Alligator Point 4/19/03

Post by **fish finder** » April 21st, 2003, 6:41 pm

After greeting my customers for the day, I got Cuda"B" away from the dock about 8:00 and headed for D.I. Reef to see if the pinfish had showed up yet. With the water temp on the reef reading about 70-71 degrees, the bait was there, FINALLY! We spent about 30 min loading a couple dozen or so before deciding to see if the grouper were biting. I had decided to head southeast again to check out some more of my old haunts. After an hour long, somewhat bumpy ride, we were trolling a couple of stretch's and marking fish every where. However , after about 30 mins of trolling without a single strike over some great looking bottom, it was time to drop some bait on the bottom.
I found one of my holes and it was covered up, so I told them all to drop them if they had them

It wasn't very long before the action was on and theses grouper meant business. They were inhaling the live pinfish and I quickly realized that I should've got more frisky pinners. If the crew had been more expeirenced they would've loaded the boat at the first hole. As it was, they did manage to get a few of the bruisers into the box, as well as some run of the mill grouper. The bite slowed after some hang ups and I decided to check out another spot. Same story there, we used the rest of the live bait there and pulled some more huge grouper in the box. Manged to catch a couple of legal fish and some shorts on the frozen bait but it became obvious what the grouper wanted and we were out of. The bite seem to totally quit after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon trolling, marking some nice bottom to check out next time.
Back at the marina around 4:30 and back at the dock about 5. The final tally was 10 BIG grouper and some nice seabass and some pinkmouths. The biggest was a nice, fat, 33" gag going about 18 lbs, with one more slightly skinnier 33" and another 30" fish. They also had a Fat red grouper at 28". They also lost several nice fish due to inexperience, but they had a blast and took home some serious grouper fillets. Oh yea, I also hooked the years first cobia that had come to check out the action, but the fish took advantage of a botched exchange of the rod from captain to angler. He lives to fight another day.
The conditions were as follows:
water temp offshore ranged between 65 to 68 and the water seems to be getting clearer everyday. The seas were 3ft with some white caps early but it laid down nice in the afternoon. The bait is LIVE PINFISH!!!!! I bottom fished 3 holes from 52ft to 62ft. I did not catch one grouper trolling. We have turned the corner and spring has sprung.

Tight Lines
Capt. Jay

DuctTapeKing · Post by **DuctTapeKing** » April 21st, 2003, 10:14 pm

Hey captin Jay. What is a pinkmouth? I have been bottom fishing many times and I may have caught some and just not known it. Do ya know what family they are in...or any other common names for them? Thanks DTKing

dstockwell · Post by **dstockwell** » April 22nd, 2003, 6:50 am

Thanks for the report. Nice catch..

Post by **fish finder** » April 22nd, 2003, 6:13 pm

A "Pinkmouth", as I call them ,is technically called a White Grunt, but are known by many names. Ruby Lips, Key West Grunts, are a couple of other names that you will hear them called in this area. They get there nicknames from the bright orange or red colors inside thier mouths. They are a very common reef fish that inhabit the same bottom terrian as grouper and black sea bass. There is no size restriction and you can keep as many as can clean.

Actually they ain't too bad if you can't get any grouper. If you want to target them, rig up a double drop peir rig with a 5 oz pyramid sinker and some cut squid on the hooks and you will be catching them two at a time. Good Luck!

Capt. Jay

DuctTapeKing · Post by **DuctTapeKing** » April 26th, 2003, 8:53 pm

Thanks Capitin Jay. I have cauth those many times. We just always through them back. We thought they looked too much like pin fish. I think a few even got us some grouper. Well thanks.