Suwannee Offshore 12-8-12

[Chesapeake troller]

Joining me was neighbor and good friend Dave Perry on a trip offshore Saturday to take advantage of a good bite and forecasted 10 knot or less winds and 2 foot or less waves. Well at least they got the wind sort of right Heading out it was heavy fog and 2 to 3's with mainly the "3" part so will was rough to go out and tough to anchor up. We fished several spots in 60 foot and finally at noon the group started to hit. Our luck changed with this little guy deciding he wanted a piece of squid and came up to see us:



Me getting a close up of Octopussy:



Few minutes later on a piece of the aforementioned vistor Dave scored on this 25 inch fire truck:



Dave was the hot hand with the Group this day, this nice Gag came up to visit on a piece of salted Threadfin (Herring Jerky):



Day was a Grouper focus so the little guy bag was small but we could have brought home three times this number, I have a church fish fly next month so I will need to start keeping some more:



I love this shot, this RG is a pig!



Bait of the day was Octopus and Herring Jerky. Sharks were manageable, I did have two rigs messed up but nothing like earlier in the week. Flying teeth was not as bad but bad enough at the dock. On the conditions, it finally did calm down around 3 and the run in was manageable, by the time we got to 10 miles out it was calm, at 5 miles slick calm.

Only saw four boats all day on the water, did see a few inshore guys in the river but everyone is saying the trout are out of the creeks and back in the GOM.

A week away on business for me and then this coming weekend I am putting together our outdoor stage for a Christmas Eve service so not sure I will be on the water for at least a week... Hope somebody is getting lines wet!

CT

[angler18]

some very nice fish guys, I heard the octopus made great grouper bait.

[Doc Stressor]

The stone crabbers say that they're a lot of octopus out there this year. We haven't boated any so far, but I had a couple of "hanger ons" that I thought were octopus. Red grouper love them for bait. The grunts can't take octopus off the hook very easily, so you will do well with the grouper if you can save a bunch of them for bait.

[PONCE]

Nice haul boys

[ripnlips]

That red is a fattie. WTG.

[m9000]

Glad somebody is getting out and catching fish!

[troutman57]

Nice Box-O-Fish! That is a fine red grouper

[Chesapeake troller]

The stone crabbers say that they're a lot of octopus out there this year. We haven't boated any so far, but I had a couple of "hanger ons" that I thought were octopus. Red grouper love them for bait. The grunts can't take octopus off the hook very easily, so you will do well with the grouper if you can save a bunch of them for bait.

So guys here is a big bend question; can we buy Octopus for bait anywhere around here? If you get it frozen is it still as tough on the hook? Doc you are right, put a piece on and it stays on for a long time, the little nibblers could not take it off.

Thanks,

CT

[Snook Spanker]

Hell I love eatin O~puss!!! If you get some Doc and don't use them up fer bait, save em fer me!!!! The fresher the better w/ O~puss, those store bought frozen ones can't compare to fresh!!
Oh Great job on that SLOB R/G C/T and those grunts are almost as good eatin as the O~puss!!!

[canoemaster]

Nice Red Grouper! You should get some nice fillets off of that one! I would have kept some of the calamari for a side dish.