Offshore: What am I doing wrong?

[Srbenda]

yep

i let them back until i can see from the rod action they are bumping bottom and then reel up a bit. if they don't come to the surface every now and then fouled with a piece of sponge you aren't deep.enough. braid helps to get them down but you have to have the drag set where it just keeps the line from going out.

yep southeast of 24.

if you can get some boston mackerel it makes for.a great bait this time of year

and you can load the boat with black bass out there. which i think are better eating than grouper. cleaning a cooler full is no fun though.

Maybe I was too shallow, and perhaps too fast too. I was running about 4mph.

I was hoping for black sea bass at the very least, but I didn't even get a bump from them. I don't filet them, but just scale and gut them. Then season, and bake whole. Much less work, and much more fish to eat.

[Salty Gator]

4 doesn’t seem to fast. Also, try to troll on the direction of the tide.

[Srbenda]

4 doesn’t seem to fast. Also, try to troll on the direction of the tide.

We were heading in with the tide.
It looks like I might have one last shot on Sunday...the wind and waves are forecasted to be pretty low.

[Captainawesomepants]

Im pretty sure I was out the same day. We fished inshore and had some luck on reds and trout but it was a slow day. The dead grass made it difficult to get a clean bait to the fish. I actually saw more reds than we caught.

We hit some rocks in 10' but they werent holding any fish.





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[Srbenda]

Trying again Sunday.
Full report here.

[Srbenda]

Hit the water around 930AM. The fog was thick again, and not burning off, so we rolled out in the river and tried a creek mouth for a few minutes to see if the fog would lift. No luck in the creek, but the fog lifted, and we headed offshore.

Once we got almost to St. Marks Reef, we trolled two stretch 25's s from there south for about a mile with no luck. The fog still hadn't lifted, so we stopped at another public spot, and tried our luck on the bottom. We hauled up countless undersize black sea bass, and eventually a keeper bsb as well as a grunt.

The fog still didn't lift. This was at 1PM.



I caught a few baitfish on a sabiki rig, and I kept one of them down below the whole time we were out, with no luck. However, the live shrimp and Gulp continued to produce a few fish, albeit slowly. Water visibility was much better than it had been a week ago, and water temps seemed to vary between 61 and 63 degrees, better than the 57 from last week.

Finally got a grouper on a Gulp, but not quite the size I was looking for...



Around 3, the fog STILL hadn't lifted, so we headed inshore to the river.



My wife ended up with a nice slot redfish in the river, as well as under-slot, and we called it a day.

Now that grouper season is over, what can be caught offshore between 20' and 50' of water? Seabass, grunts, flounder and sheepshead?
Anything I'm missing that is worth chasing?

[silverking]

Good report. Thanks. I went back to bed after looking at the foggy forecast. Typical for this time of year with the unseasonable temps.

Your laundry list for offshore targets is on the mark. The flounder get thick around the artificial reefs, along with sheepshead and BSB. You might even hook an overslot red or two. Mangrove snapper are another possibility.

Did you close the deal on your other boat?

[SHOWBOAT]

We pushed through the fog Saturday as well. Couldn’t buy a hit trolling. Found some good fish bottom dropping just shy of 30’

[Salty Gator]

Did y’all put in at Lanark? Saw a ranger headed out as we were pulling in.

[SHOWBOAT]

St marks.

I know several folks that shoot hogs. Does anybody target them in the summer? Thinking t could be similar to yellowtailing in the keys.

[silverking]

St marks.

I know several folks that shoot hogs. Does anybody target them in the summer? Thinking t could be similar to yellowtailing in the keys.

Tailwaters might? There are some guides who are doing well with hook and line with shrimp. Wrote an article for TIDE a couple years ago about guy in St. Pete area. He consistently catches some nice ones. Think I have a PDF of the article I can send you, Brian.

[Salty Gator]

St marks.

I know several folks that shoot hogs. Does anybody target them in the summer? Thinking t could be similar to yellowtailing in the keys.

Tailwaters might? There are some guides who are doing well with hook and line with shrimp. Wrote an article for TIDE a couple years ago about guy in St. Pete area. He consistently catches some nice ones. Think I have a PDF of the article I can send you, Brian.

We ( tw and I) tried yesterday for hogs with no luck. Got some mangrove and lane snapper as “bycatch” .. I’m not sure how they will respond to chum, but chum in the summer is asking for sharks. We catch mangrove snapper similarly to the way folks catch yellowtail with chum, but never tried for hogs. We had a hard time with big sharks yesterday, they got all our best gags and red snapper (no chum).... give it a try and let us know.

[Srbenda]

We pushed through the fog Saturday as well. Couldn’t buy a hit trolling. Found some good fish bottom dropping just shy of 30’

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Seriously? Again? I'm going to need you to come out with me for some tips and pointers. That's 2 for 2 trips. Nice.

Did you close the deal on your other boat?

No, I have not. Taking too long...

[Willie]

We were in 30' off Dog Island on Sunday fighting the fog and found them on hard bottom. Only caught shorts until the bite turned on shortly before slack tide.
Put 5 keepers in the boat in 45 minutes and then the bite was off. Sorry, don't know how to post pics.

[StMarksAngler]

In the Keys we "chum" hogfish by filling a bait bag with lobster carcasses, dropping them on the bottom for an hour or so and then go in with the guns to shoot them. I've never seen a hogfish in a normal chum slick even when we know they're there.