Alligator Point 4/6/04

[fish finder]

Late report from a midweek trip
Left the dock around 7 and didn't bother stopping at D. I. Reef as the water temp was still reading 64 degrees which means few if any pinfish. We did stop at the bouy and put about a dozen spot-tails in the livewell, in case we got the chance to go for some AJ's later. After reading the report of the bigbendfishing trip aboard Geno's boat, I began by trolling into my first spot. After passing over some good bottom, marking fish and no strikes, it was time to soak some baits on the bottom. Anchored up in 52ft and put 4 lines down. The bite was slow at first but after switching from cut LY's to whole spanish sardines, the grouper finally started to show some interest. We spent the morning fishing two holes and put 10 keepers in the box, while releasing a dozen shorts. The bite stopped completely around 11 and we decided to troll some more while we ate lunch. After eating and trolling for about 45 min. without a single strike, the gang voted to try their hand at some AJ action. We headed to Bryson Reef and after anchoring and setting out the chum churn, they could only manage 1 AJ and it was a short. We did put 2 more keeper grouper in the box though and had one guy wrestle with what I'm sure was a bruiser of a "Goliath Grouper". After inhaling the biggest livie we had, he slowly but steadily took a couple hundred yards of line before popping the 40lb mainline. After that excitement, we headed back into rocky bottom to see if the grouper were hungry again. Nothing doin, it had gone flat calm and we couldn't get them to bite, so we headed back.
The seas were 3ft early to flat later. The water is clear, clear, clear. You can see the bottom in 38ft and you can make out the bottom in 50ft. We had no luck trolling and we tried green mackeral, gordon, black&gold and black&silver, no luck on any of them We caught most of our fish on whole sardines and just a few on LY's, go figure, usually it is the other way around. It always pays to have a variety on board The water temp was between 64 & 68 and the seas were nice:)
At the dock, the final tally was: 12 grouper, 11 gag, 1 red
1 flounder,
12 nice seabass and
a mess of key west grunts.



" Work is for people who don't know how to FISH'
Capt. Jay

[Chalk]

Nice report Capt. Jay....Though I am still green on grouper, Big T has done and said and done some things that have been etched in my memory banks on trolling for grouper. If you mark fish and don't get a hook up, turn around and pass them from the other direction, we did that several times last week. We would troll the spot coming from the east, nothing, turn around and head westerly back over it, bam, "Fish On" ..think we did that several times, think it was three on one hole, all from the same direction.

[Sea Fox]

Good report FF, sounds like your party had a cooler of good fish and had good time. Even if the big one got away. I bet they are still talking about that one and theres no telling how big it is now when the story is told.

[fish finder]

Chalk,
You are right. I have in the past done that very same thing. My experience has been that the grouper will hit them when going with the current flow and not when going against it, or vice-versa. I'll have to admit, I didn't give trolling too much of a chance especially early because I had a hunch that the bite would be slow by noon and I wanted to put some fish in the box early. Also, the crew gets restless and bored quick if the bite isn't on when trolling, where as if they are bottom fishing, even if the grouper bite is slow, they are still getting hits and putting fish in the box.(seabass&grunts) You can bet that I'll remember that trick next time
Capt. Jay

[dstockwell]

Sounds like a good time FF, wtg.

[GeneO.]

"Goliath Grouper"

Nice report and it looks like somebody will eat very well for a while.

Is a "Goliath Grouper" what we used to call a "Jew Fish"?

exactly 10 days until Snapper Season.

[fish finder]

Geno,
Yea, in today's oh so politically correct world, they are no longer called Jewfish. Either way, the divers I know report that there are several of them, ranging from 50lbs to 300lbs on all of the OAR Reefs. I've never gotten one to the boat but I have hooked several.
Capt. Jay