Wanted really bad to break the 5yr grouper dry spell.
Was going to try the area south of Marker 24 for some
hard bottom.
Found a spot after a 1/2 hour ride, and tossed out
the stretches for some action. Nada, no bites, like usual. Well,
time to try a drift. Left the stretches out and tossed out
squid on small hooks to see what baitfish were down
there.
Up came sand perch one after the other. Wasn't the
right bottom I wanted, but needed the live bait
because I didn't have any (didn't want to waste any
time catching bait inshore, when bait was plentiful
offshore). What was neat about the perch was that
some were babies (3"ers), ideal bait for small and
large gamefish.
One of the rods with the stretches started jerking
up and down, so I grabbed it and up came a spanish. A
spanish hit a stretch while drifting? Well, ok, I'll
take them however I can!
The bottom soon looked more rough with structure, so
down went a sand perch on a circle
hook. Wham, an instant hit! Hit the GPS to mark the spot,
and decided to turn around and anchor up.
Searched for 5 minutes trying to find the same spot
and couldn't find it. Typical. I'm sure I'm not the
only one with this problem. Like finding a needle in a
haystack - trying to find a spot and structure, going
round and round, watching the GPS and the fishfinder
and sea surface, looking for that spot that you know something
big was down there.
Alas, found what looked like the place, and now the
task of anchoring upcurrent and slacking the rope so
the back of the boat is right over the spot. Another
difficult task. Didn't want to keep pulling up and
down the anchor, or course, just wanted to hit the spot the
first time. Knew in the past that you be a few yards
off a spot and catch nothing, while someone else is
closer and pulling them in left and right.
Down went the baits on the rods. Wham, a big hit
before a bait hit the bottom! This rod happened to be
my meat rod, just the one to fight a big fish. After a
few minutes, up came a 25" red grouper. My eyes
immediately were big as saucers. "Hey, let's do that again".
Down went another bait into the beautiful blue 45' deep water
(could see patches of bottom it was that clear). Wham,
another red grouper.
Down went the lines again and another like-size
red. Too bad only 1 red is allowed, but the first one
just happened to be the biggest.
Another couple of
baits and a small gag was brought aboard. It's kind of
difficult fighting these fish and gaffing them at the
same time, but when you're alone on the water, you
have to make due.
Ahhh, the dry spell was broken. What a relief!
Back on the hill at 2pm. Now the ride home and
cleaning the fish.
Took me over 20 minutes cleaning the grouper. Gee,
what do you use to clean these bony beasts, a hand
saw? Couldn't get through the backbone very well with
a knife, then removing the air bladder was a chore.
The catch for the day:
3 red grouper
1 spanish
A few grunts, sand perch, black rock bass
The bait of choice:
live sand perch (grouper loved them)
Rig of choice:
grouper/bottom rig with 2 hooks and sinker below
(I put on those small sand perch on both hooks
and it made the grouper choose this rig over the single
hook rig. One of the grouper even ate both baits and came
up with both hooks in its mouth - a sure catch)
