I had one of my clients from Atlanta come to town to do some fishing and the wind finally subsided enough on Sat to get them offshore to try their hand at some grouper. After getting a late start due to waiting on the tide to give me enough water to get Cuda "B" out of the canal, we headed to Dog Island Reef to see if we could manage any live pinfish for bait. No luck there as the water temp was reading 63 on the shallow reef. Next stop was buoy 26, as I had decided to try some of my old numbers to the southeast. We did manage to pick up a few small squirrel fish, but there wasn't enough bait to spend any more time trying so off we went. About an hour later we were trolling a couple of stretch 30's over some good looking bottom in 50 ft. The first strike was a nice sike gag of about 10 lbs and the bite was on. We picked up 2 more keepers as we passed by the first number. I didn't stop as there was somebody anchored nearby and I didn't want to give up one of my good spots.
We were almost to the second spot when we had a double hook up, one keeper, one short. Regrouped and trolled over the strike area a second time and wham, another double hook up. Decided to throw a marker and check it out. After a little investigating, I saw what I was looking for, a beautiful little ledge loaded with fish. Anchored up on the spot and proceded to get busy bringing some of the nicest grouper I've seen in a while over the side of the boat. The three guys from Atlanta were having a ball and that always makes my day.
After the bite slowed, I logged in my new honey hole, and pulled off the spot and began to do some more trolling. We did pick up 2 more fish trolling before packing it in and heading home. The wind had picked up a bit making for a bumpy ride with the a 3 ft, white capped sea quartering off our port bow.
After the hour and half ride back the marina, I fueled up,109 gallons at $2.00 a gal. and back at the dock at around 5. As I cleaned Cuda "B" up, the guys cleaned their catch, which was 13 grouper with 3 over 15 lbs, just 2 shy of their limit. A successful day on the water with good people makes it all worthwhile.
The conditions were as follows: 2-3 ft sea most of the day, about 25 ft visiblity, and water temp. around 67 in 50 ft. They still seemed to like any brightly colored stretch 30, with dlophin holo and chartruese being the favorite. The few live squirrelfish were inhaled immediately upon hitting the bottom, so if you can get live bait, do it. We also had good success on cut LY's and chub mackerel.
You gotta go to know! I will be on the water all of Easter weekend and will hopefully have some more good news. Until then, green grass and high tides!
Capt. Jay
Alligator Point 4/12/03
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dstockwell
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- Joined: March 5th, 2002, 8:00 pm
- Location: Valdosta, GA
