BigBendFishing.Net

Put in at the Lighthouse ~6:45am and headed east. The bite early was on Chugbug and Zara SPook with a little Catch 2000 mixed in. Couldn't buy a bite on live shrimp or jig before ~10am. However the best action was before 10 am unless you count the fields of shorts we encoutered later. We moved over just west of peter's rock and caught a small cobia on a CT w/ tipped jig. Soon after that a strange thing happened. Fishing in 9ft of water with a Catch 2000 on a trout sized rod and reel, I saw a bait pod moving on the water and casted just past so as to be able to pull it through without spooking them. As soon as the two converged, my rod bends and I catch a 7 lb Grouper...in 9ft of water...in May...on a catch 2000. My proof is the Pic's below. We continued fishing until ~3:30 \, working our way back West on a series of drifts. After about 11am we changed tactics pretty often and caught fish on all types of tackle - bottom jigging, CT's w/ jigs or live shrimp, Catch 2000's, Chugbug, Thunderspin, Gold Spoons..etc. The final Tally was:

Bluefish - 2 ( topwater and CT))
Spanish - 2 ( all on bottom jig)
Keeper Trout - 6 ( gold spoon, CT with fishbites/jig or shrimp, Chugbug, Catch 2000)
Other Trout - ~60
Ladyfish - ~15 (pesky but fun)
Pinfish - 1 ( on a jig lol)
Remora - 1 ( on chugbug)
Cobia - 1 ( on CT with tipped Jig)
Grouper - 1 ( catch 2000)

Great bonus fish. Grouper will follow those bait pods like any other predatory fish will. WTG.

I noticed the COORS LIGHT. Wanna go fishin' sometime? YBTB.

Sounds like an awesome day with a nice mixed bag.

That was just a fluke. Normally you have to go to 50 feet or more for grouper. They dont' live on the flats. Now just move along.

Tom Keels wrote:That was just a fluke. Normally you have to go to 50 feet or more for grouper. They dont' live on the flats. Now just move along.

I was under no illusions that this was anything other than blind luck. I will take it all the same.

Another thing that I thought was a little out of place for the water temp was either a smoker king or Tarpon turned sideways from us jumping strait into the air around the same spot on Saturday as I caught the grouper. ~5ft+ long. We saw it at about 50 yards and couldn't tell which it was but I guess that the grouper wasn't the only thing a little out of place on Saturday.

..now I'll just move along

It was the "Coors light" .

BBridgeJohn wrote: ..now I'll just move along

Good cause there ain't no grouper on the flats. That one probably got blown in from offshore in a storm.

Good report, looks like a good day.

Tom is right, there is no grouper on the flats...so lets all just move along now.

That was a fluke but a gentleman here at work said they caught 2 grouper to 9#'s in 20 and 25 ft of water this weekend. 9 feet of water thats crazy but whats up with these other depths, you would think that by now, like Tom said, the grouper would be in deeper water.

Whatever, I'll take a fluke on the flats any day

Great report looks like you guys had a blast!