We just pulled in from our deer season trip to our Missouri farm. I was fortunate to fill my archery tag but our gun tags went unfilled.
Archery buck

Right away looked up the wind maps and Monday looked good. Crew ended up being Gary and his friend Craig. Gail decided to unpack. Wow. Seas were beautiful. Flat. Perfect for trolling. Headed out to 14ft. Weeds were alittle problem but we trolled for awhile. Did pick up two shorts. Decided to head out to 17ft. No weeds! Wasn't long and we found nice bottom located between two lines of crab traps. Nice markers. Groupers started to hit. Doubles on every pull. Even a triple! Grouper chaos. Alot of shorts. We decided to release all the ones in the 24-25 range. Gary did keep one at 25. There were small bait schools in the area so tryed to stay in the general area. Craig's rod bends over and a nice 31 inches comes aboard

Start another bend to line up on the good bottom and Craig's rod bend way over. Everyone came to the conclusion that we had bottom. Craig can't get rod out of holder so Gary gets it out and we head back to retrieve plug. We get there and it's not bottom. There's a fish on the plug! Epic battle.
Gary's bottom fish

At this point we decide to head in. We have had a good catching day. Some really quality groupers. Can't ask for more then that. Plug for the day. Nomad 170 in mackerel color. Wore it out. Also used the Nomads new plug the "vibe" for a picth plug for followers. It worked. Enjoy
Replies
A regular sized plug will give the appearance of a larger one with the addition of a "tail".
I probably will not go out again until early next week, getting too old to fight questionable weather.
MY WORST FEAR......THAT WHEN I DIE MY WIFE WILL SELL ALL MY BOATS & FISHING GEAR FOR WHAT I TOLD HER I PAID FOR IT.......
I may not always agree with what you say,
but I will always respect your right to be wrong!
FWC has done a nice job here and we are enjoying the benefits
I agree on the more numerous 30 inch fish