Final Gag and finally a trip Carrabelle 11/12
Posted: November 15th, 2011, 5:16 pm
We have been planning a trip offshore for last weekend of gag grouper for nearly a month, the week ahead of the this Celeste had 3 major exams; so we felt that would be a great stress discharge for her, however, when 4 AM came around and the temp was pushing 25 degrees she said you and the boys go and have a grand time I’m hanging out here and resting. I didn’t blame her since she was exhausted mentally and physically, so I gathered the equipment made coffee and when 2 of my crew showed up at 5 AM we loaded the tackle, coolers and supplies and headed south from Valdosta. One of our crew (Tommy) was coming up from Keaton and met us at the trailer in Lanark by the time we got there he had ice, bait and all the rods ready to put on the boat. That’s sure how you get invited back in my book!
A quick fuel stop for an extra 20 gal with Carson at Lanark market at the new non- ethanol pumps and we headed down the road to the City River Ramp due to some Low water in Lanark. We finally headed offshore @ 9:30 AM. First bait stop and after loading a big sabiki with keeper sea bass; that was a battle, we finally found a few squirrels (Sand perch AKA grouper candy) wanting a swim in the live well. We headed over to our first trolling spot which had two boats already up and down fishing on, one being a local boat (Valdosta) which we recognized because he lives down the street from Larry and me.
***I’m unfamiliar with who he is, but have seen the boat twice now in Carrabelle and don’t know if he is a forum contributor or not, we tried not to bother them, but since I have been fishing this spot for 5 years and have not seen anyone here until lately I figured we had it before them and trolled through a few times anyway, keeping our distance from the up and down guys.
I had wanted to do the same after a few trolling passes, but since we blanked on the trolling I let them have it and headed to stop two on my list. Unfortunately, we weren’t making the time I wanted due to motor issues AGAIN and after struggling with head seas and poor performance from the Suzuki’s I hoped this spot would produce because stops 3-4 were now taken off my route due to motor issues. We got set on a drift and catch black sea bass to 15 inches on dead bait and finally someone hooks up one of the squirrel fish and with a little coaching my buddy, Skip catches his first ever grouper, a respectable 24 in Gag.
Not 3 minutes later Larry is coaching him to keep the rod up on another good fish and he finally lands a 22 inch Red grouper, so I ‘m very pleased that I could put Skip on the two Grouper species we were after.
Larry and Celeste are usually my Grouper getters and since Larry was playing coach and mate for me and Celeste was probably still sawing logs I was relying on two new crew members to do some catching and one has never even grouper fished before. Well after 23 monster sea bass, a number of short grouper and those two keepers Grouper of Skips my buddy Tommy finally chimes in with a 23 in red grouper and Larry manages a beast of a trigger fish.
The spot was slowing slightly and I had really wanted to wet some more stretch 30’s before the day ended, so I headed to a trolling area and started out on a spot that had produced in the past and pointed the boat to my A game spot about a mile away knowing the whole area can produce at times but didn’t expect much until I got to that spot I intentional put at the end of my path.
Well as you may all know one of the best ways to find spots is to troll and as we headed toward my “good” area I ran over some great looking structure and not 10 seconds later the drag was screaming off the port rod which was our chartreuse 30, a little reeling on Tommy’s behalf and in the box goes a nice gag @ 24 inches. Pass two produces another Keeper and pass 3 another except this guy was a little short so we drop him off to swim, pass over it again get hit AGAIN this time a nice keeper and since we were stopped to let Skip reel this one in Larry switched out the starboard purple that hadn’t gotten touched with a clown colored 30 for pass 5 well it didn’t last long and this one Larry took himself and we could tell it was a nice fish as he surfaced for the net I was certainly impressed and he taped out at 29.5 inches before hitting the ice.
We left the hot spot to try and at least hit our Super good number for one or two passes but with no takers we found ourselves wanting to explore the new spot again so headed back for two more passes with only tangled lines to show for our efforts before checking the time and realizing we better hurry in if we wanted to make it before dark.
Final tally if you can’t get through all that writing:
2 “Keeper” red grouper. Many shorts.
5 Gags, one 29.5 incher, only a few shorts.
1 16 inch trigger
23 keeper (13-16 in) Sea bass and dozens thrown back that were keeper size, but not big enough for us.
A quick fuel stop for an extra 20 gal with Carson at Lanark market at the new non- ethanol pumps and we headed down the road to the City River Ramp due to some Low water in Lanark. We finally headed offshore @ 9:30 AM. First bait stop and after loading a big sabiki with keeper sea bass; that was a battle, we finally found a few squirrels (Sand perch AKA grouper candy) wanting a swim in the live well. We headed over to our first trolling spot which had two boats already up and down fishing on, one being a local boat (Valdosta) which we recognized because he lives down the street from Larry and me.
***I’m unfamiliar with who he is, but have seen the boat twice now in Carrabelle and don’t know if he is a forum contributor or not, we tried not to bother them, but since I have been fishing this spot for 5 years and have not seen anyone here until lately I figured we had it before them and trolled through a few times anyway, keeping our distance from the up and down guys.
I had wanted to do the same after a few trolling passes, but since we blanked on the trolling I let them have it and headed to stop two on my list. Unfortunately, we weren’t making the time I wanted due to motor issues AGAIN and after struggling with head seas and poor performance from the Suzuki’s I hoped this spot would produce because stops 3-4 were now taken off my route due to motor issues. We got set on a drift and catch black sea bass to 15 inches on dead bait and finally someone hooks up one of the squirrel fish and with a little coaching my buddy, Skip catches his first ever grouper, a respectable 24 in Gag.
Not 3 minutes later Larry is coaching him to keep the rod up on another good fish and he finally lands a 22 inch Red grouper, so I ‘m very pleased that I could put Skip on the two Grouper species we were after.
Larry and Celeste are usually my Grouper getters and since Larry was playing coach and mate for me and Celeste was probably still sawing logs I was relying on two new crew members to do some catching and one has never even grouper fished before. Well after 23 monster sea bass, a number of short grouper and those two keepers Grouper of Skips my buddy Tommy finally chimes in with a 23 in red grouper and Larry manages a beast of a trigger fish.
The spot was slowing slightly and I had really wanted to wet some more stretch 30’s before the day ended, so I headed to a trolling area and started out on a spot that had produced in the past and pointed the boat to my A game spot about a mile away knowing the whole area can produce at times but didn’t expect much until I got to that spot I intentional put at the end of my path.
Well as you may all know one of the best ways to find spots is to troll and as we headed toward my “good” area I ran over some great looking structure and not 10 seconds later the drag was screaming off the port rod which was our chartreuse 30, a little reeling on Tommy’s behalf and in the box goes a nice gag @ 24 inches. Pass two produces another Keeper and pass 3 another except this guy was a little short so we drop him off to swim, pass over it again get hit AGAIN this time a nice keeper and since we were stopped to let Skip reel this one in Larry switched out the starboard purple that hadn’t gotten touched with a clown colored 30 for pass 5 well it didn’t last long and this one Larry took himself and we could tell it was a nice fish as he surfaced for the net I was certainly impressed and he taped out at 29.5 inches before hitting the ice.
We left the hot spot to try and at least hit our Super good number for one or two passes but with no takers we found ourselves wanting to explore the new spot again so headed back for two more passes with only tangled lines to show for our efforts before checking the time and realizing we better hurry in if we wanted to make it before dark.
Final tally if you can’t get through all that writing:
2 “Keeper” red grouper. Many shorts.
5 Gags, one 29.5 incher, only a few shorts.
1 16 inch trigger
23 keeper (13-16 in) Sea bass and dozens thrown back that were keeper size, but not big enough for us.
