Wife and I went out last weekend to do some deep dropping for grouper and to check some other spots out. Plan was to run 75 miles to fish a spot I have done well at before. At 55 miles, one of my bottom machines quit working so we had to fish solely on #’s with no sonar. That frustrated me because I enjoy watching the electronics but was pretty sure we could do ok. First spot we deep dropped at yielded nothing which was very surprising. Since we were blind, decided to run to some more consistent spots that were in 420’. We immediately started catching them. Snowy grouper, scamp and mingos were thick and hungry. She had a blast catching them on the electric reel. I opted to hand crank which is a lot of work but not too bad unless….a big jack or shark doesn’t mess with you. Yep, they both decided to bite along with the grouper. Gave me a good workout and she got a chuckle. Ended up being a great day getting our grouper limit, pulling on some fish and seeing a beautiful sunset from the harbor.

Nice!

👍

What Marina?

Boat stays on a lift in Destin harbor

Man I am jealous over those Scamps, used to be my favorite. Any man hand cranking 420’ on a fun trip is a bad arse lol. I was serious about my offshore for many years and we would deep jig 360-380’ during tournaments with conventional gear because we had no choice. Nothing was worse than a 50 lb AJ ruining the show, pure misery for a little bit of fish dip.

Heck yea. Great day!!!!

Looks like there’s something bad wrong with that shark. Awful lot of red in the water. I sure hope he survived that encounter.

Congrats! Can’t wait til I get to do that again. I won’t make it quite that far out, but it’s still a dang blast!

He suffered from a traumatic brain injury x3

Jigging is the most fun to be had while clothed

Did you try the tile fish?

Very

No sir, didn’t go that direction.

Question, why would you just shoot a shark?

Looks like a fun trip for sure though

They’re like democrats…. You don’t have to kill them all. If you deal with one, the others scatter and let you live/fish in peace.

^ This. Same reason you need to kill every Hawk/Owl you can.....they eat Turkeys!!

I fished out of Destin from '06 to '15. These days it's out of Fort Morgan. Snapper fishing seems better off the Alabama Coast (Catch much BIGGER Fish)....but the Grouper fishing is not even close to South of Destin.

Very nice - great pics

Since all the shark regulations were put in place, shark populations have increased to the point that you can barely fish many areas. Pensacola Bay is over run with bull sharks. The famous 29th edge that I fished as a kid is nearly void of fish these days due to the increase in shark populations. It’s out of hand and way worse than it’s ever been. Ask the boys that fish Gulf Shores pier how bad it is. When I fished there as a kid, we almost never saw a shark. Now days, you are lucky to land a king mackerel for all the sharks.

Looks like a great trip!

It's a lot harder for a dead shark to bite you kinda like a rattle snake. Saw a link somewhere that said they are starting to re-evaluate the deep water grouper limits, seasons, etc.

My back hurts just looking at that AJ. Those scamps are like gold if you ask me. Absolutely delicious. Well done

Nice. Those grouper are some good eating. Thanks for sharing

Made a run on Mother’s Day with my wife and a friend. Wather man was wrong on the forecasted 1-2’ waves but we made the best of it. Fished 190-420 feet to get these.

Ya done good !

Someday I am gonna catch a grouper like that! Well, maybe not.

Congrats on another great trip!

Why are the eyes poked out before discarding???

That’s an awesome haul! Is that a beeliner? If so, that’s got to the a record or a good pic.

Those Amberjacks will definitely dislocated your shoulder!

Sure is, it was a big one. My buddy caught that one, I should’ve targeted them after he pulled it up but I kept grouper fishing.

The guys that discard the carcasses put them in a pinfish trap to do so. If the eyes are not poked out, they will float and stink.

Thanks, did not know.