One Foot Seas—Nope
Posted: September 5th, 2025, 10:22 am
Fishing on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2025, out of Carrabelle was going to be tremendous. The forecast called for 1 foot seas. We were going to load the cooler with gag grouper, red grouper, and red snapper during the short time that they are all legal to keep. We kept that optimism until we reached East Pass. The 1 foot seas in the marine forecast were, in reality, 3 to 4 foot seas.
The rough seas caused us to change our plans from focusing on gag grouper in state waters. Instead, we headed out into federal waters in hopes of finding flatter seas and anything that would bite. We stopped to fish in about 90 feet, but the seas were not any calmer than in state waters. As soon as our live baits hit bottom, we were getting bites. At least two small red grouper came over the gunnel along with two mangrove snapper and three red snapper. The small ones went back, but I was able to successfully fully ikejime (brain spike, wire down the spinal cord, and bleed) the four fish that we kept. All of this happened within 30 minutes after we started fishing.
Then we could hardly move except to lean over the gunnels. We were so seasick. Everyone was happy to head back to the boat ramp.
Back at the storage facility, some other friends showed up to help my crew and me wash the boat. That was a great end to the fishing trip.
Here’s the fish pile from our 30 minutes of fishing:
The rough seas caused us to change our plans from focusing on gag grouper in state waters. Instead, we headed out into federal waters in hopes of finding flatter seas and anything that would bite. We stopped to fish in about 90 feet, but the seas were not any calmer than in state waters. As soon as our live baits hit bottom, we were getting bites. At least two small red grouper came over the gunnel along with two mangrove snapper and three red snapper. The small ones went back, but I was able to successfully fully ikejime (brain spike, wire down the spinal cord, and bleed) the four fish that we kept. All of this happened within 30 minutes after we started fishing.
Then we could hardly move except to lean over the gunnels. We were so seasick. Everyone was happy to head back to the boat ramp.
Back at the storage facility, some other friends showed up to help my crew and me wash the boat. That was a great end to the fishing trip.
Here’s the fish pile from our 30 minutes of fishing:
