Winter pinfish?
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Winter pinfish?
So the pinfish have moved off the flats and I need my grouper bait. Do they act like trout and move into the river, or do they go to deeper water like nearshore rock piles?
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- procraftwes
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Re: Winter pinfish?
In the winter I have caught pinfish right off the dock at shields and headed out with live bait. I haven't been able to do that in the summer so I assume they probably move with the trout.
I'm not sure though.
I'm not sure though.
Re: Winter pinfish?
I was on the flats on Saturday and was unable to find pinfish as well. Fortunately, the grouper were hungry and took frozen LY's, but the grunts did, too.
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Re: Winter pinfish?
Where do we find the grouper this time of year? I've heard that some grouper will come in shallow in the fall. The Mrs and I gave the St. Marks and Wakulla reef a try this past Saturday but we didn't have any live or frozen bait.
Re: Winter pinfish?
I found some on a public reef in 40-45 feet last week, trolling a blue-green diving plug. I've caught them before on reefs closer to St Marks, but those get a lot of fishing pressure
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Re: Winter pinfish?
I read a scientific article which states they typically move out deeper where temps are less erratic in the winter. Not sure where and how deep though. I think I posted a link on here for the article, I’ll look.
Found it:
http://www.fao.org/3/ap947e/ap947e.pdf Page 20-21
Found it:
http://www.fao.org/3/ap947e/ap947e.pdf Page 20-21
Re: Winter pinfish?
Take a sabiki to any of the nearshore reefs/natural bottom and most likely you will find sand perch, aka squirrel fish. We can usually sabiki up 20-30 in less than an hour.
Grouper love them.
Whenever my bottom machine shows a good sign on the bottom but my frozen bait is just being picked at, I will drop down a sabiki. Most of those times I start catching sand perch left and right.
![Image](//uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211130/dcddf199418c9c70aa46b7a3793259b1.jpg)
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Grouper love them.
Whenever my bottom machine shows a good sign on the bottom but my frozen bait is just being picked at, I will drop down a sabiki. Most of those times I start catching sand perch left and right.
![Image](http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211130/dcddf199418c9c70aa46b7a3793259b1.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Re: Winter pinfish?
Gotcha, I did that the other day. They're good if you use them right away, not as hardy as pinfish in the livewell
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Re: Winter pinfish?
That was a pretty interesting scientific document on the Pinfish, some of it done in Apalachee bayleonreno wrote: ↑November 30th, 2021, 12:52 am I read a scientific article which states they typically move out deeper where temps are less erratic in the winter. Not sure where and how deep though. I think I posted a link on here for the article, I’ll look.
Found it:
http://www.fao.org/3/ap947e/ap947e.pdf Page 20-21