After dropping off the kids at school I drove to Cedar Key with the Bare Necessities in tow where I met up with Russ and we launched around 1030 hours. On the way out we stopped at a good grass flat to pick up some trout and hopefully catch a couple of ladyfish for re-baiting the stoner traps. Near Seahorse Key the water was extremely discolored-quite chocolate in color and it didn’t look promising. Casting & drifting nothing happened so we hit a favorite marker for cobia but no one was home. Prior to pulling traps we stopped on the way out to pick up some live bait for grouper fishing but only managed larger white grunts and four pigfish. While going to my traps we motored over to another boat pulling traps in the same area and spoke with some FWC crustacean biologists from the FWC Kirkpatrick Marine Lab out of Cedar Key. We then went to my string and pulled traps, snapped claws, re-baited, and set them back out.
First of the year haul
First volunteer
Snappin’
Couple of jumbos
Since the seas were still suitable for grouper fishing we headed offshore. With the predicted seas to build (15 knots) and the weather starting to look snotty I wanted to stay close to the hill so we started fishing in 25 feet at a spot I had found previously but had not yet fished. There were grouper there but they were all small and quite green in color (typical this time of the year). They were hungry however as they hit hard despite the near slack tide. Most likely there were legal fish there but we didn’t have a lot of frozen bait so we moved on to save the bait and find larger fish. We moved to the next spot in 27 feet and again encountered numerous small gag but still no legal fish. The next spot in 33 feet was another one I had not yet fished and since the weather was deteriorating we made a last stand here. We boated between 25-30 gags and keeping five, releasing those too close to be comfortable keeping.
Russ with a typical gag of the day
They were quite hungry as they hit hard and it didn’t take long for them to hit once the bait hit bottom. There was a bit of pecking going on with the dead baits and we caught a few grunts, keeping a couple of larger ones (breakfast). When we did drop down our live baits it was immediate and it wasn’t a grunt.
Me with another typical gag
I didn’t take a lot of photos as the fish were of typical size. You gotta like shallow water grouper though as they fight much harder than those caught in deeper water. To me they seem much more motivated. At one point I had what I initially thought was bottom but oddly I was gaining line but there was no struggle. It felt like I was lifting up the bottom and as it got closer to the surface I could see it was a large turtle. The line looked to be coming from its head but 2 feet below the surface the line snapped (pulling hard) just as Russ came up with his camera. Ten minutes later Russ had something heavy but not quite fighting. I went for the camera
Holy Cow!!! What the heck……..
as Russ worked it to the surface. At the surface you could clearly see the turtle had purposively eaten the dead bait as the circle hook was centered in it’s lower jaw. After a few photos and much lifting (those turtles are heavy) we cut the line and the turtle went merrily on its way.
Dead bait stealer
Running back in it didn’t take too long as we were only 12 miles offshore but we only made headway at a slow 12-13 mph. The seas had built back up and it was a head on sea.
Two green jumbos
Low & high tide was 0838 (-0.8 ft) and 1505 hours (3.8 ft), respectively. The inshore water on the flats was really dark brown and ugly with a temp of 74.3 ° F. In 22 and 33 feet it was 75.9 and 76.4 ° F, respectively. Heading offshore there was a slot of surface weed that would have made trolling impossible and it was too rough to see any bait pods on the surface. Despite the full moon and fishing on both sides of slack tide we had a good grouper rally, although the gag were on the small side but that’s to be expected in the shallower depths. In sharp contrast to my latest couple of grouper trips we didn’t catch a single red grouper all day. Beyond 45 feet it seems like they dominate the hard bottom. We ran a total of 49 miles, keeping five gag, a couple of grunts, and 2 gallons of stoners. It was a nice day on the water with a good fishing friend.
Ummm, ummm ………… stoners
Upon leaving Cedar Key mid-Saturday morning to head home you couldn’t miss the brisk wind and the flags standing at attention. Offshore would have been no fun on Saturday.
HooYah!!
Brian
