Grouper Bite is On in the Keys

[drichitt]

The fishing continues to be as expected off Marathon. Cooler temps have slowed some types of fishing (mostly snapper) but the grouper fishing has been awesome; well of course it has since you can't keep them right now.

Bought a pinfish trap and that has produced one of the best baits for catching grouper. I love livelining rock but hooking up a grouper is a whole different game. We have had a couple fish that made quick time of our lighter gear and we never had a chance. We plan to step it up with some heavier gear in the coming days but for now we are having some non-stop action days.

Not able to catch the amount of pinfish that I would like to have but we have found that livelining ballyhoo is just as good. If you pick the right place on a reef you will have hundreds of ballyhoo at the back of the boat moments after the frozen chum block hits the water. My wife Dawn enjoys some down time catching them one at a time with a small #14 hook baited with a small piece of squid, but a cast net is the quickest method. The ones caught using a cast net seem to be more 'shell-shocked' though.

Larry (Thrillseeker) and his buddy Robert arrived this past week in Larry's RV and are staying nearby at an RV park. We have had some pretty good days both near-shore and out on the reef. Here are some recent pics:







Plan is to get offshore the next two days as we have a nice break in the weather with the forecasted winds to lay down a bit. Larry is a big time offshore troller and he brought a bunch of his gear down. Hope the sailfish and dolphin are as cooperative as the grouper and snapper have been.

[Skip]

Put on your dive gear and go after the ones busting you off.

Thanks for report - wondering how trip was going.

[Chessie27]

Too bad Grouper are out of season, they look yummy!

You better rest up some, you may have your hands full at the end of the month when Mike and Marty get there.

[garlien]

Jeff,

I am so looking forward to the end of the month...Need to shake a terrible cold, get my alcohol tolerance back up, grab a few Kate movies for the trips, and get down there...

Just bought a GoPole extension pole for my GoPro...Hoping to get some great underwater footage and film of some great catches...

Will give everyone a heads up on how the pole works...LOL (with Kate around the pole will work just fine)....

[Fish Nut]

Wow. Don they are some nice looking fish. Great report keep them coming.

That cero mackeral is great in white wine sauce.

Good luck on the offshore bite.

[cletus9000]

Pretty fish. Too bad they are not in season: good eats right there. Were you drifting pin fish into patch reefs? Dropping them on deep structure?

[drichitt]

Originally Posted by cletus9000

Pretty fish. Too bad they are not in season: good eats right there. Were you drifting pin fish into patch reefs? Dropping them on deep structure?

Most of these were caught just south of Long Key bridge during an outgoing current using pin fish in 11' of water. It was too windy to get out on the reef so the bridge provided some good blockage from a north wind. I was pretty surprised as we also caught some nice yellowtail, mutton and ballyhoo (which we salted down for trolling the next day). The other day was out on the reef in about 28' using live pin fish and ballyhoo on the bottom. The Keys is an amazing place to fish with so many places to fish, so many different types of fish and so many different ways to fish. Also not a bad place to stay warm in the winter

[mark1234]

Don, any luck with the Mutton Snapper? I think we were out in 60-80'

[drichitt]

Originally Posted by mark1234

Don, any luck with the Mutton Snapper? I think we were out in 60-80'

Mutton need to be 16" in order to keep. We are catching plenty near the bridges but the ratio of keepers to unders is about 1 in 15 (so many 14"-15" fish); caught 2 keepers (up to 18") this past Tuesday. We have tried dropping pin fish out on the reef in 35-70' but all you get are grouper (oh damn!). The water temps have dropped dramatically (15-20*) since we got here in late Dec, especially in the back country, around the bridges and the near shore patch reefs. The bite has become much tougher. I am so glad we had a chance to pick up some great local information before this slow period hit as we have been able to catch some nice fish each trip, even today (few 17-18" yellowtail).

Another thing about fishing in the Keys....you spend almost as much on chum and bait as you do on gas.