Replies

• Nagol Gainesville FloridaPosts: 4 Greenhorn

  June 18 #2

  I went out of CK yesterday and fished in 75 ft, very slow all day long but ended up with 3 good size red snapper and a red grouper

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Crkr23 MelrosePosts: 426 Deckhand

  June 18 #3

  We had a tough day out of CK. It was tough making bait and even tougher fishing. I think the problem was water temperature, it was almost 88 degrees. We ended up with 5 RS, 5 grouper and a few mangrove and lane snapper. All were caught in 75 ft.

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• m9000 Posts: 2,186 Captain

  June 19 #4

  We fished out of cedar Key and caught only 1 undersize red snapper in 77 feet .  We did catch 2 gags and 1 red, all just shy of 10 lb. Did get 1 cobia and some mangrove. Worst opening day of red snapper season I can remember.  I talked with 2 groups that limited in 90 feet, but that is a long run.
  
  

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• capt louie citrus countyPosts: 10,800 Moderator

  June 19 edited June 19 #5

  Wow ? Thank's for the report.  Were you marking fish but no bites ?

  "You'll get your weather"

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• m9000 Posts: 2,186 Captain

  June 19 #6

  capt louie said:

  Wow ? Thank's for the report.  Were you marking fish but no bites ?

  In the past, we saw the "Christmas's tree" cones of red snapper over the rocks. It was usual to get a 4-5 man limit in 30 minutes.  We didn't see a single snapper tree yesterday. I suspected it would be a bad opening day as we didn't catch any undersized red snapper in 45-60 ft the last few grouper fishing trips and didn't see any christmas trees on sonar  when running to and from the grouper rocks.  It sounds like the snapper are in 90 plus feet, but I can buy a LOT of snapper for the gas money needed to get my boat to 90-100 ft.

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Nagol Gainesville FloridaPosts: 4 Greenhorn

  June 19 #7

  what m9000 said, this was my first time going out for them but we didn't see a single big school on sonar that I was expecting.

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Slacker Posts: 1,800 Captain

  June 20 #8

  I went to 65 and did not see a mark I thought was a red snapper.  we went out of homosassa
  
  3 nice gags up to 29 inches and 2 22 inch red grouper 
  
  I will not go any deeper

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Big Bend Brian Posts: 1,458 Officer

  June 20 #9

  M900, still sounds like a good day though!
  You had a great crew and was good to hear that Charlie C. was fishing with you (plus Ed & Cecil).
  Brian

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• capt louie citrus countyPosts: 10,800 Moderator

  June 21 #10

  Would think a few would be "lost" and show up in the cooler..  Hmm

  "You'll get your weather"

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• m9000 Posts: 2,186 Captain

  June 21 #11

  I was reviewing the sonar logs from Friday and found a snapper tree we ran over on the ride back in, but I didn't see it when we were running at 40 mph.  I wish we had stopped, chummed and fished that spot.  The long echo spike is 25-30 ft wide at the bottom.  This is the type of sonar image I usually get when we fish for red snapper over the rocks in 70-80 ft.
  
  
  
  

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Slacker Posts: 1,800 Captain

  June 22 #12

  they come up to 20 ft off the bottom?

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• m9000 Posts: 2,186 Captain

  June 22 #13

  Slacker said:

  they come up to 20 ft off the bottom?

  I've found that the bigger red snapper are usually at the top of the "Christmas tree".

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Chilly Posts: 590 Officer

  June 22 #14

  they absolutely come up off the bottom.  we'll pull stretch 30's in 100' when moving spot and wanting a little breeze to eat lunch or looking for new spots and very often catch big snapper on the plugs 

  CHEAP BAIT! Try our NE FL Bait Co-op: http://northeastfloridabaitcoop.com/

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Salty Dawg44 Homosassa, FLPosts: 1,369 Officer

  June 22 #15

  Slacker said:

  they come up to 20 ft off the bottom?

  Quite normal. And they come in closer in the winter when you can't keep any.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  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!

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• m9000 Posts: 2,186 Captain

  June 23 #16

  Chilly said:

  they absolutely come up off the bottom.  we'll pull stretch 30's in 100' when moving spot and wanting a little breeze to eat lunch or looking for new spots and very often catch big snapper on the plugs 

  I've never tried the deep dive plug for snapper but will give it a try when exploring for new rocks or circling back when we run over a snapper "tree".

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Earthmover Posts: 413 Deckhand

  June 25 #17

  It was slow for us, at crystal river.  No snapper we stayed in 60' .    One good gag, and bunch of grunts.   Next trip will be suwannee for the 4th.  

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Crkr23 MelrosePosts: 426 Deckhand

  June 26 #18

  We went back to CK yesterday with a little better luck. The bait was easier to catch and the fish bit better, probably because the water was a couple of degrees cooler.  We only got to fish a couple of hours before a storm from the north run us to the hill. We ended up with 6 gags, 6 RS, a Hogfish and flounder, most caught on pinfish. We fished in 75 ft.

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• m9000 Posts: 2,186 Captain

  June 26 #19

  Crkr23 said:

  We went back to CK yesterday with a little better luck. The bait was easier to catch and the fish bit better, probably because the water was a couple of degrees cooler.  We only got to fish a couple of hours before a storm from the north run us to the hill. We ended up with 6 gags, 6 RS, a Hogfish and flounder, most caught on pinfish. We fished in 75 ft.

  Sounds like great day. Any day you limit on grouper is good day.   My MFD was showing 88° F water in 72 ft on opening day of RS season.  Hopefully the water will cool slightly. I remember several days when we couldn't get away for 18-20 inch RS in 62 ft in December.  Maybe the fall RS weekends will be great.

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Crkr23 MelrosePosts: 426 Deckhand

  July 9 #20

  Back to CK yesterday, ended up with 7 ars, 5 grouper, a couple of mangoes and a hog fish. It was blistering hot, we had an aerator go out and we lost all of our live bait making for a long day. All were caught in 70 ft and the water temp was 88.

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Earthmover Posts: 413 Deckhand

  July 10 #21

  Nice.  The water is definitely hot.  We caught a Ton of short red and gag grouper my youngest son was not happy about letting all those fish go.   Were you catching your snapper off of the typical snapper Christmas tree or wave of fish showing on the screen?  All of ours came from hard bottom with no snapper wave.  All of ours were big fish 24+

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Crkr23 MelrosePosts: 426 Deckhand

  July 10 #22

  We were marking them on some bottom that shows about 2 or 3 ft of relief. Our two largest snapper were probably 30 in, guessing 15lbs or so. One thing that I've noticed this year is that they appear much fatter than the last couple of years.

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Earthmover Posts: 413 Deckhand

  July 10 #23

  Yes, definitely fat.  And we would typically catch short snapper.  This year no shorts yet.  Hopefully we will get another good weekend without alot of wind and rain, before the season goes out. Not sure what the fall season will be like.  If it cools down it will probably be good, but if it stays warm it will most likely be just like it is now.

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Crkr23 MelrosePosts: 426 Deckhand

  July 10 #24

  I think they are fatter because of 2 possible reasons, one we have caught them down off the structure that we have fished so there's less competition for food. The other reason is that the whole area has started to recover from the major red tide event that occured years back and the fish are scattering to new healthier bottom.
  It seems that the fish we are catching are coming from the same age class that appeared after the red tide event, steadily getting larger each year. We are not catching any smaller ars which would signify that they were not restocking.
  On the plus side, we are catching more gags, probably because of less competition from the snapper. All this is just an observation that I've noticed on the 3 or 4  numbers that I normally fish.
  Is anybody else seeing similar results?

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Earthmover Posts: 413 Deckhand

  July 10 #25

  The grouper are definitely coming back.    At Our #s out of horseshoe and suwannee, we never saw a snapper before the red tide, and our grouper were all huge 30+ inch red and gag.   There are alot of short grouper on,  Those #s now and over the last 3 years we have been catching more and more keeper grouper.  I like catching red snapper but I kind-of prefer it like it was last trip out were we caught snapper but we also were able to get a bait down to the grouper.  2 years ago, there were so many 14-20" snapper that you could not get a bait down to the grouper 

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• Crkr23 MelrosePosts: 426 Deckhand

  July 23 #26

  We made our last trip to CK for the summer red snapper season and it was a dud. We thought we would be smart and get an earlier start by buying bait instead of catching our own. That was a mistake, bought 10 dz, rushed to put the boat in, fired up the newly installed aerator (replacing the one that went out last trip) and it wouldn't pump,****. We jury -rigged a spare bilge pump to somewhat save the bait. We start fishing and they don't want pinfish, caught just about everything on frozen bait, ended up with 3 RS, a couple of grouper and a half dozen mangroves. We caught another Hogfish, thinking about trying to target them more. Water temp hit 90 degrees.
  We had one more disaster, our jury-rigged aerator was out pumping the discharge so it kept the livewell overflowing which ended up in the fish box. Luckily we caught it in time and dumped all the beer and ice on them to make a save. We headed for the hill, just have to cut you losses sometimes.

  1 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• capt louie citrus countyPosts: 10,800 Moderator

  July 23 #27

  Was out yesterday to 65' out of Yankeetown. Water hot,87-88 .  One decent red snapper and a bunch of short red grouper. Even grunts were scarce ? Next time it's shrimp and closer in.

  "You'll get your weather"

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook
• MtgMama HoweyPosts: 101 Deckhand

  July 23 #28

  I wonder if off Hudson’s better?

  0 · Share on TwitterShare on Facebook