Taking advantage of the incoming cold front Bernie Fowler & I slipped out to Cedar Key. The goal of this trip was to look for new grouper spots in less than 40 feet. The motivation behind this is to develop a set of closer in grouper numbers to take my kids out and experience a good grouper rally not to far out.
After launching we tried a couple of cobia spots to no avail and then switched gears and caught bait. Unlike two weeks ago bait was harder to come by and it took a little time. With ~ 16 small hardtails (bluerunners) and a couple of cigar minnows we headed out. Three quarters of a mile from a number we looked at two weeks ago we trolled in hoping to find a new number. No too much to note so we trolled through the spot. On the second pass (and going with the current) we had a massive hit and there was no stopping the fish. As we stopped the boat and were going in reverse I put more pressure on the reel eventually putting two fingers on the reel to slow the outgoing line. With that the leader popped. After that there was a lot of speculation and we wondered if jewfish (goliath grouper) hit trolled plugs (why not?). Earlier this spring Bernie had trolled up two 21.2 lb grouper (via certified scale) and this fish seemed much larger.
With that we anchored and the bite was immediate. We kept three grouper and released three others (legal) and a number of shorts (I didn’t want to keep any more from this spot as seven year old Casey has a date next week at this number). On the flat line we had a strike but it was a short run and it turned out to be a short gag that took a live cigar minnow in 37 feet. After that we put a float on the flatline. Fifteen minutes later a second hit on the flatline was a short strike.
Circle at work
Bern with a typical gag
Switching gears to satisfy the goal for the day we trolled and found two new spots, one in which was backed up by a fat 25 inch gag (trolled) and the other we stopped to fish and had a nice rally of legal gag & red groupers coming over the gunnel. We kept five gag here and released three others (legal) among a number of shorts too. During the rally the flatline went off with a nice run followed by another longer run. After fighting it gingerly on account of the small hook and treble we gaffed a nice king. Once in the boat the hooks fell out.
Comin’ to the boat
A nice 21.25 lb king
Radio chatter indicated that a number of people were having an excellent day offshore. Seas were light, it was cool in the morning but warming up nicely and it was sunny with little cloud cover. Underwater visibility seemed good (didn’t dive) and you could see the grouper coming up from a long way underneath. Later in the day we could just make out the sand/hardbottom interface underneath. Running out the inshore water temperature was 66° F and offshore later in the day it was 68° F in 40 feet. Twenty-four hours before we fished the barometric pressure (bp) dropped from 30.08 to 29.96 inches and while we fished the bp continued to drop to 29.89 inches. It was four days post last quarter moon and it was moon overhead.
I even got in a picture
All the grouper we caught seemed to have full stomachs with one coughing up a pretty nice freshly caught shrimp (med-large) and another with a live small herring in its mouth. Live bait worked all right but they bite equally well with frozen herrings. Surface weed was not a problem around 40 feet. Despite calm seas we did not see any bait pods all day long. The bite seemed consistent all day and all fish were caught in less than 40 feet.
We finished the day with nine gag to 13.25 lbs (certified scale) and a king that went 21.25 lbs (certified).
Gag of the day
HooYah!!
Brian
YOUR KILL'N US!!! 
.... Outstanding job 
and beautiful pictures
Wow! Nice, reel nice.
