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Got down to the fort around 8am. The weather was great, seas less than a foot and the temp was around 80 degrees. My plan was to head out to my farthest point after picking up bait and then start working my way back. Stopped off at the Sholes for bait which didn’t take long? I think only one cast with the sibiky rig picked up less than two pins. After filling up the live well I pointed the boat south and off we went in hopes of grouper. I was traveling somewhat show so I could keep an eye in my depth recorder just in case something interesting came up. After several miles the unit showed something that looked promising. It wasn’t a lot of structure but the DR was marking fish. Since it was only 25-30 feet deep and the water was relatively clear I put on my mask to see what was below. Turned out to be a big school of jacks along with a few big redfish mixed in. Spent the next 30-45 min catching 4 jacks around 5-7lbs a piece and 2 reds pushing 33 inches. Went about a mile farther south and ran across another promising spot that I decided to check out. On the first drift I pick up a 24 inch gag. Second drift get taken in the rocks and broken off. The third produces a 23 inch red grouper and two shorts. Since this piece of structure wasn’t that big I thought it best to leave it be and come back another day. By this point I am only of few miles from the spot I originally wanted to fish so I continued on. The area is mainly natural coral bottom that is somewhat sporadic over an area several hundred yards long. Thought the best approach was to drift over it with live pins. On each drift we picked up 2 or 3 fish but all were short. We did finial managed a nice size hognose snapper that got fouled hooked. In the box he goes and the drifting continues. I stayed in that general area for a couple hours in total with nothing to show except for that one snapper. Decided to head back towards the landing making a few stops along the way. At each spot we only picked up a couple short gags and a few Spanish Macs. By now it is around 1:30 and the skies were starting to look black over by Shell point. Figured it was a good time to call it a day. By the time I got to the bird rack inside the channel the lighting was thumping pretty good. We managed to miss the worst of it while still being able to rinse off some of the salt.

Took home two grouper and a nice size snapper. Not the day I was hoping for but sure nothing to complain about either.

Good report dude, way to catch a hognose snapper on hook and line

How far did you end up going out to catch all those fish

Where exactly are the shoals? Do you have a number for this? Thanks Carla

sounds like a fun day got to love finding new spots its like opening a box of chocolate

Pokeyfish wrote:How far did you end up going out to catch all those fish

The closest was about 7 miles from the bird rack on out to about 15 miles.

Carlabear wrote:Where exactly are the shoals? Do you have a number for this? Thanks Carla

shoal Waypoint yes N29°54.405' W084°12.612' 0.0 2008-05-17T21:28:24Z

Thank! Carlabear