Florida & Georgia - offshore yesterday 4/29/12

Had a lessons trip/ client trip on his boat. He just got a new to him Mirage and wow what a ride. That thing is sweet. 35mph cruise burning 13 gal per hour on a huge 32 CC. Volvo 350 in her. Sweeeet ride, took the chop great, and we jumped a huge sportfish's wake without pulling back the throttle and we did not launch, slam, splash.. nothing this thing was running on rails.

Anyhow back to the fishing... NOAA needs to get their heads out of their asses, and I mean that with all due respect. The red snapper population has over run the offshore red grouper grounds. We got pushed off the south stuff (toward the elbow) due to red snap's, well now they are at thick from 100ft-150 ft. We caught, vented and released 50-60 snapper. Biggest snapper I have ever seen off our coast.

I will let the photos do the talking....
We had to retreat back inshore to catch red grouper.. Could not get a bait down to the grouper due to all the snaps.

Crazy.. lots of fish caught... few boxed. I think we had 15 or so keeper reds.. nice size, no hog monsters but quality fish.

Enjoy, do NOT go deep for red grouper. My next trip will be wayyyyyy up to the north for red grouper due to the infestation of slob red snapper.
There is officially not a shortage of red snapper in the gulf, off the west coast more specifically. They were in the sand, they were on flat hard bottom, they were on wrecks, they were on ledges, they were on top, mid and bottom. Had phin around us, could not get one to take a hook but there were a few decent sized ones in there.

Anyhow off my soap box, dont go SW to find a grouper unless you have huge bait.. HUGE.

The kid holding the red snap was about 6ft tall to give you an idea on the size of that fish :thumbsup:

A friend did a middle grounds trip last year out of Maderia and he said the same thing about the snapper, couldn't get a bait past them. The were even free lining bait and the snapper were coming up and taking them. He said between four of them they pulled up over 150 Reds.

Jon the last time I fished sw of the skyway in 125ft of water.Before the grouper closure.I found the same thing.Big piles of snapper 5-10 ft tall off the bottom.Man it looked awesome on the bottom machine.Our biggest was 26 inchs.But the gubment says their endangered so they shorten our season by 5 more days this year.I guess the don't fish much.John

The kid laid down next to it.. photo here does it 0 justice.

Jon the last time I fished sw of the skyway in 125ft of water.Before the grouper closure.I found the same thing.Big piles of snapper 5-10 ft tall off the bottom.Man it looked awesome on the bottom machine.Our biggest was 26 inchs.But the gubment says their endangered so they shorten our season by 5 more days this year.I guess the don't fish much.John

Might have middle of the week open... Wed or Thurs. My wedding party is going to start arriving Wed night (one guy) everyone else Friday arrival.
If you are open Thurs, I may swing it... I have a guy that will come (one of my groomsmen and we will work it out...

Lets watch the weather..
Yesterdays charter canceled last night and I picked up the other trip late. I was not blowing ya off.. just went down that way.
Got your PM and Great job bud.. you did exactly what you should have and it sounds like you are starting to see the light. Maybe you can teach me a thing or two when we get out :grin: I have been holding out on a spot for Saturdays trip, depending on how many people we have we may be hunting the 20lb reds all day way up north. I need a bunch of guys if I am going to make that trip its a long slow ride in my boat.
I think I have 6 going 10 would be nice. Go tap out an area I fished a few years ago. 20 and 30 head stops of just SLOB after SLOB.. not one red grouper under 15lbs.. its nuts up there if the masses of them are still there which I do believe they are. My only fear is we get up there and the area is covered in lost gags, or ARS. I would be super screwed because you only have a couple options.. Shallow up, MONSTER gags and grunts or make a 20 mile run west putting us effing far from home in a slow boat.

Gonna be a tough call to make but the weather looks nice.. Just wish I had a 17kt boat to make the run in.

O well I am off to bed I gotta get my wedding and honeymoon stuff double and triple checked tomorrow.

Be safe out there..
Jon

Jon,dude I don't sweat the small stuff.Thanks to you I've limited out last 2 trips.I couldn't be happier.Sunday I'm gonna work the area you told me to last sunday.Trolling and mostly lookin at the bottom machine.I don't think I'll even fish the freezers full.Maybe throw a few baits over the side when I see something interesting on the bottom machine.You'll need to make money when you get back to.John