Saturday: With bumpier seas than I had hoped for we modified our plan by heading west to begin to troll for kings on hardbottom starting in 20+ feet (Kingfish Hole). After many passes over our old stone crab trapping rocks with nothing to show but 3 blue runners we headed out to 30 feet to see if we could find the kings (bluerunners went into the livewell). At 30 feet and trolling lures we couldn’t come up with any macs so we moved out to 40 feet. The weeds were getting troublesome too but the winds were decreasing along with the seas.
At 38 feet we tried a short bit of trolling with no action. Since the visibility was top to bottom in 38 feet we decided to switch gears and try for red grouper. Picking out a small patch reef we anchored but caught only small black sea bass. We put out a flat line with one of the blue runners out too but there was no interest. Knowing that when you catch black seabass you’re not gonna catch grouper we moved to a second patch reef 200 yards away.
Blue runner (king candy)
At this reef we immediately starting catching large white grunts so we knew grouper would be around. We put back out the flatline and caught grunts on trout rods for a bit for an upcoming fish fry. We put out a couple of bottom rods with cut bait too (white grunt) but no grouper action. While grunt catching I managed to bring up a 22 inch red grouper that gave a good give & take before it broke the surface. Twenty minutes later Casey managed our second red grouper on cut bait. A third red 30 minutes later was the largest (that went 10.9 lbs at the dock).
Casey with the second red
10.9 lbs at the dock (doesn’t look like it though…..)
For over an hour I kept telling Casey that it was crazy that a king hadn’t taken the bluerunner yet. As we continued to catch grunts we both heard a commotion and looked up to see a large fish out of the water landing next to the flatline with a huge splash. Casey got on that rod quickly and let the Bait Runner go. Giving it a couple of seconds Casey engaged the reel and it started smoking line. Realizing it was a pretty good sized king I pulled the anchor and over the next 10 minutes Casey brought the king to the boat a couple of times only to have it run off. With the mac exhausted we gaffed it and started some high fives!!
This was the largest king Casey has ever caught and the largest caught aboard Plan B.
At the dock it weighed 35.4 pounds
We then re-anchored on a different patch reef and 20 minutes later had another king on a flatline (bluerunner) but after two minutes the king bit through the stinger wire. With that we kept a few more grunts and headed in after a really great day on the water.
Offshore water temps was 76 ˚F with a fair bit of weed (turtle grass). With it being overcast and eventually the sun breaking free later in the day we only noticed top to bottom visibility in 38 feet (14 miles offshore).
Hoo Yah!!
Brian
