Inshore/Offshore Grouper Trolling

[Scoop Sea]

Headed out real early this morning to do some trolling for grouper. My first stop was at the Rotary and I ended up getting my arse scared off due to the high seas. I "caught" some structure with the stretch and while trying to work it out, I took a pretty good wave over the back . Thinking about those football players last year who were in a similar situation, I grabbed my knife and cut the line (AMS has all the strech lures I need......). I then gently headed north and took it in to some calmer waters. Next stop was near the St. Marks reefs and picked up a short grouper on a firetiger. After messing around in that general area for a couple of hours, the weather seemed to be calming down and I headed back out again. I worked my way out to the Marker 24 Barge and some live bottom in that area, however, I had no success out there. I even tried bottom fishing on the barge a while and didn't even get a nibble. By this time, the seas were really calm and I headed back towards the Rotary again. Ironically, this time, I "caught" some structure again, but this time I was able to pull it up and it turned out to be a piece of sponge that weighed around 20 pounds. Having been on the water over 8 hours, I decided to lick my wounds and head back to the hill. No fish in the box, but darn glad to have had an overall safe trip.

One observation I made was that there did not seem to be nearly as many ducks out in front of Piney as there was this time last week. I don't know if this cold front pushed them on or not, but that messes up my plans for later this week.

Question: What speed do you fellas prefer to troll for grouper?

Thanks,

[wevans]

I try different speeds till I find a speed they like anywhere between 3 to 6 mph on the GPS. The strength of the current will also dictate my speed, both going with it and against it. I do find that I go slower against it and faster with it in order to get the action I want from the lure and if I have a large enough area to troll over several times, I will adjust my speed up or down with each pass I wanted ta be out there today, but was waitin on Chill-N-Grills wifey ta get back to me on some tires for my wifes SUV shure hope it cooperates with me tomorrow

[Harmsway]

It seemed like they liked 4.5 to 5.0 kmh on Sunday. Not so much at slower speeds.

[Scoop Sea]

Thanks wevans and harmsway. That's good intel. I trolled around 8mph last week and ended up ripping the lips off a couple (actually just got the hits and they were lost). However, I did catch some going around 8 as well. I tried 3.5 to 5 yesterday. It seemed like the 5 mph worked best. Hopefully I will get a chancre to practice some more soon.

[roadtrip]

A couple of buddys and I did the high seas thing Monday for a couple of hours before growing a brain and heading to the hill. I trolled at 4.5-6 and caught 2 short gags a little south of marker 24.