BigBendFishing.Net

I have been a flats fisherman for a long time, and have fished offshore with charters. I have recently bought a bigger boat and want to try my hand at the offshore game.
I am looking for some help with the techniques; Bait, methods, rigging, depths, structures, etc. I fish out of the Spring Creek area. My first trip will be in late April. I realize the weather pretty much decides everything, but any gereral information and locations to try will be greatly appreciated!
I'm not asking for a honey hole, just a general direction and distance to try!

Thanks!

-GC

If you get stopped by "THE MAN" you can ask him what depth the grouper are biting at and they will usually tell you, they talk to dozens of boaters each day so they carry the gossip pretty good

I would run a search for old threads and there will be a lot of discussion about various techniques/patterns on fishing and finding numbers

There are a lot of members on here who have cought more grouper than I so I am kind of hesitant to give out generalizations which would be contradicted

Welcome aboard by the way

Head out towards the Marker 24 area. Lots of good bottom in the vicinity. More good bottom 5-6 miles South or Southeast of there as well. In late April you normally can do no wrong in 30 -50 feet out of St. Marks. If you troll though, you may want to use wire.(kings)

I'll try to breakdown baits by season and in order of best to worst.

Spring - Live Bait (pins, squirrellfish, cigars), trolling lures (stretches, rapalas), jigs, dead bait (frozen lys, cigars, sardines, squid)

Summer - Live Bait, dead bait,

Fall - Anything is usually good

Winter - Dead bait, trolling lures, jigs, live bait

These are guidelines and not rules.

Here is a good post on tackle...
http://www.bigbendfishing.net/phpbb/vie ... php?t=2831

Thanks for the welcome and the advice.
I can't believe they allow a Texas fan so close to the Noles homeland. I'm a Clemson fan myself, so I'm not very popular either. All in good fun!

Back to fishin'

You said Marker 24 out of St. Marks. I have fished out of Shell Island before. Any idea how far it is from Spring Creek/Shell Point to that area?

It is give or take 15 miles. I can give you an exact distance when I get home and pull up my map source.

Here is another good link on trolling...

http://www.bigbendfishing.net/phpbb/vie ... php?t=2549

That would be great.
GPS coords would be helpful also.

I'll be sure to post a report for each trip I make.

You can find plenty of numbers here http://bigbendfishing.net/reefs.htm

The # for the Marker 24 barge will get you in the right area, then you can start looking around.

From the end of the shell point channel marker 24 is 14.5 miles.