I Like Black Sea Bass..

Turner River Terror

Wish they grew to 10 pounds or so ..But.
I've Chummed up lot's of Yellowtails and Muttons in the Keys..Cut pieces , Chum Bags , anything you can throw out there..  Big Slicks behind the Boat.
What happens if I go to say 10 or 15 Ft' of water . Summer , Offshore grass flats and do the same just North of Keaton Beach , Big Bend ..Grass Flats for miles.
What's gonna show up in the Slick....

pottydoc

Lots of bsb's in that range out of Steinhatchee. Not on grass, though, hard bottom. Shoot me a message if you want some numbers to get started on. 

kingkong954

Turner River Terror said:

Wish they grew to 10 pounds or so ..But.
I've Chummed up lot's of Yellowtails and Muttons in the Keys..Cut pieces , Chum Bags , anything you can throw out there..  Big Slicks behind the Boat.
What happens if I go to say 10 or 15 Ft' of water . Summer , Offshore grass flats and do the same just North of Keaton Beach , Big Bend ..Grass Flats for miles.
What's gonna show up in the Slick....

You'll get lots of sharks, catfish, and pinfish?

ANUMBER1

November and December, 30' big hump backs

capt louie

Spring on hard bottom the big white finned males should be around. Doesn't take chum , bite a bare jig head if there.

Slacker

a two hook bottom rig catches 3 at a time, one on the sinker

if you look down the school follows them up

that was in 30 to 50 ft out of Steinhatchee and Keaton

Slacker

the chum will bring spanish

Doc Stressor

You won't find many big ones on the grass flats.  They are superabundant near the outer edges of the grass during the spring and summer.  The bigger ones spawn during the winter with the sweet spots being around 50-60' in most areas.  Hard flat bottom with soft coral (sea whips) is the ticket.  You can spot them near the bottom with your sonar once you figure out what a scattered show of them looks like.  Avoid rocky areas that hold gags and stay away from ARS shows.  You won't find them mixed with either species. 

As for bait, they will hit anything.  I use jigs or high low rigs when I target them.  I usually keep a bucket of them each year, usually in February.  It's a long run for little fish, but they are good eating. 

tankered

I have caught quite a few large seabass in the same areas as ARS. Gags too but not as frequently..

To say you won't find them mixed with either species is simply not true, especially in the case of the snapper.

I know it seems to be a general guideline but I have experienced MANY exceptions to that rule.

Doc Stressor

I catch them in exactly the same areas as red snapper.  If I see a stack of snapper I just move 50 yards away from them.  They just move away from the larger more aggressive fish. 

Slacker

sounds like they are in red grouper water?

Turner River Terror

Soooo , It sounds like I don't need a Cutting board , Hand Grinder , Glass Minnows or 3 blocks of 10 dollar Blood Chum..
A jig and hard bottom ..sounds too easy. 
I only have at the moment , most likely forever, a 15 Welded Jon . Great boat but I'm not going to 30 ft. of anything.
This fishing up here is real easy compared to what I'm use to. and I like it a lot , I do miss the Snook and Tarpon but getting a mess of fish to fry is simple.
And did I mention the Hunting..

conchydong

Interesting about the black Seabass in the northern Gulf. I’ve only caught them a few times off of Pompano beach and it was in 300 feet of water. I guess because of the temperature during a cold winter that they came this far south.  Great eating I steamed them Chinese style with ginger and scallions and hot oil to crisp the skin.

Turner River Terror

Caught a few off Marco and the lower Keys..Don't remember any in the Atlantic.
Their all over the place up here in The Bend . Right tasty and real easy to catch.
Shame they don't get bigger. Salt Water Bluegills

conchydong

Did catch a few nice ones though.

ANUMBER1

Turner River Terror said:

Soooo , It sounds like I don't need a Cutting board , Hand Grinder , Glass Minnows or 3 blocks of 10 dollar Blood Chum..
A jig and hard bottom ..sounds too easy. 
I only have at the moment , most likely forever, a 15 Welded Jon . Great boat but I'm not going to 30 ft. of anything.
This fishing up here is real easy compared to what I'm use to. and I like it a lot , I do miss the Snook and Tarpon but getting a mess of fish to fry is simple.
And did I mention the Hunting..

you can catch them off the flats, will be smaller but will still eat good..

Caught plenty back in the day just off Gomez Rocks in 10' of water...

15' trihull with a 20 hp 

stc1993

They are some pretty white meat. Good eating.

restlessnative

I must have skimmed the title too fast and saw TRT started it and thought this thread was going to be about something completely different. That said you got all the good advice you need. Plenty of snapper, grunts and hogs in pretty darn shallow in the big bend too that can be caught with somewhat ease once you get some good spots. 

FatBoyzfishing

I'm in NE Florida (Leave out the Jetties) and we kill them up here when water is cold.

One of my spots is on live bottom. They don't even show up on the finder mist of the times but there are armies out there and you just have to weed through the 11"-12.5" ones to get to the monsters.

I also have another spot that has a 9' ledge. The last spot I do is actually the area surrounding a small reef, you know, when you usually stop the drift and reposition to do the reef again.

NO NEED TO CHUM and they will eat almost anything. I usually double up on bait (always squid then shrimp/cut cigar minnow/spanish sardines. We have caught them off cut up grunts before too. Once caught one on a hot spicy sausage chunk before!

Hope this has been helpful!



Grunts are excellent crab bait by the way...

Slacker

off jax they hid fried chicken, too 

Doc Stressor

sounds like they are in red grouper water?

Yep.

ANUMBER1

Doc Stressor said:

sounds like they are in red grouper water?

Yep.

meh, we caught a few while fish trapping, never many as we moved away from trash fish to find money fish, ie red grouper.

Turner River Terror

I've caught a Ton of Red Grouper between Marco and the Lower Keys and maybe 5 BSBass

Doc Stressor

There was a trap fishery for them in the northeast that really depleted the stock back in the '60s and '70s.  They used to pay $2 a pound for them when striped bass only brought $0.40-0.50 a pound.  There was a big demand for whole fish in Chinese restaurants. 

Black seabass populations in the Gulf and the Atlantic have been cut off from each other since the last ice age.  They aren't common south of the Tampa Bay area on the West Coast.  The Gulf population seems to have adapted to very warm water since the smaller ones are on the grass flats all summer long.  As a result of climate change, they have been moving north on the Atlantic side and are now common in the Gulf of Maine where they are a threat to the lobster fishery.  They have already destroyed the lobster fishery south of Cape Cod. 

capt louie

Biggest one I ever caught was just inside the intake canal. Clump of rocks about 1/4 mile on South side. 
Had to weigh 4 or 5lbs..  

Salty Dawg44

I find Sea Bass and Grouper in the same location quite often, usually on hard bottom with just a few  scattered rocks.

surfman

excellent fish to eat but all head and very little meat. you need a bunch to get a dinner. I start fishing when I find hard bottom, can be as little as 15' on out.

jake1975

This is one of my favorite specimens, I love its flavor, and I usually surf on sites where we find many of them. At one time it was hard for me to learn how to fish them, but thanks to the help of some friends, today they are part of my daily life.