Steinhatchee offshore. 15 Mar 03

[Big Bend Brian]

On Saturday March 15th, I fished in the Steinhatchee Saltwater Tournament with Bernie Fowler. Our goal was to focus on large grouper and our strategy was to initially troll for a while and then bottom fish. Outfitted with larger gear and heavier tests (80 and 100 lb test main lines) than usual we were going with the big fish big bait theory.

Offshore conditions were ideal with a quartering following sea, 2 ½ foot seas, and an overcast morning. Expecting to be wet all day with forecasted scattered showers there were no thunderstorms nearby. On the way out we stopped in 24 feet and caught a good supply of large black seabass and porgies. Interestingly, it was calmer offshore (1 ft) in 60 feet than it was in 40 feet (2+ ft). After reaching an area of convoluted hardbottom ranging from 60 to 65 feet we started trolling. After an hour of trolling a red & white and a blue back chrome Manns Stretch 30 the tally was two sub-legal grouper (one a small 16" inch red grouper) and one 23" gag (caught on Stretch 30 Loud). Having a few numbers in the immediate area we expected to do well trolling here but that sure wasn’t the case. We decided to switch to bottom fishing and we went to a proven nearby number in 62 feet. Thinking big baits big grouper we put out two large baits, one a 15 inch black seabass on a suspended dropper rig and a 12 incher-both rigs using circle hooks. We also fished another rod a piece using frozen sardines. Over the next hour we didn’t catch very many grouper and those we did were sub-legal. No takers at all on the big baits. One notable fish however, was my first offshore redfish that went 30 inches and fought noticeably different than a grouper. After a couple of pictures the redfish was released.

We then hit 3 other spots all within 65 feet with similar results; few fish. On a number of occasions we caught small gag that we didn’t even know were on the hooks-it was a pretty soft bite. By noon the bite was almost non-existent and we decided it had to be a “tidal thingâ€

[dstockwell]

Good report Brian, Thanks..

[fish finder]

BBB,
It sounds like everybody is reporting the same thing lately as far as the grouper, lots of action but not many keepers respectively. On my last trip on 3/12 we caught alot of shorts, red and gag grouper but almost all of them were only short by 1/2inch or 1 inch. What's you're take on this slow bite we seem to be having? Do you think we would do better in 100 ft plus? Just trying to figure it out. Later
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