Homosassa Offshore 2/17

Fishesman

Dusty, Corey, and I didn't really start the day with a solid plan. We came equipped for just about anything and decided to play it by ear depending on the conditions. Our first stops were at several shallow rock piles to see if any convicts were at home. That was a bust, so we decided to run offshore and, if nothing else, spend the day scouting for new grouper bottom. We headed SW to an area I had never visited in the 30-35 ft depths. We found some awesome looking bottom right away and decided to troll through the area to see if the gags agreed with our assessment. The big lipped plugs started getting smashed as soon as they were deployed, so we knew we were on to something. After marking a bunch more good looking structure we decided to head out to a wreck and see if any AJs were home. The sonar lit up with big inverted V's as we made our first pass over the wreck, so I figured we might be in for some fun. I rigged up a rod with a vertical jig and pretty soon the first fish was on. The fish weren't big by AJ standards, but they were plenty fun to catch on light tackle. Most were around 26", but we finally caught one legal fish of 32" that went in the box. After 8 fish we decided to head closer to home and look for some more new bottom. We found some more promising looking structure and started trolling again. Once again, the gags were thick. We ended the day with at least 10 gags caught and released, most of which were in the 25"+ range. Think we'll ever get back to no closed season on gags? It's painful to release all that tasty fish flesh. Water temps were around 58 degrees and seas were calm. It felt great to be back out on the water. Can't wait for the spring migrations to get started!

Redbonz

Sometimes you just got to bend a rod....Good job...

Doc Stressor

How deep did you find those AJ's?

Slacker

Sounds like a fun day and found some new nos.

davidk5316

Looks to be a good day on the water, even if it is only catch and release.
Great job!!!!

Fishesman

Doc Stressor wrote: »

How deep did you find those AJ's?

Doc - 55'. I seem to recall that you've caught AJs off the same structure.

HighPlainsDrifter

:Rockon

Doc Stressor

Gotcha. Thanks. I was hoping that there might be a few larger ones around over the winter. But the smaller ones are sure a hoot on spinning gear.

ripnlips

HighPlainsDrifter wrote: »

:Rockon

X2

capt louie

Nice trip. Looks like gags will be like jewliaths . More of a pest than a plateful. :rolleyes

Kahuna

Nice catch... I like vertical jigging AJ's.. I have a spot that I have caught them in multiple times, yet there really isn't any structure around.. A least none that shows up on sonar very well.