Just shy of 40 feet we stopped on an old number and it took a while to find any fish. I was concerned about the previous red tide and I had no idea whether or not grouper would be present-it’d been over a year since I’ve grouper fished this area.
Using frozen East Coast pogies the first drop netted a short gag. The second gag hit hard and started heading to the side where I presume the rocks were. This was a good fish and once on the deck it measures 31.5 inches.
Hoo Yah!! The bite is on!
31.5 inches
As I was fighting my fish I’m telling Rich to get ready as multiple hits occur within seconds of a bite. Sure enough he gets a hit and starts fighting a nice gag too.
My buddy Rich.
Both fish go into the fishbox
The next fish is thankfully the only red snapper we caught all day (and released).
We catch a couple of other sub legal gags and we’re having a good time…….
Some of these small gag obviously just migrated offshore from the inshore grass beds
We let out another 30 feet of line on the anchor rode and the bite begins anew.
Fog rolling back in…….
Then it’s Rich’s turn again………………
Rich n’ fish
With the fourth gag in the box we can’t keep any more so we switch gears and pull some squid out to catch a few white grunts for bait with the intention of targeting red grouper.
Chilling out…………
Using fresh cut white grunt we caught a few more gags and got pummeled twice on big fish that we couldn’t stop. The bite was slowing as the tide was coming up on slack.
The next fish hits hard and tears off away from the boat. It’s obviously a good fish…………….
We quickly measured it, put it on the scale and took a couple of photos. It went 16 pounds and 31 inches. It’s pretty sad when you have to release a chunky 31 inch gag…………………
See ya next time………..
With that we packed up with the intention of heading inshore and trying the grass flats to see if any trout were home.
On the flats we eventually found the trout and the only place we found them was in less than 4 feet of water. The fog was approaching and I made the comment that if we don’t leave now we’ll be naving by the chart plotter again. Twenty minutes later we were engulfed by the fog which also shut the trout bite down so we headed in. You can’t see anything and only about 50 yards from the outside ramp could you see land.
Rich n a pretty lil’ 16” trout
Water temp was 65 degrees near 40 feet and 63 degrees in the grass flats behind the islands. There was no grass on the surface and trolling for grouper would have been no problem. The current was honking and 4 ounces was necessary to hold bottom. Offshore we were mostly surrounded by fog. Heck that went for inshore too. The grouper bite ranged from full on hit-hard and hold-on to a more prevalent soft-bite and you don’t know a fish was on until you slowly lifted your rod (using circle hooks) and the rod loads up and the fish hook themselves (I’ve found they tend to do this once the water starts getting cooler). We only anchored twice but each time we let out more anchor rode we caught a couple more gag. We only caught 4 species for the day; gag, red snapper, white grunt and spotted seatrout.
It definitely was a fun day!! Gotta love Cedar Key!
Hoo Yah!!
Brian
