I'll do my best to keep this from turning into a wall of text as I can be a little long winded. I really haven't done much offshore fishing since about 2005. Back then, my fishing partner at the time got numbers from an unknown source that were more or less due south out of Econfina in around 25 feet of water and we would troll with magnum rapala's or stretch 30's with great success on grouper. I remember the bottom machine lighting up when we would run over a rockpile or something like that and both rods would go down. As of today, those numbers are long since gone and my old fishing partner is no longer with us.
I live very close to Saint Marks, so I've been putting either at the fort or at Shell Point and Panacea. I gotta tell ya, after 4 trips this past month, the miasma of skunk is strong on my new to me boat. I haven't been able to do much of anything besides stopping off for a trout or two on the way home. So far I've looked at charts and relied upon the public reef locations in my bottom machine (garmin with bluemaps). The plan of action was to troll like I used to for gags in ~20-25 feet of water, but that has been decidedly ineffective. Also the floating grass around here is so thick everywhere I have ventured out that my plugs have yet to come back clean.
Moderators, If the size of this image breaks tables, please let me know and I'll clean it up.
These are the spots I've tried so far and I've attempted to troll as much of it as possible looking for pips on the sonar possibly indicating rockpiles or cheese bottom. I really thought the loop I trolled through the deepest part of the ocklocknee shoals would be productive on a hard moving tide, but I couldn't keep the plugs clean long enough to accurately gauge it. The competition is surprisingly numerous as well, which doesn't help. Every marked reef has at least 5 boats parked on it
What I really want to know is if my approach is really this flawed, and what I can do to be a better fisherman. I've been fishing inshore since I could walk, but I don't have a ton of experience offshore, and even less being the captain. Also, where can I go to avoid giant grass bergs bigger than my boat? Obviously, I'm never going to catch anything when my plugs look like buckwheat's armpits. It seems the places I naturally gravitate to(abrupt changes in depth) are so choked with grass, they're unfishable, however, I'm at a loss of what else to look for on the charts when I am out prospecting.
I appreciate y'all taking the time to read all this. Happy Monday!
