Alligator Point 5/24/03

Post by **fish finder** » May 27th, 2003, 8:47 pm

I got an early start to try to beat the rush of the holiday weekend warriors and put the owners on some good grouper action early and get back early. With 2ft or less forecasted I thought this wouldn't be too difficult. Hit the Reef by 7:00 and loaded up on some great "grouper candy", a mess of big pinfish. As I headed for the Southeast I noticed the "buffalos" were roaming the horizon, not something that a 5-10 knot wind produces. I checked the weather again and it hadn't changed so we kept truckin. As we rounded bouy 26 and the shelter that the south shoal provided we were met with a nasty 15-20 knot northeast wind and 4ft seas with an ocasional 5-6ft roller thrown in. How could NOAA blow it so badly?? I had to back off to about 15 knots and it took twice as long to get to my spots, so much for the early start

All was well though as they started to hook up as soon as I got anchored on the first spot. It was short lived though as the bite SHUT DOWN after about 25 minutes. I couldn't hardly get another bite after that fist stop no matter how many fish the Foruno said were there. They did manage some nice 15-16 inch sea bass on one spot but no more grouper. Around 2:00 we gave up and headed in early on the finally flat sea only to get checked completely by Marine Patrol on the way to the Marina and find a line of 6 boats waiting to fuel up.

Ditched that idea and docked Cuda"B" and cleaned the boat and the fish and actually made it back home before dark.
The conditions were about the same as last week; water temp 80 degrees in 55 ft, water clarity fair, live bait, but a slow bite. Go figure?? Final tally was 6 grouper to 12 lbs and a dozen or so nice sea bass. We didn't tear them up but they had a nice mess for a couple of dinners.
I love fishing during the week!
Capt. Jay