CK - 8/30 - half day trip... full size fish
kingkong954
Posts: 659 Officer
Got a very late start on Saturday with searching for shallow water grouper... didn't get to our first spot until 10am.
We started off in 20' of water, but no one was eating.
Went out a tiny bit further, afraid for the redtide... and at ~28' we found'm.
First hit is on my spinning outfit (40lb braid on stradic 5000) on frozen bait. He put up an awesome fight, really testing my abilities. Got'm to the boat... 12lbs on the grip.
Right afterwards, we get another hit on the heavier gear and manage to find a smaller, but still legal, Gag (on live pin).
...now, this was Morgan's first time grouper fishing. She is an accomplished fly fisher from the north, and so the pull of the grouper impressed her.
I decided to take it to an '11', however, and setup another live pin, this time on the lighter spinning gear. A few moments later she's on, and the drag is going off (...we keep the drag on this reel at about 95% to have a chance). She's even palming it to slow it down... but then he rocks her. But, he's still on... so we're waiting, and I'm contemplating pulling the anchor to chase him down when I see the rod bounce. I yell, "he's out! reel!" and she's back on the attack. After a solid fight, we got the red grouper to the boat: 14.1lbs, 28".
Her first grouper trip... I told'er she's officially spoiled.
We ran over to Sea Horse Reef to let her experience some ladyfish/seatrout action for about 30m, and were back at the dock by about 2:30pm.
We started off in 20' of water, but no one was eating.
Went out a tiny bit further, afraid for the redtide... and at ~28' we found'm.
First hit is on my spinning outfit (40lb braid on stradic 5000) on frozen bait. He put up an awesome fight, really testing my abilities. Got'm to the boat... 12lbs on the grip.
Right afterwards, we get another hit on the heavier gear and manage to find a smaller, but still legal, Gag (on live pin).
...now, this was Morgan's first time grouper fishing. She is an accomplished fly fisher from the north, and so the pull of the grouper impressed her.
I decided to take it to an '11', however, and setup another live pin, this time on the lighter spinning gear. A few moments later she's on, and the drag is going off (...we keep the drag on this reel at about 95% to have a chance). She's even palming it to slow it down... but then he rocks her. But, he's still on... so we're waiting, and I'm contemplating pulling the anchor to chase him down when I see the rod bounce. I yell, "he's out! reel!" and she's back on the attack. After a solid fight, we got the red grouper to the boat: 14.1lbs, 28".
Her first grouper trip... I told'er she's officially spoiled.
We ran over to Sea Horse Reef to let her experience some ladyfish/seatrout action for about 30m, and were back at the dock by about 2:30pm.
Replies
Reel Time w/Florida Sportsman Guest Host
Sight Fishing AJ's, Say What
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCSPHOHuw-M&list=UU7OK0PWEO7jknYHsykHcjaA&index=1&feature=plcp
:rotflmao
How was the trout & ladyfish bite on SeaHorse? I am looking forward to bringing the kids over for that bite.
Brian
We literally spent 30 min there, and I just made 2 drifts/passes over a random spot (not even anything I've marked before). In that time we found a few short trout (both sand and speckled) and one large lady fish. All were on paddle tails/weighted jig heads.
I have not fished the reef in probably ~2 months, so I don't know how it's been. Water clarity was pretty bad, and there was plenty of bait around.