Steinhatchee Fishing Report 7/1/02

[GrouperMaster]

Steinhatchee Fishing Report 7/01/02
Capt. Brian Smith / Gulf Stream Marina

Muscling grouper off the bottom is an activity dominated by men. The vast number of grouper charters are made by men and if a gal rides along she tends to enjoy a day of pulling in countless grunts, sea bass and porgies while the guys macho grouper fish. It is indeed rare to have an all female charter going for the grouper. Mary Kearley, Vicky Krieger, BJ Sapp, Maritza Rivera, Robyn Kearley and Edna Aviles, all whom work at Robricks Nursery from Hawthorne, decided to spend Friday with me. They had heard of this 'grouper fishing' from guys of a previous charter and wanted to try it themselves. In all honesty I thought..."each of the ladies will get a couple of hard hits, the fish will swim in the rocks, I'll break it off and sooner than later we'll settle for picking up a mess of grunts, sea bass and porgies". Boy was I wrong! Never under estimate the determination of a woman. I learned that quick and made an interesting observation. When a man gets a big grouper, his buddies stand back and cut jokes at his struggle. The more he struggles the more alone he is and the more intense the taunting from his buds. On the other hand, when a woman squeals at the bending rod, her girl friends immediately come to her aid. One or two help hold the rod up while the others offer words of encouragement. "Go girl, go girl" "Keep reeling" "You can do it!" The fish is ganged up on. In this scenario, the real struggle is for me to get close enough to her to gaff the fish. Dogged determination and group support brought 15 beautiful grouper to the dock for a great Kodak moment. One hundred and ninety pounds of grouper, two fish near 20 lbs! No, I didn't reel in one fish, I didn't have time. I thoroughly enjoyed this 'rare' charter and encourage other women to join in on the fun.
In general, grouper fishing has picked up. Bottom fishing with sardines or cigar minnows is working so well that for the last three trips I thought catching pinfish was a waste of time. But one never knows when live bait will be the sole key to a good catch. Those trolling are picking up a few grouper and kings, however, bottom fishing is far better now. Now ,the advantage to trolling is creating a breeze in the heat of the day.
One more quick quip for the hip-hip-hooray for women (it was my wedding anniversary this week which may explain the women theme). My friend, Ken Prichard, told me this week that his wife, Heather, had never caught a big kingfish and wanted to tackle one, if possible. Thursday at 2:00 pm we headed out with "no guarantees". We set anchor on a nice piece of natural reef in 20' of water and began catching blue runners with squid on light tackle. As a runner came in the boat attached to a hook in the mouth, it went out the boat with a hook attached to it's head and tail. One baited on a float rig, one free lined and one to the bottom. Within an hour the bottom rig sounded off like an alarm clock. Controlled madness ensued. Heather took the hot rod, Ken reeled in one pole and I the other. The fish ran to the bow, thankfully over top of the anchor rope, Heather followed with a doubled over pole. The fish ran to the stern, Heather followed. "Ken pull the anchor, now!" "And quick!" I yelled. A brief period of taking in line, only to watch more line peel off the spool. I thought of how well I tied the knots and haywire twists. Would the hooks pull? The line break? The color flashing in the water indicated a very fine kingfish. "My arms are killing me" Heather panted. "Just a few more minutes" I said. When the king made the third pass by the boat, I got the gaff in it and pulled it aboard and into the fish box. A sweaty hug made me feel great. Heather popped the lid open several times just to look as we made a celebrated 20 minute cruise to the marina. The king weighed in at 35 lbs. What an afternoon to remember.
Capt. Steve Rassel rated trout fishing a 7 out of possible 10 this week. The heat has put the trout bite on the deeper grass beds. Work a jig, or better yet, cut bait low and slow over the grass beds. It is actually good the trout are out in deep water because those scalloping have invaded the shallow water flats.
Spanish mackerel and bonita are boiling bait pods 5-9 miles southwest of the number one marker. They are feeding on inch long glass minnows. In order to catch them you must use light tackle spinning gear and "match the hatch" by tossing small jigs or strip bait into the mass of fish. Make sure the terminal end of the line has #1 wire leader or the mackerel battle will be brief. A screaming drag is it's own reward. Good luck, until next week.

Capt. Brian Smith, Big Bend Charters (352) 498-3703
Gulf Stream Marina (352) 498-8088