We got to Dockside around 7:00am and were on our way out shortly thereafter with the morning necessities....
The forecast called for 1-2's but we were greeted with solid 3's on the way out to Dog Island. A few miles later, we were at our first spot in 45 ft. The bite was slow producing only a few grunts and rock bass, so we decided to move on. About 15 minutes later, we were at the next spot. The bite started off a little slow, but gradually picked up really nice. First fish in the boat was a nice red snapper caught by Steve.....
Then Raymond and Bill each got a grouper.....
At one point we had 3 hook-ups at one time on the grouper (notice Bill fighting a grouper to the top while Raymond poses with his
)....
I was at the front of the boat and noticed a group of kings about 20 feet under the surface about 30-40 feet ahead of the boat. I grabbed my favorite trout pole with 10 lb. braided line and tossed a jig towards them. One came right after it and missed, then another tried and missed so I let the jig free fall. Then out of nowhere there was this FLASH and BAMMMM!!!!!!! FISH ON..... A king grabbed it and ran like #@$% ripping drag. I fought it for a few minutes and finally got it to the boat after several speedy runs. There were other kings all around the hooked one when I pulled it up into the boat. Nobody else had anything rigged for them, or we could have had some real fun. It only measured 32" but man was that fun!!!!!!!
After the kings disappeared, I went back to bottom fishing and the bite was picking up on live bait .....
Here's Bill with a nice red....
When the bite slowed again after a few nice breakoffs, Raymond and Darren decided to put on their dive gear and go down for a look....
About 25 minutes later, they were back with a few more gags and hogfish......
With a nice load of fish, we decided to call it a day and head back in. The return ride was a bit rough being that the 1-2's forecasted were on top of 2-3's
It was an absolutely beautiful day and everybody got to catch a bunch of fish (Here's one side of the fish box)
Bait used today was squid, LY's and live bait. The grouper bit all baits well. Depths fished were 45-60 ft. Water temp varied between 78-82.
