsman member: Rod Squad, CaptainBly, micklej2 & harbison
A few forum members have been out in the last couple days and the fishing has certainly been good. Tons of snapper, grouper and tuna have been reported. If you're looking for an epic catch, we recommend checking out the middle grounds, as the sheer number of fish caught lately in the area has certainly been impressive. If you want to try out a new tactic, check out Rod Squad's report where he gives a how-to/where-to lesson in his 5/20 recap of his last couple trips (you can find more info in the comments on his report). Looking for something different? Check out the other reports below.
Click here to read Rod Squad's reef report.
Click here to read CaptainBly's Middle Grounds report.
Click here to read micklej2's pipe report.
Click here to read harbison's deep dropping report.
Monster Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: sas0061
I caught this monster in 40 feet of water out of Longboat Key. I went out in search of kings, but ended up doubling up
alone with two cobias. The first one broke off while this one was still running. It was a 20 minute fight just to get to the boat and another ten minutes trying to figure out how to get him in. Gaff in one hand, rod in the other. I left home at 9:30 AM and got back at 11:30. Certainly a day to remember! The fish was 58" overall, 53" to the fork, 28" girth and 26" around the head. The pictures certainly don't do it justice, but I think this guy is somewhere between 55-65 pounds.
Click here to read the full forum report.
Mango's, Mango's Everywhere
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
So we saw a nice little window to head out to catch the end of this full moon Tuesday evening and we figured we'd try to head out and snag some more snapper. The weather wasn't as flat as predicted, but after picking up the pinfish traps which were loaded, we headed out in two to three foot waves. We made one more pit stop for different baits by the shipping channel and picked up a bunch of small boston mackerel, cigar minnows and spanish sardines. We got out 35 miles to our spot and saw a nice little secondary rock with a nice show so we anchored up by about 7pm. The action started out slow with of course, lots of red snapper and a few amberjack, but we picked up a few mangrove snapper before it got dark. After the sunset, it was game on! Mango's were coming from every corner of the boat. They started hitting the freelined baits so frequently that towards the end, we all ended up straight freelining live everything and they were crushing the baits. We had them WAY up in the water column which always makes it fun! We had our limit before the moon could even rise. Towards the end the bigger boys showed up, and so did the sharks. We ended up having a few monster mango's get eaten by the tax man so it was time to go. We left them biting to say the least. Most of the fish were in the 20-22" range with a few over 25".
Click here to read 4/3 full report.
St.Pete Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
We picked up the traps and they were loaded with pinfish, pigfish and sand perch. The waves were a little sloppy, but the 36 footer took the waves nicely at 32mph. By the time we got to the spot it was already sunset and just about dark. We got all chummed up and started fishing. The bite was nothing crazy, but we plugged away. Size wasn't quite as good as last week, but we never had to pull the anchor once and ended up getting a seven person limit. Biggest was 25", but the average was around 18-22". We also must've caught 12-15 keeper gags on snapper gear. Of course our fair share of Atlantic red snapper as well.
Click here to read 3/24 full report.
Clearwater Grouper and Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: Bfi
We headed out on 3/25 15 miles SW of Clearwater. The water was much rougher than the forecast. I had trouble getting the anchor to stick. When we did get it to stick we caught a 22 inch red snapper, two 28's and a 27 inch gag and a keeper mangrove snapper. All ended up going back for another day. We had a fun day, just wished the water was a little calmer.
Click here for 3/25 forum report.
St.Pete Mango Hunt
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
We caught some live pinfish, pigfish, and squirrelfish and headed west 25 miles. By the time we got anchored it was around 5pm. The bite started off slow, but eventually picked up. We caught a 20" black grouper which was pretty cool. The big boys didn't show up till the sun went down, and they came with a vengeance! We got them pretty steadily on frozen dines first, then switched to livies. We plugged away and eventually got our three man limit with a good amount of them well over the 20" mark with the biggest 27". The weather was perfect for the ride out and in.
Click here to read 3/18 full report.
Middle Grounds Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
March is prime hog fish time and they are hungry. The day boats are finding the 'Hogs on FIRE!' Want more of a fight? It's kingfish time. They are running big, hungry, and ready for a fight. Huge kings are, 'On FIRE!' Don't forget the tuna and triggerfish. Tammy reports the red snapper, gag grouper, and amberjacks were on fire. Looks like if we could have kept all that was caught, all three huge fish boxes would have been full.
Click here to read 3/11 full report.
Kings, Mangs, Gags
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
We made a quick run offshore Sunday afternoon. We couldn't find the bait that was previously stacked up off the beach. The water was 65 degrees. It didn't warm up much as we ran offshore. It was 66 degrees at 55 feet, where we found bait stacked up on some hard bottom. We anchored up, chummed and loaded live well with spanish dines and cigar minnows. In two hours, we had one hit and miss. We decided to hit a spot in 40 feet on the way in. We put out the free lines and dropped down some jigs/shrimp for hogs and snapper. No hogs, but we managed eight mangrove snaper and lots of gag grouper from 16" to 22". Then the kings showed up. I got two small ones then my son got his big one.
Click here to read 3/11 full report.
March Madness
Florida Sportsman member: john martin
With a solid night bite behind us I was hoping the red grouper bite would turn on. Even though there were plenty of reds caught, few were keepers. Good news was the mango's bit a little all day. I managed to pick two to three on every spot. On one spot late in the afternoon I'd seen several nice gags come up. I was using a large threadfin when, BANG! I thought I had a gag on by the way it hit, but I was pleasantly surprised to reel in a goozer over eight pounds.
Click here to read the full report.
West Central Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: john martin
We started fishing around mid-night in calm seas and the mangrove snapper bite was hot from the start. I caught three decent mangos on the first stop. The second stop saw continued snapper action and a quick flurry of red grouper action. I had a large threadfin on and got slammed. BIG FISH ON! It took drag three times before I had it coming my way. The fishing continues to improve as the water begins to warm a bit. Trolling on the way out is still spotty, but has been strong further offshore between spots, especially tuna. I've also seen reports come in this week that the kings are back.
Click here to read the full report.
Full Moon Mangos
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
We baited up and got lots of whitebaits, pinfish, spanish sardines and cigar minnows. We also had lots of frozen dines brined up. We headed to some rock piles in 95' in decent seas in the 2' range. Water temperature was 69 degrees. As soon as the mango's started to fire off, the bar jacks and lesser AJ's started to show up. We couldn't even get the bare jig heads up past them after losing a bait to the snapper. They eventually thinned out once the sun went down, but the mango bite slowed down as well. We picked away for a little bit and boom, they just turned back on again. We had them way up off the bottom and had some nice size to them. Most were over 20", with the biggest being 27". We got our limit pretty fast and it was time to head in.
Click here to read the full report.
West Central Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: john martin & harbison
Fishing in the West Central region had been slow lately, but it's starting to heat up. Tuna, kings, porgies, snapper, and even some nice hogs have been caught offshore on hook and line. Here's a few recent reports.
Click here to read john martin's report.
Click here to read harbison's report.
St. Pete Mango Hunt
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
The mangos were smaller than expected and not worth weeding through the tons of ARS, so I decided to plug in to 105'. The first 10-15 drops produced noting but ARS, so my hopes dropped again. Then the first mango plopped aboard and she was a nice 20 incher, so there was hope. Probably caught ten ARS to every mango, but the was much better, so we plugged away. I left a big pinfish out freelined and was only getting ajs on it, no tuna though, which are usually thick on new moons. We did however catch about five or six big mangos on the freelined bait after I switched to cigar minnows.
Click here to read the full 2/11 report.
Good Fishing in West Central
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
"We managed to get two good days in Clearwater. As usual, the ARS were thick from 55'-100'. We couldn't get dialed into the gags. We fished bait stacks on ledges and rocks and managed two keepers and a few mangos. Blackfin tuna and cobia were the highlights. Today we found a large school of amberjack in 70'. I let the kids tire themselves out on them." While releasegear couldn't find the gags, clarosa sure did. Check out his St. Pete report below.
Click here for releasegear's forum report.
Click here for clarosa's forum report.
Grouper Bite Continues
Florida Sportsman member: john martin
On the next several stops, I saw a similar pattern. I'd start by dropping a live bait and either get an insta-bite on a gag or I'd soak a bait and switch over to threadfin and pick a few mangos. On one stop, after catching several gags and multiple break offs, a gentleman that has become a regular left his stern spot to fish by me and wanted me to show him how to catch a gag. I showed him what I was doing and even gave him one of my baits. Although neither of us caught a gag, he did catch a big mango. On the next stop, I caught a nice gag and walked him back to the stern. I asked my friend if he had a gag yet and he told me no. I dropped the one I was holding and said “Well, here's your first.” He was thankful and excited. So excited that after the stop, he came up to me and reported he caught a nice gag right after I gave him one.
Click here for full 11/15 forum report.
Click here for full 11/01 forum report.
Hungry Gags
Florida Sportsman member: john martin
The remaining stops we picked mangos and we had the best gag catch I've seen in a while. The boat caught 40 or more. Personally, I caught seven keepers, (made some friends when I gave them away) five shorts and multiple break offs. On the last stop, I casted straight off the bow with a big pin. Within a minute, I got slammed by a monster.
Click here for full forum report.
The Ditch Calls
Florida Sportsman member: winderbill
This was the first trip to the ditch this season that I took with good friend, Pete(Swordawet). It was a sloppy day on the bay, but the gags cooperated. We ended up with three keepers and some big boys still swimming after straightening the jig hook!
Click here for full forum report.
St. Pete Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: swordawet
We were fortunate to be able to take advantage of the great weather conditions yesterday. After arriving at the secret spots in 100', we found some hungry fish. A great day to be wet. We ended up with one nice flounder, one mango, several aggressive red snapper, several short red and gag grouper, two keeper gags, one keeper red grouper and one king for the smoker
Click here for full forum report.
Clearwater Offshore Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
Lots of bait and activity. We found pins, scaled, threads, and cigars just north of the Clearwater tripod, which has been damaged. There was no clean water on the way out, but we saw lots of birds and schools of spanish mackerel. We set up in 65 feet and the bite was steady. There was a mixture of yellowtails, mangrove snapper, gags and hogs. We probably caught 20 yellowtail that were right around ten inches. My son also managed to get his biggest hog yet.
Click here for full forum report.
Tripletail Twins and More
Florida Sportsman member: m10ren
It was a really nice ride out and calm enough that we were able to spot a crate floating at about the 50 mile mark. Running over to check it out, I spotted something splashing around in the crate. There were about five tripletail swimming underneath it and we picked off two of largest. After reaching our desired fishing spot, the tide was slow and the bite followed the tide, but we were still able nab a few red snapper, a couple red grouper, a mangrove, and a 2.5 pound grunt.
Click here for full forum report.
West Central Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: Grouper7
We've been catching plenty of fish inshore and offshore. With the water temps inshore close to 90 degrees, the grouper catching is slow, but we've still been getting plenty grunts and sea bass. The offshore fishing has been excellent. I had the new boat out on its maiden voyage to 118 feet this past weekend and it was full limits of red grouper and snapper for five.
Click here for full forum report.
Back to Back Full Moon Trips
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
It was a little choppier than expected, but we got out past 100' by 8pm for sundown and were greeted by a big school of almaco's. We also saw a couple very nice sized dolphin. My buddy hooked the 1st one, which was a bull and soon after I hooked the cow. We both had nice little battles on the light spinning gear and then realized the gaff was left at home. The spot after that was very slow, other than the jacks and I got one nice mangrove snapper, but that's it. The current was very bad so we decided to move in a few miles. Though it took a little bit to get them fired up, we eventually got them chewing and over an hour span we put over 30 in the box.
Click here for full forum report.
Mixed Bag off Tampa
Florida Sportsman member: farside88
We went out almost 40 miles to 112' and tried some new spots out. There was activity from the bottom up to ten feet. We only pulled four grouper in two days, but lost some good ones too. We also caught one monster mangrove and one smaller one. Both days we limited on vermillion snapper, for a total of almost 70. Nothing big, most were ten to eleven inches. All the grouper were caught on butterflied baits. Whole sardines wouldn't last 20 seconds on the bottom. The snapper were all caught on squid, except the big one hit the butterflied bait.
Click here for full forum report.
Hog Haul
Florida Sportsman member: m10ren
My wife and I went out of Tierra Verde Saturday morning and fished for a few hours. We headed west to around 45' and began looking at the bottom. We found some decent marking and set up shop. We were using only light tackle with knocker rigs, baited with shrimp. We started pulling some of the biggest grunt we've seen and many short red grouper before the targeted species showed up, but then it was game on. I would say within an hour we had landed a dozen or more hogfish. We threw back quite a few in the 12"-14" range and still had enough for a decent mess. We were back at the marina just after lunch and were enjoying panko crusted hogfish for dinner.
Click here for full forum report.
Tampa Bay Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: sas0061
I pulled up to my first spot at 9:30 a.m. and it was covered in bonito schools. I've never seen schools of bonito that large breaking water. At least I knew bait was here! I dropped three lines with three pinfish on knocker rigs, two ounce weights with six ot circle hooks. Within five minutes, I had my first red grouper in the boat. It measured right at 21". I dropped a massive 6" pin down on my heavy standup combo. After another five minutes, I hear the alarm go off briefly. Strange strike, but ended up being a slob red.
Click here for full forum report.
West of New Port Richey
Florida Sportsman member: micklej1
After anchoring, we started chumming and Scott got the fish of the day, a big 38 inch plus cobia. Scott then got rocked by another nice fish and got to enjoy his rookie encounter with a goliath. The fight was one-sided, as they are always are. Hats off to Scott for not letting go of my new Penn Torque combo. Jeff also got his dose of goliath earlier the day on his 80 pound glass star rod.
Click here for full forum report.
Wreck Fishing Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
While anchored on a wreck in 100' of water, we chummed heavily and caught a lot of big yellowtails with a lot of them in the 20-23" range. Also caught a huge mango in the 9lb range that was 27".
Click here for full forum report.
New Port Richey Variety
Florida Sportsman member: micklej1
We headed southwest out of New Port Richey to check out some more of the numbers provided by spear fishermen that previously owned the boat. The spot produced red snapper, gag grouper and several undersized red grouper.
Click here for full forum report.
Fort Myers Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: Veikx
Bountiful keeper red grouper have made it into our box. The goliaths were hungry, as were the sharks.
Click here for full forum report.
St. Pete Tuna Madness
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
While drifting I saw a splash on a piece of sargasm so I threw another cigar minnow and boom, hit immediately. Was it a Dolphin? Nope, another big blackfin, but even bigger. This bad boy was 28lbs.
Click here for full forum report.
West Clearwater Fishing Variety
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
We decided to stay at 45 feet and caught lots of grunts, gags, one goliath and six hogs.
Click here for full forum report.
Full Moon Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
We got a little over 30 mango's with a few slobs mixed in. We got one 27"er over nine pounds and a handful more in the low to mid 20" range, as well.
Click here for full forum report.
West Central Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: Royalflush
Rich grabs a rod, live shrimp, and points to a small piece of debris, which we putter over to and see a big dark shadow underneath. Showtime! First pitch, the dinosaur inhales.
Click here for full forum report.
Offshore Variety
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
Got the chum flowing and the mango's and yellowtail made an appearance. Got five nice sized yellowtail and a handful of really nice mangos, all on sardines.
Click here for full forum report.
Offshore Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: john martin
Normally I start with dead bait, as it gets the chum started, but I decided to drop a livey down. I was barely on the bottom when, bang! Nice one on. Turned out to be a gag around ten pounds. This would be the first of many.
Click here for full forum report.
One fish, Two fish, Red Snapper, Red Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: anglingarchitect
First drop trigger fish, then keeper red snapper's before bottom is hit on each drop. We let out more rope, but they were covering this spot. We caught a couple of 22" gags, also went back. Finally, we move into a ledge in 90' and same story we couldn't catch one mango. We lost count at 50+ red snapper.
Click here for full forum report.
Skyway Mixed Bag in Rough Seas
Florida Sportsman member: john martin
The weatherman might be right, as it was raining and the wind had picked up to 20 knots. Still fishable, so what was the big deal? Mangos bit from the start so conditions were easy to ignore. The big goozers were chewing on live pinfish.
Click here for full forum report.
St.Pete Snapper, Hogs and Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: junglejim
A bit sporty in the morning, seas were a good 3-4'. Stopped in 75' and red snapper everywhere. Most were 14-16". Decided to head offshore to 100' on some ledges with the same result, red snapper again. Did manage two red grouper. Wind finally started to subside so we decided to head in and try for hogfish in 45'. Manage to catch three with one nice male that my sister caught.
Click here for full forum report.
Fort De Soto Snapper and Gags
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
The plan was to hit a wreck with good relief - fish should be stacked up after the front last week. We made it out and anchored up. First bait down got slammed by 34" gag - then it was on. We got our limit of four - all 30-34", released over a dozen 30"+. Only lost one to the cudas- video attached.
Click here for full forum report.
Bouncing but Catching
Florida Sportsman member: john martin
I heard some yelling from the stern which turned out to be a young kid who landed Gag over 30lbs. Excited I fired down another and bang! Hooked up again with what I knew was another nice Gag. I had him ¾ of the way up when a Goliath Grouper nailed him.
Click here for full forum report.
Trolling Dunedin Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: Joyfly
We landed a 31" and 27" gag in just a few hours. A third large gag was lost when it was cut off on the rocks. We were just off Dunedin in 30 feet of water. We pulled deep diving plugs about 150 feet back at about four knots. The bite was steady with good size gags.
Click here for full forum report.
Trolling Anclote Key Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
Went trolling for gags out of Anclote in 30' of water and they weren't thick but were there. Trolled for a couple hours and picked up 4 keepers. Smallest was 26" biggest was 31". Caught a few shorts as well. Water temp was 65, so perfect for trolling. Got two on 30' divers and two on the 25' diving plug.
Click here for full forum report.
Clearwater Massive Tripletail
Florida Sportsman member: Moscador
After spending several days chasing macks and kings with only minor success, I devoted yesterday to finding a tripletail dinner. I'm glad I did. A monster tripletail ate my shrimp and put me through a fire drill.
Click here for full forum report.
Offshore Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
Bait was thick right off the beach. We ran out 12 miles - non stop action on bonito, spanish mackerel, barracudas, AJs and one cobia. The cobia swam right up to my GoPro. He had two small porgies in his belly.
Click here for full forum report.
Offshore Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
Bait was thick right off the beach. We ran out 12 miles - non stop action on bonito, spanish mackerel, barracudas, AJs and one cobia. The cobia swam right up to my GoPro. He had two small porgies in his belly.
Click here for full forum report.
New Port Richey Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
My buddy caught a grunt so I grabbed it, cut it in half, sent it down and immediately got rocked! Keeper around 28". My next drop was a squirrel fish and as soon as it hit the bottom it got hammered as well. Up came another 28" gag.
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Taking the Kids Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
By the time I got the wire rod down and blue runner on he was out of site so I tossed him straight off the back, 5/0 circle hook, 12 inches of 90 pound wire , 50 pound flouro leader and 50 pound braid on a Shimano Baitrunner. Thirty seconds later the wahoo explodes on the runner, shooting out of the water like a missile.
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Catching in the Rain
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
On this, and many trips, it's an honor to welcome the hard working, dedicated, FWC biologist, Mr. Joe Tarnecki and Ernest Jaramillo, on the Florida Fisherman ll. This is real, on the water, up to date, data:
Joe made a thorough study of our Marine's huge mutton snapper.
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The ABC's
Florida Sportsman member: john martin
I was soaking a large Pig fish when I felt my line move a little I put my reel in freespool (keeping my thumb on it) and let a little line out. Bang! I quickly closed my bail and started cranking. It was touch and go for a moment but I got his head turned and coming my way. Tip: Once you get a big fish turned and off the bottom just steady reel, avoid pumping the rod as this puts undo pressure on the point of hook up and can lose you a big fish. The bang turned out to be a 19 pound “fire truck” red grouper.
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West Central Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
Next stop was 120 feet. Managed to get a few Aj's on fly and get a nice mix of snaps and gags.
After 3 hours still no Tuna. That changed as Matt was casting to AJ's he saw something else swimming and made a cast. BOOM tuna!
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Full Moon Snapper and More
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Mangrove snapper tend to go "crazy" during the full moon periods. The full moon for July is 7/19/16 ay 6:59 P.M. We will be fishing a few days after the full of the moon. The weather prediction is picture Florida perfect, this should be a great one!
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Tarpon Springs Overnight Trip
Florida Sportsman member: Matt822
As the sun started to show we sent our first grouper baits down and boy did we get schooled on not leaving the big tackle at home, the daylight bite was really good. Even though I had my Accurate 30's with 34 pounds of drag I only had the 80 pound test on them and it wasn't enough to keep these guys away from the rocks or breaking off.
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Summertime Offshore Bite
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Our Florida is now one of the most populated states in the entire country. And, for very good reasons! Our climate is second to none, Our beaches are among the finest in the world, southern cooking is tops, and, never to be forgotten, our fishing. Florida is widely known as the Fishing Capital of the World.
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Open Season
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
For the first time in years both American red snapper and gag grouper season will open June first. The Florida Fisherman ll, Hubbard's Marina, will be leaving on a 39 hour Middle Grounds and vicinity trip Tuesday, May 31, in search of American reds, gags, and a lot more.
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West Central Deep Dropping
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
3:00 P.M. sixteen serious, dedicated, anglers are ready for a 63 hour 'Deep Drop Florida Style' trip deep into the very heart of our Gulf of Mexico.
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Catching in Rough Seas
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Last weekend's weather forecast called for 5 to 6 foot waves Saturday morning, then calming down some later on. Early Saturday saw 6 to 7 footers. Absolutely no danger for a boat as big as the Florida Fisherman ll. I decided to set this one out, but, Thanks to Mr. John Martin & Mr. Dylan Hubbard, we have some excellent pictures to share.
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Running West
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
Out we went to 110 feet and loaded up on red snapper, gags, vermillion and almaco jacks for a few hours. We ended up keeping three vermillions, everything else was released to fight another day.
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Wrestling with Aj's
Florida Sportsman member: ericf
A 6/0 Mustad Big Gun assist hook, crimped on with 125 pound mono on the spot got straightened out like a pencil. These dang fish have some brutal strength, it would be a struggle to bend that hook with two pairs of vice grips that way.
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Grouper Hunting
Florida Sportsman member: Mako224
We cleared the Pass at 7AM and tried to locate bait. Nothing around the pass so off we went to 30 feet and caught pins, grunts and sardines. Then off we went to 100 plus feet.
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Mangrove Mission
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
We got the chum flowing and mangroves stated hitting the deck. Nothing crazy but steady, most in the 14 to 18 inch range, with a few around 21 inches. We worked and worked and got near our four man limit of forty with a lot of keeper throwback gags and even a 24 inch red grouper and 16 inch hogfish.
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Middle Grounds Action
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
On the way out we troll for kings and bonito. Bonito are excellent bait. After a Chef Tammy meat balls and pasta dinner it's bunk time. We want to be ready for the many fights sure to come. First up, the hard to fool mangrove snapper.
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West Central Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: therobertbrooks
Ran about three miles to a wreck in 58 feet, although it's only about 45 feet on top of the wreck. Noticed some suspended fish showing, so when letting my pinfish down I stopped it midway, and within about three seconds my rod doubles over.
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Anclote Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: BryanC
Went looking for gags with my buddies Chad and Conrad yesterday and we found them in 60 foot. We got our limit at the first stop, with one at 26 inches and the rest from 29.5 to 33. I even caught a 29 incher on an inshore rod later on while targeting mangos, but we already our six in the box so back it went.
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Mangroves and More
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
Slowly but surely the mango's started coming over the rail. Got a few in the 6 to 7 pound range but the bite was kinda slow. Every once in awhile the flatline I leave out for tuna would get nailed and ended up being AJ's just about every time, got a couple in the 25 to 30 pound range.
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Middle Grounds Mayhem
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Last week's full moon Florida Fisherman's over night trip deep into the heart of our Gulf of Mexico returned Sunday morning with the entire boat completely limited out, two day limit 20 each, of Middle Ground's sized mangrove snapper.
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Deep Dwellers
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
We fought stronger than predicted winds and monster currents. Regardless, this, like all deep-drop trips, resulted in huge trophy fish never to be forgotten.
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Catching in the Gulf
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
That new outfit really worked out well for Dan. His 'in the money' jackpot winning snowy grouper hit the scales at a whopping 40 pounds. Not to be outdone, Dan's very good friend, Ed, is ever so proud of his 55 pound wahoo.
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Awesome Day Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
We got to our spot around 8:45 in 85 feet of water. Started to chum and then sent down a few big baits and immediately hooked up with a 30 inch gag. Not a minute later my buddy starts hollering and it's fighting a little different, it starts running out instead of down and we get it closer and it's a nice 45 pound cobia.
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West Central Grouper Success
Florida Sportsman member: Thumper363
I got my dad, buddy, and my oldest little boy out for a late day start. One of those days where you get started way later than expected and don't really have a plan. I decided to sip on some cold beer and spend time with the family and hit a couple gag spots, it paid off.
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Fishing the Deep Water
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Forum member
harbison shared a recent trip aboard the Florida Fisherman II, as they headed out to the deep water to chase big fish.
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Catching off of Clearwater
Florida Sportsman member: Matt822
We headed west and watched the sun start to peek over the horizon as the anchor hit the bottom in 120 feet. The first stop produced a few mangos in the four pound range, three yellow tail and four gags in the 10 to 15 pound range. then the Aj's came to play after catching more then enough of them we boxed three for some smoked fish dip.
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Mangrove Madness
Florida Sportsman member: Mako224
At 1:30 I chose to run out to 95 feet on some natural ledges. Once we dropped the hook and I allowed the Snapper Up chum to work the bite was on for the next three hours. We put 30 fish in the box with about 15 more thrown back, ranging from 2 two to eight pounds.
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Fishing the Deep
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Today's gags are darker in color; they have not migrate to much deeper water. They stay very close to their rocky homes. They are not too happy with the idea of joining us for dinner.
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Pulley Ridge Trip
Florida Sportsman member: _norm
As dawn began to break, the captain signaled for us to bring our lines up so we could make the 3-hour trek to the deeper water in the 550 foot depth. Everyone prepped their electric gear and returned to the bunks for some more rest.
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West Central Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Forum member
harbison and the whole crew aboard the Florida Fisherman II got into a mess of fish recently. Including big groupers, snappers, and more!
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West Central Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: Double Action
We went 40 miles out and my first drop with 50 pound tackle was a break off. Stepped up to the 80 pound setup and got a 25 inch gag. Threw back a couple 22 inchers and then got a personal best red grouper at 29 inches.
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Back on the Water
Florida Sportsman member: sagory
I haven't been fishing in several months and was itching to go. The reports have said mangrove snapper fishing has been good so the plan was to try for those. Jim, and Scott and I left my house around 6:30 and made a quick stop at the bait boat for a big scoop of whitebait.
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Snapper on the Brain
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
One very good thing about Florida fishing is that there is always plenty of fish to fish for. When one season closes, another opens. Gags & amberjack are now closed; so what? We will be, 'Targeting snapper.' Red snapper, for head boats, is open until July 14.
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West Central Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: clarosa
I made a quick statement, after the bite slowed down "if we get a nice tuna now, we can just go in and forget the last two snapper". Not 5 mins later, the big freelined pinfish rod's baitrunner went zinging! After a 30 minute battle, a big blackfin is circling the boat ready for the gaff!
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Targeting the Big Boys
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
After a great Chef Tammy dinner, it's bunk time. After all, we will be challenging the big boys for three days. OK! We are well rested and ready to go. So are the fish
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Tuna, Snapper and More
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Tuesday, let's do it all over again. We are ready, I mean good and ready. The excitement level is off the chart. Our home for the next 39 hours, the Florida Fisherman ll, is loaded with enough food and drinks to supply a small army.
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Running the Bay Boat Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: SouthshoreSlayer
After about 2 hours of snapper fishing the flat lines start getting cut off. We didn't have any wire or long shank hooks, we all rigged our big setups and the king bite was on for the next hour.
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Full Moon Snapper and More
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Most consider mangrove snapper fishing to be at its very best during the full moon periods of the month. Last month the Florida Fisherman ll, out of Hubbard's Marina, fished three days after the full moon. We limited out on AJ's (two day limit) and the mangos were on fire.
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West Central Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: sagory
We moved out to 115 feet and this is where we did the best. We weren't too far from a wreck so we decided to try for yellowtails. We saw someone was on it so we changed plans and ran 13 miles back in to try for hogfish on a ledge in just under 60 feet.
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Hog Huntin'
Florida Sportsman member: slper
This was our second trip targeting hogfish and we found them. The great day started out a little cold and seas were 2 to 3, but it warmed up and calmed down. My wife, buddy Jimmie and I got our limit in under 4 hours.
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Fish for All
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Better hit the sack; after all, we will be challenging the monsters of the deep for twenty five hours of actual fishing time. Captain Garett has advised us to get plenty of rest; we are going to need it. After mango time we are going to this wreck known to be the home of Mr. Amber jack and family.
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West Central Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: sagory
We caught a couple fish but it was pretty slow. We moved on and both the breeze and the bite picked up a little. We were able to anchor and started catching a mix of red grouper and snapper. Troy had the fish of the day with a 24 inch, 7 pound mangrove snapper.
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Red Grouper Rampage
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Looks like all good things must come to an end. With well over 200 gray snapper and 30 large red grouper this will be a trip to be remembered. Let's go 'In search of red grouper' again ASAP.
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Catch and Release Gags
Florida Sportsman member: OU-Pilot
Went out Sunday off Port Richey to some reef lines in 30 feet. The water was pretty nice all day. Temperature was 62 on the surface. We trolled some Rapala Mag 30's and a stretch 25's. Trolled about 2 hours from 3pm to 5pm on either side of high tide. Managed 5 gags with 2 double headers!
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Finding the Honey Hole
Florida Sportsman member: freshfromthesalt
In 120 feet of water, these huge, alien fish, would slam your stoutest meat stick against the gunwale again and again using squid, sardines, live bait - it didn't matter. This would continue until your back gave out, fighting belt or not. Mixed in with these beasts were some amberjacks that you could not lift off the bottom and other fish, that, if you tried to, would break your terminal tackle somewhere in between hook and main line.
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Starting the Year Right
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
The Florida Fisherman ll, Hubbard's Marina, is ready to challenge 2015 with the first ever 44 hour trip one hundred miles off beautiful Madeira Beach, Florida. We will be fishing a couple of days before the full moon; it just does not get any better than that.
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West Central Bottom Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
We went out friday and saturday afternoon to 70 feet of water. It was non stop gag action with some amberjacks, scamp, and mangroves mixed in. All were caught on live bait. Spotted most of the bait in 50 to 60 feet.
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Full Moon Mangrove Bite
Florida Sportsman member: Harbison
For the Florida Fisherman that means it's mangrove snapper time. The mangrove snapper is one of the best eating, most abundant, fish Florida has to offer. They can be found from very shallow bays to way off shore. We will be fishing 100 miles off beautiful Madeira Beach, Florida.
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Trolling for Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: freshfromthesalt
Despite high wind and big seas we were able to get out to the trolling grounds for one last meat trip before the upcoming closure. As usual, gag grouper trolling ace, Justin Spigener, put us on the fish even in relatively rough conditions.
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Grouper Grand Slam
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
That's it! The boat has completely limited out on grouper; and that's a two day limit of 8 each. We are still a very long ways from Madeira Beach, Florida. Let's feast on that Chef Tammy steak dinner, with all the trimmings, and hit our bunks. We are tired, I mean really tired; grouper wore out tired.
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Clearwater Offshore Bite
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
It was take the neighborhood kids fishing day! Headed out at 8:30 and tried to get bait. It was tough but managed to get a couple dozen runners, grunts and a few squirrel fish. We went out to 55 feet of water and set up. The AJ and gag action was non stop from 10:30 to 12:30, all caught on live bait.
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Veterans Day Fun
Florida Sportsman member: OneLandOneSea
Headed out to 65 feet of water for some kings and grouper. Bite was slow but caught two nice 32 inch gags and broke off a bunch more. We lucked out with a nice 20 pound cobia on the bottom too.
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Trolling for Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: freshfromthesalt
I hopped aboard the gag grouper catching machine, the Grumpy Grouper, and trolled up some of the fattest fish I have put on the deck this season. We caught fish from 27 to 35 inches and no shorts. Limited out and back to the dock by noon.
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Fishing with an Old Friend
Florida Sportsman member: sagory
We left my dock around 7:30 and headed to 40 feet which is about 7 miles out. It started out slow but after some hopping around we found some fish willing to eat. We ended up with 4 gags and 5 red grouper which was a little surprising.
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Fun for All
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
Monday evening we went out 12 miles and anchored up. On the way there saw schools of cigars minnows and spanish sardines and loaded up 5 at a time. We were in 50 feet and the area was covered in small baits. We caught gags, cobia, barracuda, spinner sharks and Ajs.
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West Central Offshore Bite
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Whenever cold fronts move into the gulf the pressures starts to plummet, this causes the fish to go into a feeding frenzy because they know the coming storm will stir the water and prevent them from feeding easily. So the days leading up to a front are great fishing, but then the day the weather blows up the fishing stops.
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Catching a Mountain of Fish
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Three P.M. friday afternoon, Madeira Beach is under a severe storm warning. As we board the Florida Fisherman ll at Hubbard's Marina, we can not help but wonder will this overnight trip produce, 'A Mountain of Fish,' or be a complete wash-out?
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West Central Bottom Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: Jerseygirl
We ran south and hit some hard bottom spots that were very productive. The current was strong and the bite was on at most spots we hit. starting out with dead bait, then switching to live once the fish got chewing. We started out with a couple smallish red grouper and some medium sized scamps, then the bigger fish started to show.
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Shallow Sailfish off St. Pete
Florida Sportsman member: Jcclark
About 15 seconds later our flat line starts singing and as soon as my friend grabs the rod the sail starts dancing on top of the water for about 15 yards. I broke off on my fish and jumped up and pulled the anchor. We chased it down and after a great fight we were able to boat the fish for a few pictures and get it back in the water to revive it.
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West Central Offshore Variety
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Once again time for a 39 hour adventure that defies the imagination. Our weekend home away from home is Hubbard Marina's Florida Fisherman ll. We love to catch fish, however, what makes these extended trips really special is the chance to get to really know real sportsmen/women from all over the country.
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Hook and Line Hogfish
Florida Sportsman member: spanishsardine
I got the chance to venture to my new fishing spot. I call it The Spanish Sardine Fishing hole. We managed to catch 3 hogfish in 2 hours. We also caught triggerfish, grunts, porgy's, gag grouper, red grouper, and mangrove snapper.
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Making the Run for Red Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: anglingarchitect
Forum member
anglingarchitect got out during this short red snapper season. Making a long run, but producing some really nice fish!
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Monster from the Depths
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
The trophy fish takes Matt from the starboard bow to the stern, and across the stern to the port side. Finally, forty five minutes later, we see color, the color of a huge amber jack. Quick Will, the gaff. Kyle, get the other gaff; it's going to take both of us to bring this trophy of all trophies over the bow.
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Mangrove Madness
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
The Middle Grounds, located roughly 100 miles north west of Madeira Beach, Florida, is a prehistoric coral-reef complex covering 461 square miles, and is home to 170 species of fish, including the hard to fool, hard to catch, mangrove snapper. Mango snapper are notorious bait thieves.
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Middle Ground Mayhem in the Rain
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Ms. Lisa Shouron, Tampa, refuses to let a little moisture rain on her day. Lisa, fishing out of spot number 10, shows that nice cobia who the boss really is, after all, Lisa is all woman!
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Sharks and Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: jewfish7
The bite was on right away for mangos with a few other tasty fish coming over the rail.Best mang bite this year for me but most were around 15 inches,but quantity made up for quality.The two biggest snapper of the day got eaten bye sharks just under the boat.
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Grouper on the Rocks
Florida Sportsman member: jewfish7
We did well for a few hours then the bite shut down, we tried moving around but was limited because we only had about 125 feet of anchor line. Towards the end of the day we drifted over the best shows and put a few more mangos in the box.
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Taking Out The Kids
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
We caught lots of short reds, a few keeper scamp and five good gags. the kids were reeling in a fish and about half way up it got blasted so I put out a mackerel we had sabiki'd up. Soon we had a shark on, a tiger shark. About 30 minute later another Tiger ate a red grouper right next to the boat.
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Grouper Limit Out Of Longboat Key
Florida Sportsman member: ericf
We came in closer to public numbers in 30 feet, and experienced the hottest grouper bite I have ever seen. Nonstop gags! Live blue runners, frozen sardines, regurgitated whatever from caught fish picked off the deck of the boat, nothing lasted more than 20 to 30 seconds. We limited out in about half an hour, and released a few fish after that. It was mayhem, totally crazy.
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First Foreign Kingfish
Florida Sportsman member: guifri
We are on vacation from Germany. Trolled around the crab buoys 1.5 Miles from the shore to catch some Macks. After a while put a white/red yozuri on the Second rod. It only lasted minutes until the drag was singing!
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100 Miles Off Madeira Beach
Florida Sportsman member: Harbison
Captain Mark Hubbard fires up the Florida's two huge Caterpillar diesels and punches in the numbers for 'One hundred miles off Madeira Beach.' We are on a mission, a mission to catch fish. Will the mangrove snapper be hungry? Join the party as we find out together.
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a Long Trip Equals a lot of Fish
Florida Sportsman member: TennesseeDave
I got one red snapper and one large amberjack, some mangos, beeliners, and such. Some people did well and some people didn't. The weather held out pretty good. At 1 a.m. on the way out it got bumpy for a little while but then softened back down so we could get some rest [...]
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Gags, Red Grouper & Rough Seas
Florida Sportsman member: flatsrunna
Pulled double duty today, had two 4 hr trips and again huge seas, but not as bad as the day before. We managed 6 reds and a batch of nice grunts before the current decided it wanted to move as fast as the breeze we were in. We got nice fish in 40 feet today. I love it when they are super close! We were in by 12 fish cleaned and headed to go get our next group.
2nd trip we got a good number of fish as the seas totally laid down in only an hr, loved it ! 28 knot cruise out and back and nice fish to boot !
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St. Pete Red Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: GASeminole
With the 10 knot West wind, the trip out was into 2 foot or less chop. Water was clean and flying fish started showing up around 50 feet. Schools of bonito were boiling every so often, saw a couple of king mackerel "sky" as well.
Stopped about 20 NM out, about 3/4 mile from a public number (found this spot while re-rigging/drifting one windy day and saw it on the sonar.) Anchored up and my wife and I caught 21 reds. Pulled anchor and drifted over area and caught 3 more. Released all but 7, the one pictured below was the biggest, and was my personal best grouper. All caught on live pins.
While we were out the winds died down and it was hard not to head farther west, but we had more than enough fish in the box and were happy to head home.
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Fort Drum Gag Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: glihon
Went out for some grouper Sunday from Ft D (finally my first trip since the season opened). No tidal movement and other issues in the morning made bait catching difficult at the small bridge. Wasted enough time so just headed out. Ran through a solid rain on the way but made it to the area we wanted to fish and the day turned beautiful. Weed pushed in from the west wind made the trolling difficult but we did get a nice 29-inch gag to the boat as well as 24-inch spanish. Started bottom dropping with the bait we did have and only found short rg. Tried ledges in 45 feet, 55 feet and a wreck in 40 feet.
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Shallow Water Grouper off Anclote
Florida Sportsman member: Juicebucket
Got the boat wet around 6:30 and headed out to the island for bait.
Whitebait was super thick and super tiny. After getting about 450 net wreckers and a couple dozen pins we headed back into the river to fuel up and ride. We hit the GPS and made the long 5 mile run to his first spot. When I think grouper fishing I think straight drops on 4/0 reels and falling to my knees to yank them off the bottom. This was a whole different ball game. The water was so shallow we had to anchor way off and cast to them just like if we were mangrove or dock fishing. Basically once you hook up you have to drag them across 50 feet of bottom that they can wedge themselves into rather than yank them vertically 10 feet until you're safe. I've never had a 24 inch gag fight harder then the ones we caught on this trip. Shallow water fish have a different gear, I swore everyone was 30 pounds during the fights and the bruises on my arms and hips are testament.
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Mixed Bag out of Bean Point
Florida Sportsman member: JEIBE
After casting off out of my place at 530am in palma sola we were met with beautifully calm seas out of bean point. We stopped at the 3 mile north and quickly filled up on cigars and pins. From there it was a nice 43 mile run out. We got 31kph at 2.1 mpg on the freshly re worked 250. We got to our spot in 147 feet and immediately were greeted with a Christmas tree on the foruno. It felt like 20 minutes and we had our boat limit of keeper snapper. they were loving the threads more than anything. We then moved to a barge in 80 feet and of course had the water walking with bonita, sharks and cudas. A captain in a contender came up and asked to share the wreck. He then unloaded hundreds of white bait in to the water and it was game on with monster cudas, mango snapper, sharks, golaiths, bonitas and some baby amberjacks.
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Rough Conditions and Worthy Catches
Florida Sportsman member: Jayzilla
After another 2 hours of getting the crap beat out of us we finally made it out deeper to the first spot. We made a couple of drifts and it produced a mixed bag of jacks, gags, and mangos. Anyone who has ever fished with me knows that I hate to anchor but with the stiff winds, big swells, and ripping current it was a must. We dropped the hook and it was perfect, 7 feet directly in front of the spot. The next two hours we proceed to fill a 150 quart cooler with big mangos. It would have been more snappers but we kept getting the occasional by catch or break off from big jacks or gags. Just before I decided to leave that spot I managed to catch a nice rusty belly on 30 pound snapper tackle. I actually broke the fish off earlier because when I got him up I saw two circle hooks buried in the corner of his mouth. Greedy grouper couldn't stop eating those 3 inch pinfish.
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Sarasota Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: srqmynatt
We ran out to a spot in 135 feet between New Pass and Longboat pass, I had found these numbers back in April and new right away it was covered in snapper. I fished it once or twice in May just seeing what was there and found out the Mangos and ARS were stacked up 20 feet off the bottom. I brought the numbers with me and sure enough we marked a nice pile of fish so we set the anchor. We started with smaller gear and worked our way up to the red grouper. Had a nice mixed bag[...]
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Way Offshore - Grouper & Amberjack
Florida Sportsman member: Jerseygirl
We decided to hit some numbers past the 400 foot contour line. Definitely worth the run time, although next time need to budget for more line in the water time for further exploration. Spent most of the day running, but the fish were there. While we did come up empty trolling, deep dropping was interesting. Neil F. bagged a nice Yellow-Edge Grouper around 25 pounds and I managed a 50 plus pound AJ that hit on the bottom at 430 feet (not fun, especially when you are expecting another big deep-water Grouper). Looking forward to more time fishing this depth to better learn how to approach it.
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Longboat Pass Gags, Kings and More
Florida Sportsman member: rreed
We headed out of Longboat Pass at first light, with a few dozen shrimp and lots of old bait to cut up. The pinfish catching was slow, due to large blue runners tangling and breaking off sabikis. Wind and tide opposition made for slow going without getting soaked in small boat.
As we got out deeper the sun broke through the clouds and seas laid down for a nice day. We drifted for Red Grouper first, quickly putting keepers in the box around 90 feet. We saw some structure during drift and threw out marker. On second try we were on the spot. Given the last few trips RG success came quickly, we brought different setups and shrimp to try to diversify the catch. I brought a 4000 reel with 20 pound mono/ 20 foot 20 pound fluro sliding 3 ounce to 3/O hook, this caught all the mangos.
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St.Pete Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: 06powerstroke
Launched the boat out of Fort Desoto around 5:30 PM and cruised over to the Skyway to put a few live baits in the livewell, bait wasn't hard to find at all. Cruised out to the pipeline at sunset, tried a few different spots and picked up a few Mangos hear and there. On our way to the next spot watching the bottom machine found a sweet spot! It was loaded with Mangos! Made short work of filling our limit and caught my personal largest. Just before the sun was coming up we cruised out to 125 feet of water to try and find decent AJ's. Couldn't find them anchored so we started trolling. We were getting Bonita one after another which is fun to catch for me but then the rod bent over good and line was screaming off. We hooked into a decent Blackfin Tuna! This was my first tuna I have ever caught.
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Snapper and Blackfin Tuna Action
Florida Sportsman member: Navy_Fishing
Headed out towards the Elbow to see if we could hit the big fish for a 2nd trip in a row. Started out fishing the Pipeline in about 155 feet and hit a few mangos here and there. Most were of decent size, 2-4 pounds. A few 5 pounders came over the side as well. Then it happened. One of the regulars, Ritchie hooked up with a fast moving fish that turned out to be a nice blackfin tuna that ate one of his pigfish being sent down on a knocker rig for mangos. I was working a 1 ounce jighead with live bait and got hammered about 5 feet off the bottom and ended up boating a 25 pound Blackfin.
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Prefront Bite
Florida Sportsman member: srchn4salmon
I was a bit skeptical only going about 9 miles out for Mangrove Snapper but the first 2 fish that came up were a couple small mangs. After that we did everything we could to get away from the "endangered" Gags. It was an amazing bite, every drop produce Gag after Gag. Thankfully a couple Mangs were mixed in to get some fish in the cooler. Finally tally for the day was 8 Mangs brought home, biggest being 21”, at least 40 gags with more than half of those being keepers. The biggest came on a triple hook up that we all managed to land our fish.
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[...]
An All Florida Week to Remember
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Florida weather, Florida fishing, Florida shrimp, and Florida hunting, all in one week. Who could ask for anything more? Sunday, three P.M., twenty eight emotionally charged anglers are ready to go, ready to challenge the monsters of the Middle Grounds. The Florida Middle Grounds, 100 miles Northwest of beautiful Madeira Beach, Florida, consist of underwater formations of stony hard and soft coral growths, ledges with twenty-thirty foot drops, and numerous ship wrecks. The 330 square mile Middle Grounds provides a natural aquarium for many species of fish and a tropical wonderland for the serious angler[...]
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MLK Day Snapper Trip
Florida Sportsman member: sagory
I had the day off of school for MLK day and the weather looked good for a trip offshore. I called a few buddies and we did the first trip of 2013 in my boat and it was a good one. We fished 90-100 feet. and the mangroves were chewing. Most fish were caught on light jigs or knocker rigs. We headed in around 1:30 and had over 30 mangroves and a handful of red grouper. The biggest snapper was just shy of 25 inches. It was a great day.[...]
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Hogs, Snapper, and Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: Navy_Fishing
Took out the dusky for it's 2nd fishing trip since being completed. Had an old Navy friend come over from Lakeland to fish with us. I also brought along two guides that I have come to know since working at O'Neill's, Capt. Lee Blick and Capt. Craig Weaver.We set out about 0800 and headed west. Got out to a snapper spot that has been good to us for the last few trips. Fishing was slow to start but picked up as we moved around the area to find the fish.[...]
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Foggy Snapper, Grouper, & More
Florida Sportsman member: Navy_Fishing
My buddy has been working for the last 14 months restoring an 85 foot Dusky. Some of you may have actually seen his thread on the Hull Truth. well, he finally got it complete and after a quick sea trial last Friday to make sure it floated and ran as desired, we decided to take her out for the maiden fishing trip. Left out of O'Neill's at 8ish and the fog was still thick. After a slow trek out of the bay through Pass-a-Grille, we finally were able to get up to speed and head 30ish miles west. seas were a bit sportier than the forecast called for, but we pushed on with hopes they would lie down as advertised. Got to the area we wanted to fish and came upon a spot that lite up the bottom machine about half a mile from our intended stop. We dropped down some sardines and it was game on with the mangos and yellowtail. We boated 4 or 5 within the 1st 10 minutes and then the rudderfish hit us. We couldn't get away from them.
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Kings in the Fog
Florida Sportsman member: rreed
I haven't been able to get offshore for awhile, with my wife past 8 months pregnant I needed to stay close. The newest fisherman has joined the family and things are getting back to normal. On the drive to friend's house was thinking I hadn't gotten a king trip in this year, just a passing thought on long drive. Load boat with ice and old cooler full of old bait from freezer. We were met with a real challenge safely navigating to pass. Sabiki'd blue runners and cigar minnows, just outside of pass. Headed for 85 foot area we fished last few times out. Got two keeper Red Grouper on drift and tossed marker out. Started chunking old bait and caught short reds and grunts while slick built up. Once the chum was built flat lines didn't last more than a minute in the water. Baits intended for the bottom didn't make it. Didn't prepare for kings, had 40 pound mono with circle hooks on flat lines. Lost quite a few, but landed some beasts [...]
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Middle Grounds Action
Florida Sportsman member: JerseyGril
The action picked up pretty quick with a Dolphin (small) right away, then a 20 pound class Blackfin Tuna not long after that hit the shotgun line. After that we were nearly spooled by what turned out to be a monster Kingfish around 60 pounds that we released, to bad there were not any tourneys going on as this fish would have won.The King hit a Marauder plug as did the next Tuna in the box (15 pounds), then were nearly spooled again on the same lure by a big fish that broke off after a 30 minute fight. That killed the party as we did not have any more Marauder plugs. Not bad action for 2 hours of trolling, unfortunately with short daylight this time of year, we had to crank up and make the run home soon after. [...]
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Clearwater Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
Got the kids up and decided to head out for a quick quick grouper trip . Found pinfish and blue runners a mile off the beach in 20 ft. Went to a good bottom area in 40 ft and anchored. Every bait down got eaten. We a mix of red and gag grouper with the biggest gags all taken on blue runners.After 2 hours our live bait was gone and it was time to go. The kids are reeling in a small red grouper and Im reeling up my bait. As we get to the surface a tiger shark goes after the red grouper, misses but grabs my pinfish and then tries to get the grouper again. i quickly back the drag off has he starts running - now hes tangled in the red grouper line, goes around the anchor, then heads back underneath the boat and kids are screaming "shark" non stop ! [...]
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Plenty of Scamp out of Egmont
Florida Sportsman member: perlmman1234
Went out with a buddy on his bad a** 35 foot center console. First stop at 20 miles or so and reeled in a couple keeper reds. Bait was northern mackerel live shrimp and live 2 inch greenbacks. Second stop was around 45 miles out and let me tell you the scamp were on fire. I cant remember the last time I caught scamp like this. Every shrimp down barely made it to the bottom. As you can see in the video there are no shortage of them at this spot [...]
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Plenty of Bait, Plenty of Action.
Florida Sportsman member: releasegear
A few of us had the afternoon open so we headed out of clearwater. Marked bait as I was heading out of the pass , steve threw the net out the back and loaded us up with scaled sardines. Took 3 of us to bring it in, filled the well and 2 five gallon buckets - still had the deck covered. Stop by the rube and toss out a few free lines. slammed right away and steve gets a cobia. Next bait out, slammed again. This one almost spooled my battle with 320 yds of 30lb power pro. I got a nice king. The boca grip was going between 38-42 lbs . [...]
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Pass-A-Grille Offshore Variety
Florida Sportsman member: yelladevil17
With the recent winds, we wanted to wait a few days until the water cleared up. My cousin Tan wanted to show some east coast friends what it was like to fish on our side of the state. We loaded up with lots of live shrimp, white bait, and frozen sardines. Great day to be out on the water...overcast clouds, slight breeze, small chop. Mystery sighting of the day: As we were going out, Tan spotted a sailfish...he said it popped its bill and sail out of the water while chasing bait. That would have been a cool sight, considering we were only in about 50-60' and 20 mi out. We got to our first spot in 65'. Gene was the first to drop down a shrimp and gets railed on his light tackle setup. The fish kept digging and running all over the boat. After a tough fight, we netted a nice 35" cobia[...]
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Box of Red Grouper, King for the smoker
Florida Sportsman member: CaptainBly
About 8 miles into our trip I see a really nice show on the screen. I Turn around and the bottom just exploded with color. Throw the jug. Drift it a couple times and some almost keeper reds come over the side. But way bigger than the last spot so we were hopeful. We decided to anchor.
Within an hour and a half we had our limit of Red Grouper and a nice king that is about to go on the smoker in about 20 minutes... Not a bad day for no plan,not hitting the water until almost 11:00am, and not putting a line in until noon[...]
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Spooktacular Mahi and Mangro Snapper
Florida Sportsman member: indabox.bc
"Headed out of John's Pass Friday afternoon for some Friday night mangros. Ran into a school of mahi 30 miles out. Luckily, we had plenty of live whitebait to keep them at the boat.After an hour of mayhem, 33 mahi were In Da Box and we left them biting to get set up for the nighttime mangro bite[...]"
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Girl Power on the Grounds
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
The Florida Fisherman, Hubbard's Marina, has been on dry dock for a few weeks. Spent my weekends attending Jesuit High School football games instead of fishing the Florida Middle Grounds. That is about to change, the Florida is back. Forty eight anglers and a crew of five are busting at the seams in anticipation. Let's go! The weather forecast is great, the moon is full, the Florida is loaded with enough food & drinks to supply a small, make that a large, army. It's time! [...]
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Fishing the Forty Fathom Break
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Friday means deep water time for the Florida Fisherman, Hubbard's Marina. The moon phase is perfect for an all out assault on the 'Monsters of the Elbow & Forty Fathom Break.' Thirty dedicated anglers wait to board the Florida Fisherman ll. This is going to be all out war.
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Hogfish on Artificial
Florida Sportsman member: jewfish7
Monday's trip hit a little snag when we got to the marina, they were out of live shrimp. We never head offshore without a livewell full of shrimp, everything eats them. Instead we got a box of dines and castnetted up some pins and greenbacks.We ran out to the pipe knowing that there is some big mangs out there [...]
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ARS Pay Back Time
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Friday, June first, 2012, American red snapper season opens. The very best to one & all, let's go get them. Finally! It's ARS pay back time. No more free meals.Forty four anglers, and a full crew, departs Hubbard's Marina on the Florida Fisherman ll. We will be fishing two days before the full of the moon, the best time of the month. Will the fish be hungry? Let's go see.
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Gag Reflex
Florida Sportsman member: flatsrunna
Took my buddy out today for a lil' action, he hasn't fished in 12 years. So I rolled up to the marina at about 9:30. Droped 300 dollars on gas, loaded the boat, and we were off to the nearest flat to catch bait. After a few tosses we had bait and we were off to the wild blue yonder. Feels like we threw back 100 plus fish today. Bite was sick.
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Giant Cobia in Clearwater
Florida Sportsman member: ericj359
A good buddy asked me if I wanted to go out on his newly re-powered Calcutta 263 well I said said "OH YEAH!" A lot different from the 18 foot Mako I usually run. We went out to our favorite cobia spot to see if anybody was home, it was pretty rough at 45 feet, in about 3-6 foot swells the boat handled it great. We ran 25 mph the whole way through it and didn't get wet. Enough about sounding like a Calcutta commercial and back to fishing. We anchored up and started to chum and I hooked up on the biggest blue runner I've ever seen, it was huge! [...]
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Full Moon Mango Madness
Florida Sportsman member: Navy_Fishing
Showed up at Mango's house and loaded the boat. Heading out to challange the GOM beasts would be Mango, Kokosing Lover, Manny (Mango's friend) and myself. Got the boat in the water sometime between 12:30 and 1 PM. Headed out of Blind Pass and started looking for the bait. Got a few cigars and runners and then headed out to about 100'. Started to drift over form fishy looking hard bottom and I get hooked up by a big fish only to have my knot to the swivel come undone [...]
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Offshore AMI
Florida Sportsman member: JEIBE
Finally had a day off with school and work being so crazy so Capt Vern treated me to a trip. Started off at the 3 mile and sabiki'd up pins, blue runners, pig fish, sardines, you name it. We were going to run out to 100 or so in search of some big fire trucks but we found a bottom chunk we couldnt pass up. Several gag grouper in the large and larger range were caught. RGs got in the action as well with bringing 4 keepers home...between 20-23" [...]
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Cobia's out of Clearwater
Florida Sportsman member: ericj359
While most of you were fishing the king of the beach. I didn't enter cause kings are a hit or miss with me. Headed out to a public wreck in 45 feet about 10 miles out looking for some light tackle bonita mackerel action, well that wasn't the case. Filled the well at a bridge in the intercoastal so we started chumming, the first bait in the water gets slammed not even 5 minutes in [...]
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Middle Grounds Trip
Florida Sportsman member: harbison
Once again we challenge the Florida Middle Grounds. Once again the weekend weather prediction is less than perfect; in fact, down right lousy. Forty eight anglers hope for the best. Low pressure or no low pressure, we know what the Grounds has to offer. Most of us arrive at Hubbard's Marina early. One reason is to watch the 1/2 day boat returning. Sure enough, the Friendly Fisherman returned one P.M. Friday afternoon. Grunts were targeted. Grunts, small but very good eating. Also some very impressive king fish and mackerel were landed.
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75 Miles
Florida Sportsman member: electricblue
Ran out for opening grouper and got on the mangos something nice. See the 8#er. Had the ARS chummed up from 200'. Folks these bastards have doubled in size. It's almost like they know they get a free pass. Some sort of hope and change I guess.... $1000 in fuel, couple of fish, day on the water, priceless...Life is good.
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First Cobia- and much more!
Florida Sportsman member: timbo615
Went out to run the boat because it hadn't been ran in a while. Engine had a hard time and thought it was gas. Got out 4 to 5 miles and started trolling. Dropped a big lipped lure down and was about to get the spoon out and boom the lure gets killed. Stopped the boat and he was not moving. Maybe I got hung up. Motor back over it and he comes out. About a 28 in gag. Have no idea how he got in the rocks trolling. I turned the engine off and when I went to turn it back on, nothing. I opened a compartment and smelled gas. The water fuel separator is spitting out gas [...]
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Kingfish out of Hubbard's
Florida Sportsman member: TennesseeDave
Me and my neighbor went on Hubbard's Sunday morning half-day. Trolling on the way out we caught a bunch of Spanish mackerel. One was at least 4-5 pounds (sweet). These were caught using a #1 planer and a green drone spoon off one of the corner spots. My buddy used a silver spoon with a small trolling weight wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy back [...]
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Cobia!
Florida Sportsman member: GEO
Cobia have started to show up at the mouth of Tampa Bay to just inside the Skyway Bridge in decent numbers to where I think we are going to have a great cobia year. On back to back trips we were able to catch four while sight casting to them. Pinfish or scaled sardines under a popping cork is a deadly combo for these brown bombers. They fight great especially the second time after they see the boat. Look for these fish to be around reefs, bridge pilings channel markers and similar structure [...]
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Gags, a Mango, and a Porgy
Florida Sportsman member: Navy_Fishing
LateAgain, Myself and an old Navy friend from Lakeland went out to try our luck with the Mangos this morning and to say the bite was tough would be an understatement. Only 1 Mango wanted to come home for dinner, so we of course obliged him or maybe her. Gags were hot and eating everything we dropped down. Sardines, live shrimp, dead shrimp. Largest went 11 something pounds [...]
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Big Gags and a Frisky Shark
Florida Sportsman member: jewfish7
The weather looked decent so I tried to get a crew together but only my buddy Kit could ride out,oh well time to go find something willing to put up a battle. On the way out about 12 miles out we see something that looked very stange, there was a loon diving down and there was a huge colorspot under him.We pulled up and to our surprise it was a massive whale shark with a school of bait fish all around him,the loon was diving down getting him some.I made the mistake of taking my eye off the whale shark fetching the camera,when I got he dove down never to be seen again [...]
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The Bottom Bite
Florida Sportsman member: Gordo35
Ended up fishing with 3 buddies today. I just put the boat back at O'Neill's the other day and we departed from my lift around 6:50. Stopped at the PAG marker and got some smallish Pinfish to go with the live shrimp I got from the marina. Headed out to the Egmont channel markers and got some nice Sardines and Cigar Minnows to join the crowd in the livewell [...]
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Can You Say Tuna!
Florida Sportsman Member: timbo615
My uncle is a long time local who moved to Tennessee. Whenever he comes in town I make sure I have plenty of time to take him out. This past week Thursday-Saturday looked to be the best days. Took another person out with us, his son-in-law, never really been offshore before. We ran out to the pride in hopes of playing around with some aj's. We get there and the aj's are all over. Uncle throws out a soft plastic and gets hooked up. He saw that it wasn't a aj as it was really silver [...]
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