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Anyone else been seeing a lot of these this year? I caught one again yesterday. I was thinking about this and I believe I have caught one on the last five straight inshore trips on my boat. Four in a row at St. Marks and then a fifth yesterday at Turkey Point.

Does this mean I should focus on heading offshore next year or is this a normal trout bycatch?

Is anyone else catching them frequently?

I've been catching a lot of them, too. Sweet little fish, too bad they are not legal - that l'il filet would sure make an excellent sandwich ! In the last couple weeks, I have been out on the flats near Stienhatchee twice and probably caught 3 or 4 of them each trip in the 8 in. to 12 in. range. But honestly, they are back in the grass eating other people's Gulps, unless they go out far enough for the commercial boats to catch and "release" them...

I catch one now and again, mostly in the Fall... Here's a baby :D

A friend of mine caught 3 of them 2-3 weeks ago, along with several black bass, out of Econfina. He didn't know what he had...so he kept them. He had several speckled trout that were over 15 in. (said he knew that the bottom limit of them was 15 in.
When he came into the landing at the end of the day....the man with a gun and a badge was there...checked their (his 2 little boys was with him) catch....and give him a ticket...bonafied...for 3 short fish (grouper). His date in Perry, Fl is sometime in June 2008.
These grouper are everywhere...caught several of them over at Aucilla.

So does that mean we can wear them out offshore next year? Or is this normal?

This is normal.

Sounds like the normal run of things.

Reel Cowboy wrote:Sounds like the normal run of things.

The grass flats, mangroves and marshes are where grouper "grow-up." I'm no marine biologist but I've always caught those that look obviously like gags. Never caught one that looked like a red grouper. Has anyone?

Pinocchio wrote:Never caught one that looked like a red grouper. Has anyone?

Trawled them up but very infrequent. They do look like small reds.

mjsigns wrote:I catch one now and again, mostly in the Fall... Here's a baby

A replica of that would make a really cool tie tack.

We have caught more juvi grouper this year than any other. Getting rid of the cajun thunders and fishing jig tails and flukes on/near the bottom will do that. More flounder too. Otherwise you just catch trout all day.