Keaton 10/3/08

[Dabbler]

Great report. Wish I had been on your trip. I was at Suwannee on Monday and Keaton on Wed. I was pulling a 14' and managed some nice trout in close. Still working on CC. Hope to return soon.

[Double Naught]

The problem is I would like to catch a keeper grouper on my boat. Getting a bigger boat is not an option as I cant get rid of the one I now own in todays market.

Breambuster, I have studied your past posts and I believe your boat is a Kenner, yes? I have a 21' Kenner 150-V that looks very similar to yours. You should be able to get to, and catch, legal grouper right now. When the weather settles down, find some rocky bottom about 20' deep and pull some stretch 25's and rapala CD 18's. Keep them barely up off the bottom. You might even find legal fish in 15' water. It happens. Now is the time to start.

I tried to go out today myself, but the wind was too much to cope with and quickly switched to plan B.

If your knack for catching grouper is half as good as your trout skills, you will have your keeper(s) in the boat.

[Breambuster]

[/quote]
Breambuster, I have studied your past posts and I believe your boat is a Kenner, yes? I have a 21' Kenner 150-V that looks very similar to yours. You should be able to get to, and catch, legal grouper right now. When the weather settles down, find some rocky bottom about 20' deep and pull some stretch 25's and rapala CD 18's. Keep them barely up off the bottom. You might even find legal fish in 15' water. It happens. Now is the time to start.

I tried to go out today myself, but the wind was too much to cope with and quickly switched to plan B.

If your knack for catching grouper is half as good as your trout skills, you will have your keeper(s) in the boat.[/quote]

Yes, I run a 18.6'' kenner with a 90Merc. The goal of this trip was to look for grouper. We troll plugs from a couple of miles offshore from the steinhatchee reef in 25' - 28' of water, headed north for over an hour but did not see any good bottom nor have any knock down. Not sure if I am doing it right. We did run into a couple of areas with hard bottom according to my bottom machine but I did not see any relief - are these the area I'm supposed to be looking for? Perhaps I need to spend more time doing this but not really not sure what to look for or where to start. Also, with the small boat, the window of opportunity to get out there is very limited.

Double Naught, I would love to venture out with you as a buddy boat if you go out again to look for grouper. Not necessary following your path of travel but it would be nice to be within visual range, and certainly within radio range.

[Double Naught]

Breambuster,

Sometimes the relief you are looking for may be only two foot off of the bottom. The time and patience will pay off, just keep trying when the weather allows. When the weather is unsafe for you to go out in your bay boat, it would likely be none too pleasant in an offshore boat any way. Rough is still rough no matter the size of the boat (unless you go really big).

I have never fished off of Keaton so I don't know how much structure is there compared to other areas like the Econfina. It seems unlikley that it would be barren though. If you were to go out of Econfina, you would find good rocks scatterred all over the place for a mile or more around Dog Ballard Reef. Keep your radio in good shape and always carry SEATOW.

This weekend is looking decent. WIll you be trying? I expect try it out Saturday - unless there is a 4 in the 'cast. I always monitor 14, 16, 18.