Gagalicious - Panama City 9/16/11

[KayakMacGyver]

I requested the day off from work about a month and a half ago, knowing that the Gag grouper would be waiting. As a diver, I have little bit of an advantage knowing what's out there, and MAN ALIVE are the grouper out there! They teased me all summer long, but Friday was revenge day. Alicia and I Left the marina at 5:30 knowing that we'd have a 25 mile run, and I wanted to be out there at first good light. In hindsight, we should have slept in. The ride out was a bit windy/rough, and it built until around 10 a.m. Once the tide went slack, the ocean slicked out and it looked like a lake out there. Caught the first Gag at about 7:30 on a big live pin, a 31 incher. Then, for the next 5 hours it was snapper after snapper after snapper. I blame the slow bite mostly to the terrible tide. Very slow movement all day. We bounced around for a while and then at 12:30 went back to where we started the morning. I knew the spot was loaded with Grouper, having dived it 3 weeks ago. The tide started to pick up a little bit and that was the ticket. We would drop a live pinfish down, BAM, 24" keeper. Dropped another one, BAM, another 24" keeper. Dropped a third, and the rest is Gagalicious.

Went out Saturday and it was the same story, Afternoon bite only.


http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/313756_10101013979693413_5224032_71872284_17360308 05_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/311464_10101018603227813_5224032_71909892_14305861 03_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/313053_10101014126584043_5224032_71873191_14107657 40_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/321546_10101018604724813_5224032_71909916_15845686 33_n.jpg

[Klinger]

Good haul:beer Too bad we can't keep a couple of good snapper to make a decent box

[Beck]

Nice report....It looks like that afternoon bite may hold for another few days.

[Panhandler80]

Good job.

The only consisent trend I have seen over the years with the gag grouper is an occasional lull of varrying degrees from 10:00 until 2:00 or so and this has been regardless of tide or moon phase.

Might just be that your first spots didn't hold any grouper. ??????

And in terms of tide, if you're fishing inside 25 miles, I'll take zero tide any day over even a modest tide. Reason being, unless you're on...

A) Really big bottom where your bait's scent may call a grouper from many yards away, or
B) A spot that has not been fished in 10 years or you're in deep water during a spawn (not going to happen these days) and there are so many grouper on it that they are holding up in the water and off in the sand,

Unless it's A or B, you really need to consistently put your baits right in front of their nose if you want to catch lots of gags. I don't know about you, but the less current there is, the better I am at that.

[fishawk]

Very Nice.