Dave Roberts and I fished the deep reefs on Saturday. The weather and tides were perfect. We caught lots of mackerel inside the harbor using sabiki rigs. We could see them boiling next to the Intrepid dock. On the first drift at the first reef, I hooked up with a big fish on an 8 oz rubber tail jig. I couldn't stop it from stripping line and soon it was rocked up in a cave. We positioned the boat over the fish and patiently worked the line trying to get him to move and loosen his hold, but the fish never moved. It seemed hopeless, so I wrapped the line around a wooden dowel that I use for snags and pulled hard to break the line. I felt the fish move and desperately tried to stop him from reaching the cave, but it was no use. The fish was just too strong and rocked up again. We did this two more times before I was able to gain a few precious feet of line and keep him from reaching safety again. After that it was just a long slow tug of war to get him to the surface. I already knew it had to be a big gulf grouper, but was still surprised when it reached the surface and I hauled him into the boat. It was a huge. I measured him at 63" long and could see that his whole body from head to toe was scarred up from the reef. We hung him from the boat and took a couple photos before restarting the drift again.
Soon after that, Dave caught and released a ~150 pound black sea bass at the same location. At the end of the day, we had caught 10 white sea bass to 15 pounds, 4 leopard grouper to 20 pounds, 4 red snapper to 10 pounds, 1 flounder at 15 pounds, 1 yellowtail and some goldspot bass. Later that night we displayed the fish at Al Capone's Seafood and Pizzeria. Afterwards we weighed the grouper at 108 pounds. I think it probably weighted 120 pounds or more alive. Wow, what a fish and possibly my biggest gulf grouper ever.
Shawno
Soon after that, Dave caught and released a ~150 pound black sea bass at the same location. At the end of the day, we had caught 10 white sea bass to 15 pounds, 4 leopard grouper to 20 pounds, 4 red snapper to 10 pounds, 1 flounder at 15 pounds, 1 yellowtail and some goldspot bass. Later that night we displayed the fish at Al Capone's Seafood and Pizzeria. Afterwards we weighed the grouper at 108 pounds. I think it probably weighted 120 pounds or more alive. Wow, what a fish and possibly my biggest gulf grouper ever.
Shawno
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