C.R. grouper troll 11/29/2022

capt louie

Water temp about 66 in morning with outgoing tide and East wind. A brisk East wind. Look at the towers..



Wasn't too bad running in JTS's Panga and started trolling in 14' with sparce floating weeds. Just enough to slightly grind your teeth. 
Pro tip : there is ALWAYS lots of weeds exactly on the number you are looking to troll over. So, any big patches of weeds are likely good grouper bottom.... lol

Was pretty choppy but I finally got a big hit . After a nice battle  John got the fish on the lip gripper and in the box. big 35" toad !



96 qt cooler. OK , need 3 more. Well , that didn't happen. Got another keeper at 27" and a short. Had one cutoff loosing a plug. And came back on smooth seas.

At the house the big gag went 18 even on the scale with the other at 7.5. Only one limit but way better than last two tries that were zipp on keepers. It's been a strange fall season ? no idea why.

Big one.



Need some North wind and cooler water I guess? 
Running out of time. I have been hunting and put a couple of hogs in freezer and one deer. Guess I'll do that when too windy to fish.  

Later capt louie

Ruff One

Yes, it's either weeds or crab traps right on the rocks. That's a beauty of a gag! Got to love those big ones. 

ANUMBER1

Ruff One said:

Yes, it's either weeds or crab traps right on the rocks. That's a beauty of a gag! Got to love those big ones. 

weeds aee a pain, if you can't troll around crab traps then you need to stay home.

Ruff One

It's spelled "ARE" like in weeds are a pain, traps are a pain and old crabbers are a pain

Salty Dawg44

That was a nice one ,,,, probably yielded more meat than a 2 fish limit of barely legal sized ones.

capt louie

Salty Dawg44 said:

That was a nice one ,,,, probably yielded more meat than a 2 fish limit of barely legal sized ones.

Fillets were 7.5 lbs total not including collar.

capt louie

capt louie said:

Salty Dawg44 said:

That was a nice one ,,,, probably yielded more meat than a 2 fish limit of barely legal sized ones.

Fillets were 7.5 lbs total not including collar.

Just the one big fish was checked. 

Wishin i was fishin

Nice one! 

Alex from GA

Good trip.

Slacker

I like stone crab claws and will just deal with the traps

It looks like some boats from south FL have come up here and added to the no of floats

guys trying to make a legal living, I wonder if they help draw in the grouper

capt louie

Slacker said:

I like stone crab claws and will just deal with the traps

It looks like some boats from south FL have come up here and added to the no of floats

guys trying to make a legal living, I wonder if they help draw in the grouper

Good question , I never seen any stone crabs inside them but small fish must respond to the bait and trap lines ?

bigfinn35

Far as I'm aware (which means with zero actual crabbing experience for what it's worth), the traps usually get placed on hard bottom trendlines to begin with since that's where the crabs live. Would make sense that the same areas would attract grouper.

ANUMBER1

Hard bottom at start of season, when water cools down or we have a lot of octopus the crabs move to soft.
This is more typical off shore (20' +) than inshore.

ANUMBER1

Slacker said:

I like stone crab claws and will just deal with the traps

It looks like some boats from south FL have come up here and added to the no of floats

guys trying to make a legal living, I wonder if they help draw in the grouper

Yep, about 40,000 more out of Hernando bch and 15,000 out of Homosassa. 

Add a couple east coast blue crabbers trying their luck this year.

It's a little crowded. 

tom waxelbaum

ANUMBER1 said:

Hard bottom at start of season, when water cools down or we have a lot of octopus the crabs move to soft.
This is more typical off shore (20' +) than inshore.

Can you keep the octopi when caught as bycatch? Is there a market for them and are they fished for exclusively?

ANUMBER1

tom waxelbaum said:

ANUMBER1 said:

Hard bottom at start of season, when water cools down or we have a lot of octopus the crabs move to soft.
This is more typical off shore (20' +) than inshore.

Can you keep the octopi when caught as bycatch? Is there a market for them and are they fished for exclusively?

yes and our market in Fl. is extremely limited. Carolina's have a decent market as does the west coast of USA.

We don't have a good run of octopus every year (mor like every 5) and why target $3/lb pies when stone crab brings avg $20/lb (this year)

Slacker

it all adds up,  love the bycatch too

I thought I saw new boats and more traps

we appreciate the input from you, you live out there while we love to get a few days targeting our  prey