I was able to peel myself away from work to get in a few days of fishing. On day one my wife tagged along but just my son and I for the next two days. We really wanted to do some experimenting with grouper fishing and wow did we learn something. So many times in the past we get broken off within 3-5 seconds of hooking a big fish so I decided to upsize my gear. 80 lb braid, 100 lb 25’ wind on leader with a 150 lb terminal leader. Over two days we boated a 20 lb red grouper and three gags weighing in at 30, 35 & 40. Gags are closed so we were able to release them after only having to vent one. Caught some really nice trigger and snapper as well. Triggers are open so that was a plus and we also got our share of jacks on the jig. Sunday was terrible and my better judgement told me not to go but the lure was too strong. Should’ve stayed on the beach to cobia fish but did manage a really nice black snapper. Many more are there but have to wait on the right conditions to chum them to the top for light tackle. Here’s a few pics from our trips. Can’t wait to go back but it will be a while.

Nicely done 👍

Awesome!

nice fish Chad, congrats. Those are some fine gags.

Heck yeah!

Nice catch. Thats a monster mangrove. Do you fish more to the east for the grouper? I've never had much luck catching them, but I mainly fish due south or southwest.

Some quality fish right there!

I usually run SE or South. These were south and not too far out. I’ll usually run 45-55 nautical miles to grouper fish.

I'm probably not going out far enough. Thinking about going this weekend. Looks like the seas are supposed to be pretty good. Probably just check out some public wrecks and see whats on them.

HUGE Mangrove.

Anchor up and chum. Some days they’ll jump in the boat.

Did you get rid of the big boat and charter business?

Yes. I learned a lesson on that one. I will never have another business unless I will be the one doing it. I sold that boat last year and got a Grady White 336 Canyon. It is a great boat and has one feature that absolutely allows you to kill fish which is set point. Push a button and the engines hold the boat on the spot.

Sweet!

We got a beautiful gag in 60 ft of water yesterday on a diving plug we were pulling while looking for cobia. It was painful to have to release that one. We also released 10 cobia and kept one in 2 days of hunting. We did not see a fish over about 30 lbs or so but there were more of them than I have seen in quite a few years. I am hopeful this is a good sign for the future.

Nice!

Sounds like a fish killer you got now. Congrats

I wondered why outboards weren't being equipped with gps positioning yet. That absolutely is a game changer for boats too big for the trolling motor solution.

That’s good to hear something positive out of the cobia world.

It can be a bit finicky at times. You have to determine the drift and align the boat properly or it will not work. I’d say it works about 90% of the time when you get it set properly.

I bet. Those props don't swivel around like a trolling motor can.

From Friday and Saturday. Jacks were difficult and the grouper are still chewing good. Freaking snapper are everywhere. It angers me to waste a bait on them.

I like that express. That’s more my style right there. Small but built like tanks. Get up and go when needed also.

Another great catch! Had a feeling you would be posting up some big AJ's. For the grouper, do you prefer big live bait or big dead bait? thanks

It varies. A big fish will eat a small bait but not the other way around. You just have to offer a buffet of various baits to see what they want that day. With that being said, the best bait you can use is the ones you catch on the spot. Send down a chicken rig and catch whatever small fish are on the bottom and send him right back down and hold him a few feet off the bottom. If you notice, when fishing for those small fish, they will rarely swim off the bottom to eat a bait. The reason being, they’re scared of getting eaten. So make him hover in the “death zone”.

That’s a damn fine boat Cal. Hellofva a catch too!

That is the boat my Yankee friend owns. We have killed a lot of fish with that boat. Cruises at 22 knots so it’s kinda slow compared to what I’m driving now. Definitely a tank though.

Thanks! I don’t want any other one now.

Nice haul!

My son caught the biggest snapper I have ever seen yesterday. 27 lbs. Weather man was off again so we didn’t go to our jack spots. Maybe next time.

Son of a gun!!! That is a hoss

Heck yeah! I bet he enjoyed that! I caught a 24 pounder a couple of years ago and it was like trying to reel up a Volkswagen. Good times there Cal!

Made a run last Saturday. Was a day with a lot of variety. Hoping to kill some snapper and grouper next weekend.

Cal you're killing me. Those are some great fish.

Love this thread! Scamp are one of my favorite fish to eat.

Is there a Mangrove? if so that's a a good un.

Hellofa haul. Looks like a black snapper....

Mangrove, black snapper, both the same to me.

The third from the bottom is a yellow edge grouper. Deep water fish. He came out of 420 ft. He looked a little surprised to see us when he came up.

Here’s a 13 pounder from the previous day. Pretty fish and we’ve only caught a handful since we rarely fish that deep. We were pulling snapper out of 420’ the other day. They’re everywhere.

Great looking fish. Just hard to understand fishing that deep. It sounds crazy to me. It's a lot different than the pier or Sipsey!

When I find a “spot” I have to fish it. Doesn’t really matter about the depth. Just a little more work

Please tell me you are using electric reels on those. I consider anything over 200' deep drop spots. 420'??? That's way too much work with a manual. Pretty yellowedge, though. That's a fine eating fish.

I’m wondering what that 2”x8” board is for? CAL got some new tricks for catching fish

probably to lay across the transom when cutting bait.

420 is actually on the shallow end of the slope of YEG...500 plus and your in the neighborhood full time. Good reel 6/0 or equivalent full of line is really not bad til you pass about 550.

Oh lordy, Abolt. I remember an incident with one of the electric reels when I was about 8 years old. I was holding the reel as my Daddy was digging out a birds nest that I had caused when I let the 16 oz sinker hit the bottom full speed. I had one job and that was to just hold the rod and reel still. For some unknown reason, I hit the button. It mashed the schitt out of his thiumb and index finger. His weekend of fishing was done. To this day I'm not sure how I excaped a severe azz beating, unless his hand was just too sore to swing a belt. I remember he wore two totally black fingernails for a long time afterwards.

I used it to dump some reef material overboard.....maybe:)

Nope. We were using two speed reels which does help. I don’t like fishing that deep either but dammit that spot looked good!

Bet it's a blast when you get on them.

Today was a good catch. Highlights were a 25 lb snapper, 15 lb red grouper and a jack crevalle which came out of 250’. First one ever brought on the boat.

That’s a good looking catch. Next time I’m down that way I’m gonna have to pay you to take me and my son!

Nice haul! You gonna try to eat the jack or use it for bait later?

jack and the bonita.....

Nice haul CAL!

A couple years back while chasing the redfish schools right off the beach we hooked a GIANT Jack Crevalle. Just shy of 30lbs and took my wife the better part of 2hrs to land the fish because of the lightweight tackle we were using. I thought for sure she had a state record because we’d never caught jacks any bigger than half that size but much to my surprise the AL record is just over 40lbs!

Cutbait

Weather man got it wrong again but made the best of it.
online upload image

Cal you have to stop posting these pictures or I'm gonna move in so I can go with you!!

nice

Stupid question. Why do you poke the eyeballs out before you throw away?

That’s so the carcasses will more easily sink when being discarded.

Thanks CAL.

Nothing to report this weekend from me but I did let a good friend use her and they killed some fish.

Awesome

Finally had some slick seas. We pulled up on the first spot and triggers and red snapper were all up under the boat from the surface to as far down as you could see. Took a little while to get a .imit of snapper because of all the triggers.

We went yesterday and got a limit of 15ish pound snappers for eating and had some fun with some kings. All on spinning rods. I got brutalized by some 30 to 50 pound AJs that were unusually aggressive. They were in a mob chasing to the surface and blasting any live bait I tried. Even had a 50 lber eat a chunk of cigar minnow. I saw him coming but didn't dream he would eat that. I paid dearly for that misjudgement. I caught and released 4 of them and I am so sore now that I feel like I got beaten with a bat. I am too old for reef donkeys now.

Fun times!

Thanks for posting those they bring back great memories.A lot of fish board pics these days are mostly stuff we used to use for bait but those are solid fish.Back in the day I spent several years off shore pretty much every week-end weather allowed either fishing or spearing and it was one of the funnest periods of my life.I was lucky enough to hook up with some of the best bottom fishermen in central Florida, including two guys who essentially pioneered private boat non-commercial bottom fishing off of Port Canaveral, and we killed ,literally, tons of fish..I quit when they got tight on all the regulations, it was either that or go total outlaw. One of my old spearing buddies actually paid $30,000 for a commercial license just so he could continue to fish and spear on the week-ends the way we did before all the bull doo doo.

Did you drink any beer? Went on WeeMan's boat Saturday. 8 nice snapper and I caught a Cobia as a bonus.

I had a couple. Hard to drink when a 50 lb AJ is trying to pull your arms out of their sockets.