Grouper Trolling ** Econfina 12-19-08 **
Posted: December 20th, 2008, 12:03 pm
I had the day set aside to go way offshore in a bigger boat, but somebody had to work 
The weather forecast called for a beautiful day with 1 foot seas, so I called up my buddy Raymond and we decided to go troll for some grouper. We got down to Econfina around 7:00am to find only one other truck. What a shame for such a beautiful morning.....
It was a bit chilly heading out of the river, but we ran out full speed anyways to get to the fishing
Nothing like an Econfina sunrise for sure
As you can see, the forecast was dead on! Smooth as glass
We got out to 20 ft. and started trolling. About 10 minutes into it, we started finding shorts. Then the big lizard fish and over agressive rock bass. We finally started getting some decent hits when we reached 25 ft. First keeper of the day was this 24 gag....
When I got the fish about 5 feet from the surface, I could see that it had a huge gag with it. I thought it might have been hooked also, but it bolted away when it saw the boat
We trolled this area for about 2 hours picking up a few keepers here and there, but mostly shorts.
We moved out to 32 ft. and as soon as we set the rods back down, BAMM.....something doubled over the rod! We got the gag right up to the boat where it threw the stretch. It was easily over 30" I began to reel in my smaller stretch when something hit it so hard, it almost pulled the rod out of my hands. I was immediately broken off and could only assume it was a king. We soon found out that this was the way to catch the fish.....when one grabbed during the troll, we shut down the motor and reeled the other in by hand with the occassional jerk in between reeling. Almost every time a gag hit the stretch on the way up and right behind the boat. About 1:00pm, the wind and seas began to increase 
...
This is about as rough as it got all day......We decided to head in around 3:00pm and call it a day. Water temp was 58 in the morning and 69 when we left. The bite was kinds slow other than the shorts, so it took us all day to get a limit. We had to work for 'em today, but the weather made it worthwhile.
I think I even heard a report over the radio about a "redneck from Chopsoppy" catching a 32" gag too
We got back to the ramp to find a couple with the window smashed out of their truck and some things stolen from the inside. They had only been out on the water for 2 hours. Another truck had also been broken into and some things were taken out of another due to an unlocked door
If you're down that way, you might want to take a little extra precaution with valuables in your vehicle....luckily the hooligans didn't touch ours.
The weather forecast called for a beautiful day with 1 foot seas, so I called up my buddy Raymond and we decided to go troll for some grouper. We got down to Econfina around 7:00am to find only one other truck. What a shame for such a beautiful morning.....It was a bit chilly heading out of the river, but we ran out full speed anyways to get to the fishing
Nothing like an Econfina sunrise for sure
As you can see, the forecast was dead on! Smooth as glass
We got out to 20 ft. and started trolling. About 10 minutes into it, we started finding shorts. Then the big lizard fish and over agressive rock bass. We finally started getting some decent hits when we reached 25 ft. First keeper of the day was this 24 gag....
When I got the fish about 5 feet from the surface, I could see that it had a huge gag with it. I thought it might have been hooked also, but it bolted away when it saw the boat
We trolled this area for about 2 hours picking up a few keepers here and there, but mostly shorts. We moved out to 32 ft. and as soon as we set the rods back down, BAMM.....something doubled over the rod! We got the gag right up to the boat where it threw the stretch. It was easily over 30" I began to reel in my smaller stretch when something hit it so hard, it almost pulled the rod out of my hands. I was immediately broken off and could only assume it was a king. We soon found out that this was the way to catch the fish.....when one grabbed during the troll, we shut down the motor and reeled the other in by hand with the occassional jerk in between reeling. Almost every time a gag hit the stretch on the way up and right behind the boat. About 1:00pm, the wind and seas began to increase
...This is about as rough as it got all day......We decided to head in around 3:00pm and call it a day. Water temp was 58 in the morning and 69 when we left. The bite was kinds slow other than the shorts, so it took us all day to get a limit. We had to work for 'em today, but the weather made it worthwhile.
I think I even heard a report over the radio about a "redneck from Chopsoppy" catching a 32" gag too
We got back to the ramp to find a couple with the window smashed out of their truck and some things stolen from the inside. They had only been out on the water for 2 hours. Another truck had also been broken into and some things were taken out of another due to an unlocked door
If you're down that way, you might want to take a little extra precaution with valuables in your vehicle....luckily the hooligans didn't touch ours.
sounds like the fish are a bit more active over that a way "only got two shorts today on the Rotary Reef" 
maybe ya want ta leave the big boat allown and just fish the little one 
