Carrabelle fishing report from Capt. Bob Soderholm

[SoleSearcher]

"Around the corner"

With the Big Bend Saltwater Classic starting Thursday morning, I made one last trip offshore with my party of 2 for some Grouper and King action. You couldn't ask for a better day with mostly clear skies, light winds and near calm seas.

We left the dock at Lanark Village a little before 8:00 AM and set our heading due south to our first hole at 75 feet. It was a little bouncy near Dog Island with large swells coming out of the South and a little chop from the SE, but we managed to pull 18 kts out of the "Sole Searcher" and dropped the anchor after an hours run.

Now, before I get into the fishing action, I'll tell you about fish patterns and moon phases. Usually, if Grouper really tear it up around the full moon, they will bite slow around the new moon. It was starting to look this way when our first hole produced lots of shorts and only one keeper which was a near 20 LB Gag. The shorts were hitting our live bait fast and monster Grunts were tearing up cut LY's. I knew this was going to be a long day so we headed out to 90 feet on limerock bottom.

Again, the live baits were being slammed by short Gags and Reds while cut baits were being nibbled apart by Grunts. We all but exhausted a livewell full of Pinfish, Pigfish, Beeliner and a few Cigar minnows before picking up 3 more keepers. My 14 year old angler was having fun with big Triggerfish while his dad was content with the big Gag. However, I was not pleased with our catch so I made way to one of my better holes in 105 foot of water.

This hole is a bit of a mystery to me. It's a mix of rock, grass and live bottom with several large rock formations which really doesn't show a lot of fish on my Furuno 582L. However, it always holds big Grouper, some Snapper and roaming Kings. Today was no exception.

Since we were out of live baits, I put the kid to work on catching Grunts and assorted other bottom fish for cut baits while I set dad up with the remaining Beeliners for the Grouper action. A live Cigar and Blue runner was set out under a kite. Dad was slammed by a monster Red within seconds of hitting the bottom. Another Beeliner yielded another big Red. But now, the live bait is gone!

LY's were useless with so many Grunts around, so I cut up big chunks of fresh Grunt and used them in place of LY. It worked like a charm and by 3:00 PM we were sitting on our limit of 15 big Grouper with 11 Reds in the 50 to 20 LB class and 4 Gags in the 15 LB class, with one Gag near 20 lbs and one red closer to 25 lbs. In addition, we hit 3 Red Snapper, all around 12 lbs, and 2 snake Kings.

On the way in, I decided to hit a spot in 56 foot of water to try for a big King. A nice Spanish of 7 lbs hit a live Cigar and something hit the Blue runner but missed the stinger. A weed line drifted on us and provided some fun with a few small Dolphin hitting free lined cut baits.

I rigged up 2 more lines under the kite which was having trouble flying with the diminishing winds, so I had to drop off the close line and left it out flat. Within a few minutes, the kite release snapped and my Penn Power Graph was singing. A big King was hooked up and the fun began!

Dad quickly took the pole and held it for the first run and passed it to his son who was all smiles and laughter while engaged in his battle with the King. After a time, he brought the fish to boat side and I gaffed it with help from dad. It was a monster...initial estimate was roughly 45 lbs.

The King was too big for the cooler and dad wanted the fish in tact so we headed home, making a stop at a friends dock who has a scale. The King weighed 51 lbs, 9 oz. Boy, I needed that fish for this weekend!


Until next time, Keep those tips up!

Capt. Bob Soderholm
Sole Searcher Charters
Carrabelle, FL
(850) 899-0455
Member, National Association of Charterboat Operators