10/12 & 10/16 Grouper Fishing

[Scoop Sea]

I was fortunate enough to have Monday off, so I hit the water and ran to some close holes that are in Federal Waters. As I was leaving the dock,my bottom machine couldn't find a GPS location, however, a short time later it did, so off I went. I managed to catch 9 gags,3 of which were legal. My first was a 24 incher, then came a 30 incher, and then I picked up a 26 incher. Since the time between catching the 24 and 26 was fairly short, I was actually able to cull out the 24 (full swim off to the bottom like he never hit the ice). I did some trolling for some kings but didn't catch any, however, I did find a new hole that was on fire, but since I had my limit, it was all just for fun. It was a great day on the water with excellent seas. I made it back in time to take my family out to Tropical Trader's for some fresh caught grouper.

Having fishing fever I took Friday off and headed out even those the forecast called for east winds which I'm not a fan of. Once again my GPS on my bottom machine wouldn't find a fixed location at the dock. Mind you, Thursday evening while loading the boat, I checked it out and it worked fine, even after turning it on and off, etc just to make sure it would work Friday morning. I decided that I'd run out and try and find some 40 foot water and fish since the bottom machine was working. The swells were straight out of the east and were a bear to deal with. After about 45 minutes, I said enough is enough and I'm heading in, ironically, about that time, my GPS picked up my location, so I punched in the number I wanted to go to, it turns out that I was 6.5 miles southeast of where I "thought" I was headed. Needless to say, this was an eye opener for me and a lesson learned. When I got to the new hole I found Monday, the bite was on, I caught 3 grouper, and one grunt in my first 5 drops and one of the grouper was a keeper. After that, things settled down for a couple hours with me only catching one more short gag. I moved over to another spot a mile or so away and ended up catching 4 more grouper, one of which was a keeper. The seas laid down and it was a very pleasant afternoon on the water. Hit the house, cleaned the boat and fish, and my wife and I had a date night back at Tropical Trader, which was a great way to start the weekend.

I tried something new this go around, I tied my kids GoPro off on a line and dropped it to the bottom to look around. Since I had the "buoy" attachment on it, it wouldn't stay down too long, but it was kind of cool to take a peak around. I didn't do this too much, but plan on doing it in the future. I did manage to capture me pulling up a grouper on one shot, that' the positive. The negative, while messing with the GoPro, I put a baited rod in my fiberglass rod holder on the side of the center console, it got tagged by a hoss and ended up breaking the rod holder and I dang near lost a rod, unfortunately, I lost the fish. Lesson learned there too........

Have a great Sunday, it's time to finish up a cup of coffee and head to Church.

[Harmsway]

Way to do it, Scoop.

[fly n fish]

That was a fun read. Sounds like great adventure.

[neckmoe]

How well did the GoPro do as far as visibility and were you able to distinctly see bottom? Just curious if this would be a way to check out what's down there? Would be a cool way to verify what your numbers are marking.

[Scoop Sea]

The GoPro worked pretty good down on the bottom when it was there. However, since I used the buoy device on it, the GoPro would float back up to the top. Next time I will use more weight to get it to stay on the bottom, I was concerned that if it got snagged and broke the line it wouldn't float back up. It's not the "best" option in the world, but it worked pretty good for a first time shot.