Recent offshore fishing reports from the Big Bend region.
Ending the Season Right
Florida Sportsman member: Alex from GA
After a snotty run out Louie gave me his best trolling plug and after a very few minutes a nice grouper came onboard. A few more minutes and another was gaffed by Louie.
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Shallow Water Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
Headed straight to a rock in 15 feet and deployed the plugs, Carolyn’s rod goes off and she’s into one of the beast that makes this area home. I look out back and there’s a grouper herd following the boat. I pitch a jig and another beast inhales the jig.
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Middle Grounds Overnight
Florida Sportsman member: Shel
That spot fired up immediately and I pulled up a 31 inch amberjack. Lee followed that with a stud red snapper and over the next hour or so, we put some decent fish in the box. I decided to fire down a special livebait and within minutes, had a very nice 25 pound plus gag grouper on the line and in short order, in the fishbox.
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Homosassa Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
We get to the 16 foot area and weeds were scattered but not bad for running some plugs. Put out a Rapala and a YoZuri and after some getting use to Mike’s boat, we have a good spread running true. Darlene’s rod goes off and with some help from Uncle Billy getting the rod out of the holder, she’s into a major fight trying to turn this grouper.
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Big Bend Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: keypond
Hit Cedar Key, ran all the way to my first spot without stopping. We pulled up to see a massive amount of bait being busted by blues. Dropped the trolling rods in and instantly put three nice fish in the boat.
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Crystal River Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: killintime
Cobia on the first cast of the day, it ate a large shrimp on a jig head. We caught grouper while trolling and mango’s on the reef, an awesome mixed bag.
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Shallow Water Action
Florida Sportsman member: Salt Crazy
So we deployed the chum ,anchored up and sent out 2 more pin fish. It wasn’t long before gags started slamming everything we put in the water which was a blast on medium weight spinning tackle in 10 feet of water.
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Mother’s Day Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
We go to anchor, put out two chum bags, set up two rods with Redi Rigs holding the pinfish in the 15 foot range. The bite is off the wall. I can’t even get the bait out and we are getting nailed.
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Cobia on the Troll
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
I picked a nice section and on the first run both rods go off, a double! This is a first, Gail has a grouper and I thought I had the bottom. My bottom starts shaking so, it’s a fish, and a second later it gets airborne and it’s a nice cobe.
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Gulf Giants
Florida Sportsman member: Top Contender
We drifted and chunked around the horseshoe rigs and developed a slow bite that turned into an all out feeding frenzy. We caught Blackfin Tuna to 20 pounds, kingfish to 50 pounds, red snapper to 18 pounds, AJs to 70 and of course yellowfin tuna up to 150 pounds.
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Hitting the Deeper Water
Florida Sportsman member: Doc Stressor
The trick to finding the gags was to check out a lot of different areas with good relief and only fish the ones with bait showing. Wherever we saw bait stacked off the bottom we caught gags.
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The Last Troll of the Year
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
Time is running out, so I looked over and said lets try a “hail mary” in a 10 foot rocky area. So off we go. We stop, change the plugs to some smaller big lip plugs. Put the plugs out and Ken’s rod goes off, It’s another “limb shaker”. This time it’s a 31 inch beauty!
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Yankeetown Grouper Bite
Florida Sportsman member: Fishesman
I was beginning to think I wouldn’t make it back out before gag season closes this year because of the weather and other commitments. That all changed Friday evening when Capt. George Gozdz, the host of Florida Sportsman’s TV show “Reel Time,” contacted me and wanted to know if I was interested in co-hosting an episode with him.
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Dad and Daughter Fishing Day
Florida Sportsman member: Fishesman
The kid finally started to rouse around 2pm and I asked her if she wanted to stop and catch grunts (she can’t handle grouper yet). She said “yes,” stood up, turned green, and asked to go in. We did just that. You have to love her fortitude though. On the way home she asked when we could go again.
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Grouper on the Troll
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff one
She wanted to hit some nasty bottom area in 15 feet, so we were off. It seems like we pull a trophy gag out of this spot every time we visit it. Guess what? We didn’t have the plug in the water 1 minute and Gail’s rod is screaming!
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Big Bend Grouper Bite
Florida Sportsman member: StandOutI2
We stopped at a shallower spot and saw that the water was clean so we stayed there. First drops down and all we were hooking up with was lady fish, grunts, and some small grouper. Moved over another 75 yards and found what we were looking for. For several hours, as soon as the bait hit the bottom it was getting eaten.
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Grouper on the Troll
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
We decided to move out to 22 feet, just to get some air moving. We get there and put out the plugs, starting to troll over some nice live bottom and right away the rods are going off.
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Middle Grounds Adventure
Florida Sportsman member: Big Slick
We ran a few miles, anchored and immediately started getting freight trained by 12 to 18 pound red snappers. Within a couple of hours we had our limit and we started targeting mangos and beeliners with hopes of some red grouper. We fished and slept on and off until dawn and had a limit of mangos by then.
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Big Bend Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
We get the rods set back up again, and now it’s Gail turn. Doesn’t take long and her Redi-Rig float goes down and she hooked into a nice one. After a 45 minute battle she works him to the boat, and the net does the job. Nice 30 pound fish comes aboard.
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Homosassa Grouper Bite
Florida Sportsman member: troutman57
Gags were around and a few good ones took our bait. Smaller pieces of ladyfish was the top producer. 3 of the red grouper were small, around 20 to 22 inches and 5 were between 24 and 26 inches. A few more blackies and some decent grunts rounded out our catch. Only 2 red grouper were under size and were released along with all the gags.
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Rough Seas, But The Fish Were Biting
Florida Sportsman member: troutman57
The weather buoy data showed winds between 15 and 20 mph all day with waves to 4 feet. We slogged out to 45 feet and made a couple drops, Gags and more Gags. So I said lets take out medicine now and get to where the bait and red grouper are. We slogged out another 6 miles and 55 feet was loaded with bait. 55 feet was also loaded with gag grouper and one keeper red grouper.
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Deep Water, Quality Fish
Florida Sportsman member: Top Contender
Fished a little farther out this time in 380 to 465 feet, caught tilefish, snowy grouper, kitty Mitchell grouper, scamp, gags, red snapper, AJs, bar jacks and porgies. This is my first Kitty Mitchell grouper so I wanted to share it. Gags were all 20-38 pounds and snapper were all 15-20 pounds which really hurt to release.
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Shallow Water Grouper In Homosassa
Florida Sportsman member: Capt.Zachary
The hot bait today was the white Rapala X Rap 20. Today we were also getting our bigger grouper trolling using a unique technique, we would hook up with the first fish then slow down and work the other lure hard and more than once we hooked up with bigger Gags on the second rod. We had to retire two plugs today because they were destroyed from big gags smacking them.
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Great Big Bend Grouper Bite
Florida Sportsman member: bone
Then we switched to big live baits and ended up with 6 gags and 1 26 inch Red. Biggest gag was 29 inches. Weather was awesome, my Bluewater rode 35 mph the whole way out and back. Not the best day but we will have fresh grouper all week.
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Homosassa Offshore Variety
Florida Sportsman member: troutman57
The plan was to explore a new area a bit deeper than I have been over the past few trips. We shoved off at 7:00 and ran out close to 50 feet and set up on an area that I knew held some gags. As soon as we dropped out bait the bite was on with a pair of gags one 31 and one 33 inches. The continued with a good 23-inch red grouper and a few shorts then shut down. Rather than wait them out we started trolling and looking for new bottom and took one 24-inch gag on stretch 30 which we tossed back. After another 45 minutes of trolling we found some good bottom and set up on it. The bite started to pick back up and before we knew it we took 3 reds between 23 and 27 inches and another gag right at 30 inches. A couple more local moves over new bottom and a couple more grouper at each stop. We counted 14 grouper in the box so we moved once to finish our limit but all shorts. One last move and it was a triple, 2 really nice reds over 24 inches and a 27 inch gag.
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Big Bend Grouper
Florida Sportsman member:GatoRella
Had a good day offshore groupering yesterday. Headed out to 45 feet into overcast, stormy skies, and a little chop but nothing too bad. The particular spot we were headed to is a large patch reef area, not much relief but good hard, live bottom. The plan was to get out there and troll around for a little and see if we could catch a grouper or at least find a new spot or two. We syck at grouper trolling and didn’t get a bite, but after about 15 minutes we marked two nice looking spots. We set up on the most promising one and the bite was on! We caught a few shorts but most were keepers, the ratio of keeper to shorts has changed quite a bit from last season. Think that’s a good sign for the grouper population, but I’m no marine biologist.
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Homosassa Offshore – The Mrs. Gets Even
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
After taking Billy out for a Cobia trip he won’t forget, I am sitting at the computer having coffee Sunday morning and I look over my shoulder and Mrs. Ruff One is standing there dressed in her fishing outfit. She looks at me and says ” seas are down, wind is down, cobia are biting, get off your a–, get your stuff together and lets get out here!” She doesn’t have to twist my arm much for me to respond. In thirty minutes we were at the ramp and rolling. No messing around on this trip. Headed off shore about 15 miles and setup on some real nice live bottom. I don’t even have the chum bag out and Mrs. Ruff is hooked into a Cobia.
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Grouper Digging with the Kids
Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown
With grouper season about to close we got the kids out one last time. Got to the ramp to find it empty on a sunday. Weird. Put in with a stiff 15 knot NE wind. Took our time getting to 60 feet but on the first spot we put 8 nice red grouper in the boat right off the bat. We were having some issues with the anchor holding in the 4 foot seas but after swithcing anchors that problem stopped. We moved around from spot to spot putting another 7 red grouper in the box and some real nice gags back in the water.[...]
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Homosassa Offshore Red Hot Bite
Florida Sportsman member: troutman57
Doc Mike and I took advantage of the beautiful weather to head offshore for some end of the season red grouper. looking at the intellicast windfinder it looked like a perfect day to head out deep. We hit the water at 8 and ran directly to our 60-65 foot area. Perfect seas all the way and one drop of the anchor and it was looking good with a fat 26″red in the boat in short order. That action continued for an hour as we put 6 grouper of similar size in the box. Rather than weeding through 10 shorts to land a keeper we were landing about half under and half over well over. [...]
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Homosassa Offshore Gags
Florida Sportsman member: Capt.Zachary
If you go offshore, don’t be surprised if you catch one of those elusive Gag Groupers, you might catch 1 or 100. But on a serious note, the Red Grouper are still biting good in 45-60 feet and the bite is heavier in 90-100 foot range. We did an over night trip out to an area in 100 feet of water and did really good on Big Mangrove Snapper and Red Porgy. I also learned something new, Red Snapper and Gag grouper love fried chicken. I gave one of my friends the rest of my dinner, just the bones and told him it was great grouper bait, he dropped it down and to our surprise got a 39 inch Gag about 5 seconds after the bait hit the bottom! [...]
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Suwannee Offshore Mix
Florida Sportsman member: Chesapeake troller
Bait of the day was Octopus and Herring Jerky. Sharks were manageable, I did have two rigs messed up but nothing like earlier in the week. Flying teeth was not as bad but bad enough at the dock. On the conditions, it finally did calm down around 3 and the run in was manageable, by the time we got to 10 miles out it was calm, at 5 miles slick calm. Only saw four boats all day on the water, did see a few inshore guys in the river but everyone is saying the trout are out of the creeks and back in the GOM. [...]
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Homosassa Offshore; Gags & Reds
Florida Sportsman member: troutman57
Lee., Mike, and I set out for deep water to dig up some red grouper. After finding out we had overwritten all of our GPS information we found an area with a modest bite. As we worked that area Lee managed to get the GPS info off a sd card and we ran only a half mile to the area we intended to fish. Large gags were taking our baits and putting a serious hurting on our tackle. No hot bite but we moved around from point to point and kept the bite going. after all the action came to a hault we boxed a few red grouper and a big pile of grunts for the table. All fish were caught on frozen cut bait. Flat seas, good company and perfect weather made for another excellent day on the bay here on the Nature Coast [...]
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CK Offshore Slam
Florida Sportsman member: Togam
Didn’t get on the water till 8:15, but getting bait didn’t take long on the flats. By 9:00 we had the wells blacked out with pinfish. First stop was in 50 feet, made a couple drifts boating a 24-inch gag and a kingfish. Continued out another 15 miles and stopped in 65 feet. The bite was on fire dropping live pinfish and cut threadfins, we had our limit in about 2 hours. Also caught a short AJ on live bottom and hung two kings on the flat line [...]
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Offshore Homosassa Bottom Report
Florida Sportsman member: Animal1
Went offshore out of Homosassa for the first time last Saturday. Picked the spot off the Top Spot map, caught alot of big grunts and red grouper, 2 being keepers. We were chummimg when we spotted the man in the brown suit, I grab freeline pole put a pinfish on and it gets whacked. After a nice fight bring him to the net and in the boat he comes 44 inch cobia [...]
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Kings on the Beach
Florida Sportsman member: huntentails
Well, rumor has it that a cold water up dwelling and the full moon almost on us should have the rays up and the cobia with them. Linda and I headed over to the other side to see if we could find em’. We caught up with my brother John at his boat in Port Canaveral and off we went!
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Cobia Tourney: Winning Fish
Florida Sportsman member: butchbal
I posted some other pictures and report from the tourney in the General Fishing Section but I wanted to post a few more here taken during while fighting and boating the fish [...]
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Crystal River Meat Trip
Florida Sportsman member: Makakoa
Left the dock at 6:30 a.m. with a little more wind than I expected, I knew it would be a little bumpy as soon as I looked at the stacks on the power plant. Steady West wind all day. Scooted out to 50+/- feet, having to slow some the last 7 miles or so since it got a little “rolly”. We anchored up on a spot that did very well a few weeks earlier and it was on instantly. We only needed to move twice and loaded up on some very nice red grouper [...]
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CR Rough Reds
Florida Sportsman member: fishy tales
It has been a while since I posted any reports, so I figured it was time to do so. I will tell you this, the weatherman lies. Calling for 2 to 3 foot seas, a good boating day, yeah right. It was more like 5 to 6 foot seas winds blowing 15 to 18 knots. Bounded and determined we made our way to the 50 foot range in search of red grouper.
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“Ruff Water Cobia”
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
The weather man was half right today. Morning forecast was for 10mph or less-wrong–more like 15mph and blowing constant. The seas were angry and made fishing in my boat a chore. Afternoon forecast was for the winds to lay down and they were right on. Since it was howling this morning, we decided to hit the first shallow water structure we could find. Settled on some areas in 12 ft. Decided not to anchor, so we made some drifts. On the second drift, Mrs. Ruff One hollers over the wind–here comes a cobe, and she’s hooked up [...]
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HSB Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: RORY
Got out early. Caught bait at the last channel marker and headed offshore at 30 mph by sunrise. Great day on the water! We hooked up with a few AJs on live bait then switched to a 9″ topwater plug. As i got the AJ close to the boat 2 goliaths and 2 small sharks came after it. I’m sure this AJ would have been toast if i didnt have 65 lb braid and an 80 lb leader. Luckily I got the fish close enough to the boat that they lost interest. Water temp was 75 in 55′!
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Grouper Father and Son Style
Florida Sportsman member: troutman57
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Beautiful Day to Chase Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One
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Misdemeanors and Felonies
Florida Sportsman member: keypond
Everyone thinks of sheepshead as convicts, because they steal a few shrimp, but I’ve come to the conclusion, shrimp theft is only a misdemeanor compared to the felonies the AJ’s have committed upon my tackle and wallet this year. And there was the plan for the day, take the family and the neighbors out to associate with both known criminals and hopefully invite a few over for dinnner [...]
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