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Date: Electric Grouper
Title: 9/10/04
Date: 12 Sep 2004
Time: 22:42:04 -0400
Bubba Wilson, Ryan Combs, Alton Beard and Buddy Cooper with his wife Betty came fishing with us this Friday. They were raring to go fishing almost as much as Little B and I. Hurricane Frances had everyone sitting ‘on the hill’ and sitting on the hill makes us stir crazy. There were seven people on board more than ready to go fishing. However, as I crossed the bridge at 5:30 am going to the boat, flashes of lightening lit up the blackness to the southwest. A big storm sat, as if waiting for us, while we were collecting pinfish out of the trap. What to do? The storm was well offshore so I decided to stage up over hard bottom in 42 foot of water. We could fish while we watched what the storm would do. If it came inland, we would run in. If it moved north we would make the jump further off shore. It was a reasonable plan considering our circumstances. Now, this fishing crew was a bit unusual because four of the five brought electric reels. An electric reel sounds like a drill. A startling sound and with four going off and on at random all day long, if you closed your eyes, you would swear you standing at a construction site. The fish were biting well and it wasn’t long before Little B and I became trained to the go to the sound with a gaff and a fresh sardine in hand. We were well trained after 11 hours to the point that when Dusty, the owner of the Tiki bar at the marina, made a tropical drink, Little B met him at the blender with a sardine. Anyway, we picked up 6 keeper grouper in the 42 foot area, in the rain. During that time, the storm slid faintly to the north. An opening appeared, so we took a 15 mile ride that put us on the west side of the storm. The weather was much better, we switched from a rain bath to sun bathing. A glorious change indeed. In the deeper water, the grouper were in eating mode. Red grouper were chewing so well we imposed a 22 inch minimum limit in lieu of the 20 inch state regulation. Gag grouper were coming in slow but steady. “How about that live bait, captain?” murmured all morning. I was holding it back for a shot at some amberjack. It was after 1:00 pm before I could park us over an amberjack hole. In an hour, we picked up one, bearly legal amberjack. “Let’s go feed the pin fish to the grouper” I said. Sometimes it is easy to make people happy. The grouper liked the idea, too. By 4:30 pm we picked up the last grouper. A good day with some good people. I been catching grouper in the 40-50 foot areas and in areas past 70 foot. The good bottom in the 60 foot depth hasn’t been that productive, for me. Bait? Live bait is excellent but the frozen herring are working quite well, also. Have a rod set up with a Sabiki rig to collect fresh sardine when you see them show on the bottom machine. Fresh sardines are a hard to beat bait. Be sure and freeline a fresh sardine off the stern while on anchor. A kingfish is a good possibility. Trout fishing? Thursday, we caught trout in 5-6 foot of water. The best bait was a slow twitched green/sliver sinking Mirror lure. Frankly, I think the fishing report this week won’t be too helpful considering Ivan is coming and all things on land and water will change drastically. Don’t wait to the last minute to prepare for the hurricane. Don’t think for a moment that the last near misses with Bonnie, Charly and Frances has anything whatsoever to do with what will occur this coming Wednesday. Prayer is great but God also gave us a brain and two hands so we can do somethings ourselves. Thanks for reading, be safe and take care of yourselves and your family. Capt B.