Decided to make a "grouper bottom" scouting trip yesterday. Left Tally town at 0500, and stopped in Panacea for some Boston macks and squid, for "bottom checks" on extra good looking new spots. Dropped the Oh Hell...Mechele! in at Lanark at 0715, after picking the boat up in Carrabelle. I was the third trailer in the lot.
Pointed the bow towards a number in 70' 21nm from the eastern tip of Dog Island, which I had been wanting to use as a starting point for some charting. As I was alone, put on the inflatable PFD, my PLB in my pocket, and wore the kill switch on a long lanyard.
Wind was from the NE at about 10k, making a rather unpleasant chop quartering on the port side. Along the way, stopped twice in two new areas showing up on the bottom machine, and marked some numbers there for later checks. They were within a half mile from existing numbers, but I never had gone to them before. Wrote down "probably good" in the log book, but didn't do a squid check.
Made it to my original number in about an hour, after seeing no other boats. Did hear a couple of drawls asking for radio checks on 16, but nothing else. Started trolling a couple of stretch 30s around the number just for kicks, and began to mark outcrops here and there. Did this for an hour or so, and had no bites on the lures, so decided to leave this spot but do a squid check. Anchored once, then drifted the area and picked up one 22" red grouper and a grunt, but pretty quiet. Threw the red back, thinking I should keep a bigger one for dinner than that. All gags would have gone in the box, if legal.
Headed back in about noon and ran over two other nice looking areas not close to any of my numbers (closest about 3 miles away). Stopped at the largest to drift for my "one" red, and got a nice whammo right away. Put a 25" fat red on deck, dehooked him, and threw the bait back in. Bam, another red, brother to the first. Well, time to choose one, then eased the other guy back in, in good shape. I only use circle hooks offshore, and they are always caught in the lips.
Wind was dropping a little, which made it nicer heading in almost to a head sea. At first I had lowered the tabs and slowed to 20knots, to keep my fillings in and my back in one piece. Now I could pop up to 30 and ease on in. Easy ride to the ramp and cleanup. Will cook the red for a couple of dinners this week. Time also for a yearly/100 hour service on the Suzuki.
Got some good spots for next time, which will be end of September, first week in October. My bride and I are taking off for Eastern Europe next month to visit the Motherland/Fatherland celebrating 30 years of marriage and retirement.
Luck,
EJ
Off Dog Island - 8-29
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GIT-R-WET wrote:
Yeah, the limit is ridiculous. But, when I catch such a nice fish (and lately I have caught a LOT of them) and can't keep it, I really want not to waste it because of those feds. So, try real hard to put them back in good shape.
Luck,
EJ
