Grouper trolling

phatdaddy

phatdaddy

God
after breakfast, my son and i decided to go do a little grouper trolling in the bay. he had to go to work at 3 and we didn't get out till 11, so we had a limited window.
trolled the flats for 2 hours, nothing but one lizard fish. told him 10 more minutes then we had to go to get him to work.

Old Crow Medicine Show came on his playlist,and this guy decided to join the party.






not a huge one, but very good for the bay in 13 ft of water.
 
thanks guys, been doing a little fishing, but not as much as usual since the open heart surgery in april. starting to feel myself again as the season is winding down.

i did go back sunday with my wife and managed to get this guy to bite. had a stud at the boat, but line broke (i know, no pic,no fish).

we had a bowl of cheese grits topped with fresh fried grouper chunks for supper, so all in all, a great thanksgiving weekend.


 


this is the fourth one in in about 3 weeks. normally grouper closes first of december, but this year marine patrol extended it until end of month, trying to take advantage of as long as it last. notice how blue the edges of the fins are, suppose to be from eating shrimp, but all of these had lizard fish in their stomachs.

air temp was 65-70 water temp still mid 60's, but cold front moving in tomorrow night. no more till middle of next week
 
Feel you pain, skunk. Getting down to upper 30's here this weekend. Goog thing about these fish, they re about 2 miles from ramp in the bay. A hard north wind will slick off the bay. Water temp is mid 60's, for now
 
63* water!!! Wow ours is 49* rt now, and will be heading lower soon! Air temp rt now at 4:30am is 29* with the wind blowing.,
 
Our water temp will get down to mid 50's, but gulf temps offshore will stay 60-65, most fish leave the bay and go out in the gulf, following the baitfish. The state has restricted so many fish, not really anything you can fish for till spring.
 


this is a redfish we caught today while looking for Mr G. thought we had a nice grouper till we got him to the top. he was about 6" over the slot, so back he went.




then we stumbled across this guy.

once again, fishing with my son, good day for all, except the grouper.
 
Great pics and nice fish Phat.

I want to go on record as being the first to say that it's absolutely sickening you catching grouper inshore like that. When I lived in Clearwater I would tell guys back in Savannah about how close in they would get and they thought I was full of it.
 
Thanks B, this is a once a year deal. Usually mid october to january. It is not for impatient fishermen. We trolled for 4 hours to get 1 fish. I don't mind, i cruise along watching the bottom machine & marking any little rubble piles i find. That gives me spots to come back to during trout and flounder season.

On a side note, the four stroke motor really makes four hours of trolling easy. .5 gph and quiet. The old mariner didn't like it for more than 45 minutes to an hour, then i'd have to run it for a mile or 2.
 
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