Alligator Point 2/2/03

Post by **fish finder** » February 3rd, 2003, 9:23 pm

Like alot of ya'll, we took advantage of the great weather on Sunday. We left the Marina about 7:30, in the fog, so thick that I didn't feel comfortable rounding the point, even with radar and chartmap. By the time we made the Dog Island East marker we were greeted with flat seas and blue skies and sunshine, a beautiful day. I had the owner on board with a couple of his friends and I was expecting a good bite. We fished hard from 50 ft to 75 ft with the grouper being very picky. The only thing we got them to bite was cut LY's. We even tried some live squirrelfish, nothing doing. We had 15 grouper with only 5 making the fishbox by about 2:00. I picked up on some radio talk about catching them with jeff gordon colored stretch 30. Didn't know what color they were refering to but we got back into 50ft to do some trolling of our own. The crew could only take about 30 min. of that, with no strikes, and they wanted to bottom fish. You've got to dance with the one you brought, so we hit one more number on the way in with only shorts to show for it.
Not my best day but then that's way they call it fishing

All aboard had fun chasing them and we really enjoyed the beautiful day. Water temp stayed about 52-54 degrees on the surfaceand the water seemed to be cleaner out deeper but it didn't seem to matter much as far as the bottom bite!? I'm going to have to find out what one of those "gordon" stretch looks like.

I will be doing a little more trolling next trip out as that seemed to be what they wanted on this day.
till next time,
Capt. Jay

Post by **tin can** » February 4th, 2003, 6:42 am

FishFinder, I don't think you necessarily have to get the "Jeff Gordon" stretch to be successful. I would suggest the brighter colors, tho. Chartruse, fire tiger or anything bright. I was pulling a chrome with black back, and my partner was pulling a chartruse. He got twice as many hits on the chartruse. I've had much more success with bright colors this year.

Post by **seatrout99** » February 4th, 2003, 8:28 am

FAMU Bait, maybe??

Post by **tin can** » February 4th, 2003, 8:55 am

ST, the FAMU bait won't run deep enough for where he was. I wish they made thay bait in a larger size.

Post by **fish finder** » February 4th, 2003, 6:58 pm

Thanks guys for the feedback. After checking all of my info sources, nobody really tore them up on Sun., especially bottom fishing. I'm thinking that all we need is for a little rise in the water temp of 5 to 7 degrees and I think the bite will be great. At every stop I was marking good bottom and fish on the bottom, just couldn't get them to bite. When they did bite, it was very timid. I suppose that I could have went with lighter leaders and smaller hooks, like snapper fishing, but then again I could second guess all day.

As far as trolling goes, I've had great success trolling both stretch 30s and CD 18s in the area southeast of 24, back when I was launching out of St. Marks. Since I've moved over to Alligator Point I really haven't spent much time trolling the waters off Dog Island, YET!

That is about to change, because as we all know, it is a great way to locate new spots, which I need to do. Sometimes it is hard to resist the temptation to run the extra distance to get to my old "honey holes", but that is the only way to get new ones. Anyway, you gotta go to know!
Capt. Jay