St. Marks Offshore - 02-16-2002

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 18th, 2002, 9:32 am

NOAA was finally right. Seas less than 2 feet.

3 of us headed out to the 24 area to a spot in 28 feet we located in December only to find that it was apparently located by someone else in a 17 foot tri-hull. Oh well after trolling around the general area and watching the recorder, I found some nice looking bottom about a 1/4 mile east of the original spot. We put down LY's and got a 23" gag and some nice rockies. On the next drift I decided to have some fun and use my trout rod rigged with an electric chicken saltwater assassin and 10 pound test line. I figured I could put my grouper stick in the rod holder and catch rock bass and grunts while waiting for grouper.

First drop with the jig was a nice 14" rock bass. Next drop was more stout and took a little longer to bring up. After a short tug of war I hauled in a 19" gag. Another drift over the area produced a 27" gag on my grouper rod. I was still fishing with my jig when I felt a tap, set the hook and this fish peels line of the reel. With the drag set a little too tight, the 10lb test just couldn't hold on. After a couple more drifts and some more rock bass and grunts in the boat, we decide to be brave and run another 9 miles out to 42 feet.

Bottom fishing on this spot produced nothing but the area was showing fish, so we decided to troll and put down 2 stretch 30's. About 5 minutes in the drag was screaming on another 23" gag that hit the chartruese 30. A couple more passes produced rock bass. The wind finally started to pick up and we had a long ride ahead of us so we called it a day. Ran in at 32 mph, what a nice calm day.

Fish seemed very active in 28'. We had several groups of 2 or 3 grouper chase our grunts and rock bass up off the bottom, but they wouldn't hit ones we put down for bait. Water was crystal clear and could easily see the bait on the bottom in 28 feet. 42 feet was still pretty clear, able to see light and dark areas.

Total Tally
3 gags to 27"
6 rock bass to 16" (yes 16")
10 grunts.

phish-n-fool · Post by **phish-n-fool** » February 18th, 2002, 10:48 pm

Tom-

Thanks for the report,,were u in the Key West? Sounds like you had a right nice day. Wonder why the group's wouldn't hit the grunts or rock bass offerings. Did you try butterflying a couple or presenting a live one?

PS I found a Stretch 25 loud at West Marine as you suggested, only one left, thanks for the scoop.

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 18th, 2002, 11:03 pm

Yep, we were in the key west. Didn't try a butterflied grunt. Truthfully I was mostly guiding my father-in-law and his friend and wasn't fishing too hard. But I ended up with all the good bites, go figure.

Glad you found the Stretch. No hits on the loud Saturday though.

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Tom Keels
Owner, Webmaster
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LiveLine · Post by **LiveLine** » February 19th, 2002, 8:19 am

Sounds like a good time big T. Thanks for the report