It started off terrible. We caught four pinfish in about 40 casts at our usual bait spot in the grass near Dog Island. The water was muddy and floating grass kept fouling our bait rigs. We would have to rely on our two boxes of frozen LYs and squid. Luckily, however, we were able to catch some sand perch a few miles south of East Pass to add to our live bait supply.
We were heading to a spot in water deeper than 95’ that had sometimes produced big red snapper and red grouper and sometimes nothing. A few hundred feet short of our destination, we saw fish on the sonar and decided to start fishing. As soon as our baits were down, whether live or frozen, we were getting hits and catching red grouper. Some were as long 30 inches. We had our limit of red grouper in no time.
So where were the red snapper?
We circled the area looking for snapper trees, but we saw a 4 foot long floating log—and it was surrounded by an endless school of chicken dolphin. We threw small Got-cha lures, pompano jigs, and small slow pitch jigs in the direction of the log and caught fish after fish. As the dolphin came onboard, they flipped and flopped around all over the place, bloodying the boat like a crime scene and ruining my white shirt.
But I saw that there were a few tripletail under the log. I had to re-rig to catch one. I really had to catch one just to prove it could be done to my friends who were laughing at me for trying. I rigged just like I would rig for tripletail in Apalachicola Bay, a weighted bobber, 24” of leader, a 1/8 oz. sliding weight, and a 3/0 hook. I baited the hook with a small piece of squid. I made a perfect cast right at the log. The dolphin immediately attacked the squid, dragging the bobber all over. The tripletail didn’t have a chance.
With plenty of dolphin in the cooler, we needed to refocus on finding red snapper. We circled around the area some more and stopped at a promising spot. Immediately, we were catching red grouper again. (Everyone became an expert with the venting tool and the descending device.) But the flat line baited with a sand perch got hit by a big snapper. We finally realized that the red snapper were way off the bottom and we adjusted the bottom rods accordingly. It wasn’t long before we ran out of room in the cooler before we could catch our limit of snapper. Sometimes, you need a bigger cooler.
Lessons learned:
Catch live bait offshore if you can’t catch it in the grass flats.
Don’t waste time trying to catch tripletail when dolphin are around.
Don’t wear a white shirt that you care about when you go fishing.
Always put out a flat line.
It might not be a good idea to fish with three rods at one time while trying to eat a sandwich.
If you are not catching red snapper near the bottom, they may be way up in the water column.
Get a bigger cooler.
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WOW 
What times supper? Thanks for posting.