seabass

Slacker · January 2019

Where do I need to go the find some greenheads out of Homosassa?

I catch an occasional keeper, but never a bunch. Almost never a big one.

Doc Stressor · January 2019

50 ft plus NW off of #4.

I do best in areas that hold red snapper in 60 ft or better. I look for stacks of snapper and move a few hundred yards off of them while staying on the same hard open bottom. They are hard to see with sonar, but sometimes look like grass.

It's a lot of gas to get a few buckets of small fish, but they do eat well. I use chicken rigs with three 3/0 hooks baited with squid. But they will hit just about anything including jigs. If you are only getting small females, move to another spot. They seem to group up in same-sex aggregations until February.

CaptJ · January 2019

They sure do taste good!

bunkerboy222 · January 2019

Seabass are born almost all are female and when they reach a size of 8 to 12 inches many turn to male making them hermaphrodites.
I am full of useless information,

nick · January 2019

I don’t think there’s that many of them large enough to mess with south of cedar key.

CK North the rocks in 20-30’are loaded year round.

Doc Stressor · January 2019

Sea bass, like many members of the grouper family, are protogynus hermaphrodites. That means that they are one or the other sex at any given time. True hermaphrodites, like many invertebrates, are both sexes at the same time.

Seabass likely used to inhabit the entire Florida coast soon after the last Ice Age. But after temperatures increased, the Gulf population became isolated from the Atlantic population. They are now only found in the NE Gulf north of Tampa Bay. Interestingly, as the result of ocean warming, the Atlantic population has extended its range north of Cape Cod over the last 20 years. They are now threatening the lobster fishery in the Gulf of Maine.

AC Man · January 2019

nick said:

I don’t think there’s that many of them large enough to mess with south of cedar key.

CK North the rocks in 20-30’are loaded year round.

I used to catch them on bare hooks in that depth and area fishing for grouper in the winter.. They were starved and skinny. Insanely aggressive. Never kept one thougjh.

Turner River Terror · January 2019

Pretty rare down here in the 10 K. Don't catch many offshore either .
Some of that could be because we're fishing 7/9/0 hooks and whole or a big ghunk of something for Grouper.

xmuskyguide · January 2019

Used to catch them by the tripod in the late fall. Not big but great eating. I used the heads from small pinfish or grunts with a circle hook through the eye sockets.

Doc Stressor · January 2019

They are temperate water fish. They can't handle the temperatures south of Tampa Bay. A few stray down there, but they avoid temperatures that support yellowtail snapper and muttons. Up north, they spawn during the early summer when the water warms up. Down here it's too warm in the summer In the Gulf, they spawn when the water temperature drops to the 50's in the late winter.

The bigger males mostly remain offshore year round. Except for a few strays, the ones you get in the 15'-30' range are mostly smaller females and immature (no hump) males. The bigger males turn blue during the winter spawning season. Those are the ones you want to catch.

conchydong · January 2019

Back in 2011, we had some cooler water temperatures and I caught some BSBs on multiple trips off of Pompano Beach. It was a first for me fishing the area for over 30 years. They were caught deeper than 300'.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030354/uploads/editor/z4/ue887vufsqq2.jpg

Slacker · January 2019

Thanks, those guys are fun to catch on lighter tackle. Too bad they are not closer for winter fishing. Maybe the sheepshead will be abundant this year. We used to catch seabass in 50 ft. out of Steinhatchee 3 at a time. One on each hook and one on the sinker. The school would follow them up to the boat. Sure is some nice meat.

capt louie · January 2019

Odd , I used to catch a lot of them around the intake canal edges. My biggest ever was caught inside the intake canal back when they allowed boats in there. Was close to 3-4lbs.