A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Use this area to post offshore fishing reports from the area. Please try to include relevant information such as:
Location, date, time, water conditions, weather conditions, baits, techniques, species caught, etc.
I woke up early this morning and was undecided as to what to do. So, I went fishin. Put in at the fort 10 minutes before daylight. Daylight didn't matter because it was so foggy you couldn't see anyway. Ran out of the river via GPS. Headed straight to my close in spot. Threw a bait out the back and started trolling. Would you believe 3 keepers in the first 10 minutes? Then it was short after short after short. I stayed on my close stuff until 1000. Then I headed south to 28 feet of water. It was a little rough, with a south wind at 10. Seas were 2 feet with a few 3's tossed in. Made it to my spot and started trolling. Nada. Put half an LY down and drifted. Yes! a solid bite, but missed the fish. So I anchored up and comminced to catch 20 or so shorts. Finally gave up on that spot and headed north. Stopped by 4 places and trolled them quickly. This was about 1330. I think i caught every lizard fish in the Gulf of Mexico between 1330 and 1600, with a few short grouper thrown in. Finally went back to where I started the day. 30 minutes later I had my limit and headed in.
The water temp is in the 60's, and still a little discolored. I did not catch a keeper bottom fishing all day. My entire limit was caught trolling.
Tally for the day:
5 Keeper Grouper
Probably 25 Short Grouper
5 or 6 Sea Bass
78254689524198754215789 Lizard Fish
MJ, I even took a picture for you.
The small fish in the center is 24". Got some gooduns today.
Now that's a dern nice catch. What's it gonna be- Fried grouper, baked grouper, grilled grouper backs, grouper chowder- lots of good stuff for the next few weeks.. Nice report and pictures.
Goutrage, I'm doing a fish fry for about 50 people Saturday. I suspect I'll have to pull a few out of the freezer to go with these. I might have to do some buffalo backs for appetizers, too.
Which one of them is the lizzard fish?
We need to work on those pictures, those fish look mighty dead..
Was it nighttime when you took the picture?
I should have got an earlier start and went out farther. When I got home, I checked my mapsource, and I never made it out to secret trolling area 51. I was short by a mile or so.....
We need to try that trolling together again, I need some more training.
Did you use the "famu" bait ?
Good report
Time is the most precious commodity we have in life, stay focused.
That is a very VERY nice catch 
