St. Marks Awesome Grouper Fishing 12-10 and 12-11

[jhults7]

12-10-10
Seeing that this may be the last weather window to grouper fish before we cant fish for them for at least half a year, we decided to go full throttle. Friday doug and I joined andy on his boat outta st. marks. We took off at 7 am to a brisk 28 degrees with water temps at 54 ! It was rough as crap in the am on friday so we stayed close and fished all over with little to show for. When the wind layed off a bit in addition to the seas we decided to push to 35ft and give her a shot. We pulled up to a good read on the machine so dropped the hook. After our baits hit the bottom all hell broke loose . We all broke off on the first drop..this spot was loaded with big hungry gags. One after another we were slammed to the rail by quality 24-27" fish. We got our limit and ended up throwing 3 26" keepers in a row back ! The bite was pretty epic and as fast as it started, we had about 40 mins and then it stopped, didnt get a hit the rest of the day. They hit at about 3pm...we have found they turn on later in the day for about and hour and then they stop...its been wierd latley. It was so good we decided to pull the turn around and go again on saturday.
Final Tally:
9 Keeper Gags between 24 and 27"
6 Black Sea Bass to 14.5"
Sore Arms (I caught 5 keepers on 5 drops)

Our 4 best on the day

Andy and Doug with the 4 best

12-11-10
It was soo good that we decided to pull the turn around and go again on saturday. This time my wife joined andy and I. We took off at 8am to nice calm seas. We hit about 8 spots between 9 and 230. Not much action in addition to the action being shorts. We decided to push to 55ft and at 3:00, once again someone rang the dinner bell and they bit like crazy for 40 minutes. When the dust cleared we boxed 4 nice red grouper to 23" and I caught a nice gag at 26". After that the bite died. We headed in to flat seas being exhausted after two days in a row. The fishing has been great and im really glad I have been able to go so much latley cause ill be chomping at the bit by next july. Tight lines
Final Tally:
4 Red Grouper to 23"
1 Gag at 26"

Fish from the day before in addition to the reds


Fish form both days

[Jumptrout51]

[Salty Gator]

Another great report, we should have fished instead of duck hunting on sat. I guess we will keep an eye for you on the flats from here on out.

[Ranaman]

Great Job and Report Jordan, glad to see someone out fishing for the groupa with a winter hat on !!

[Carlabear]

Were going to try and go again before the first if the weather permits. Do you think the cold has run the grouper out to 55 ft . We tried around 30 feet the last time and didnt even have a gag bite. small red grouper

[jhults7]

Carlabear- yes i think the gags are gone out of the shallows, eveyone iv talked to hasnt been catching fish in less than 40. Cold temps have done it....go deep..good luck!