The secret to catching red grouper is to fish for red snapper.
This method works best when the fisheries management folks proclaim that red grouper are underpopulated and close the season months early. The specific spots you will want to fish are the same spots that you would fish for red snapper. Conveniently, you also will want to use the same baits and rigs that you would use for red snapper. Do this and you will catch a lot of red grouper, I guarantee it.
Yesterday, in fishing from 88’ to 102’, water temp. 87°, there were supposed to be a lot of red snapper here:
Instead of catching red snapper, we caught, vented, and released these and many others like them:
Despite all the grouper, some of my fishing spots had numerous hook-shy mangroves and red snapper that couldn’t seem to beat the grouper to our baits:
Our baits from yesterday’s trip consisted of a little of everything. Our live bait was cigar minnows, pinfish, and sandperch. Our dead bait was frozen LY’s, squid strips, and whole squid. Our rigs consisted of 3-way swivel bottom rigs and knocker rigs. We had some baits right on the bottom and some well up in the water column. Everything we put down pulled up red grouper. The one red snapper that made it home was caught in one of our shallower spots.
Check back in a few days and I may have figured out how to upload a few videos by then.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
