Pensacola Fishing Forum / Offshore Fishing / Offshore Reports

11-21 grouper diggin

Captain Jake Adams — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:56:24 GMT

We loaded up on Sam Cammariotes' boat "Game On" and headed out SW on a fun trip to search for some grouper. The seas were a little bigger than the 1-2 forecasted but not bad. We fished most of the day in 200'-260' and ended up with 4 gags (biggest about 25 lbs), 1 real nice red grouper, 18 scamp (pretty good grade) and 5 jacks. The bite was real good in the morning and tapered off around 1:30 or so in the afternoon. We caught the fish on a mixture of live and dead baits. I talked to Pat Caro back at the marina and he said they had a real good trip as well, with lots of triggers and a limit of jacks. The fishing is great this time of year when the weather permits. I'll try and get a few pics before we start cleaning them here shortly.

good day out with the boy......

legalhookin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:35:15 GMT

got in the water around 10am, took the boy to my croaker hole but no takers......went to the 3mile bridge and bounced a gulp around got acouple white trout think about 10 total....ate the 3" gulp and some cut menhaden on the boys rod. decided to go check out the pass...(boy said trout action wasn't cutting it...spoiled kid!!:doh, so went and seen that the weather man was all wrong, very nice low rollers...ran out probally as far as 14miles out all public spots and i fished my jig rod setup and the boy still on the bottom rig on 10lb test deal(kids 4 1/2yrs old) well i found probally a total of 6 grouper all short some gags and one red. all too short but all on the jig. of course a few endangered red snapper and of course all would have been legal....:banghead. got 2 triggerfish, one was 14.5" but the other is a beast...20.5" long and he ate the jig!!! hell ya!! boy got the other trig. (funny watching him fight them on that little set up!!) finish up the day on a spot that was infested with 20" ajs. tried for some bull reds on the way in, seen the birds diving and stuff in the turning basen....threw a fairly large rubber jig that looks like a menhaden, got hit instantly....(almost ashame to say.....)got it in huge sail cat, so cant finish like that right? throw again....sinks 5' and bam!! on again.....get to the boat.....freaking huge sail cat!!! well, let it go and the little captain said time to go, so loaded up and called it a day, of course after stopping at mc donalds....hate that place!!:doh. heres some pics, dont show all the fish but you know pics are pics!!

11-6-08 bottom bumping

Wild Injun — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:12:32 GMT

Sorry about the date I typed it wrong it was 11-6-08.Myself and my friend Jay decided to take advantage of the weather and try to sqeeze in 1 more meat run.The day started off fast and furious with a steady bite of triggers,beeliners,and snapper.The big surprise was this snapper I caught.Before I get blasted for taking pictures we removed the hook vented her and let her go she swam off as good as she came up she was 401/2" long don't know what she weighed but it was way over 30.We finished the day with a mixed limit of beeliners and triggers with 1 lone gag.The pic is not the best it was taken with my friends cell phone.

[IMG]http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee121/wild_injun/sowsnapper10-6-08.jpg[/IMG]

Last day of snapper season

JoeZ — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:59:24 GMT

Well we were going to close out the state red snapper season come hell or high water.

Me, Eric Holstman, Brad Sauers, Party Boy (what's his real name E?) and Wes Holstman left the pass about 10 a.m. headed to a spot Brad and I had lots of luck at for the past few trips.

After struggling with bait in the bay, we found cigs and hardtails at a buoy and made it out into the slop. Seas were forecast at 2 to 4 and that would have been great. It was the five foot swells and random six footers that made me hurl. No really, I was fishing the bow of Eric's 25 Contender and looked up and could see nothing but water around me. I finally blew chunks when we packed everything up and ducked down to stow some frozen bait, we took a wave weird and I knew it was over.

Any way, there were fish caught. It was slow but we weren't really putting our best foot forward. Standing up was a priority for most of us.

Eric and Brad took the stern while me, Wes and P.B. were up front doing the majority of the work.

Wes and I landed the two biggest of the day while Party Boy bagged the most -- even got one on a worm hook just because he wanted to.

Eric broke out ol Spongebob and landed a legal ARS on that little bad boy. Brad was talked out of keeping his first fish or two because we (and by we I mean me) were confident we could do better. Overconfidence will kill you.

We ended up one short of our five-man limit but threw a half dozen keepers back early. Why? We could do better. Did I mention overconfidence?

Eric sabikied a ruby or 30 and he and Brad dropped em down for the big brown monsters we know live there. They weren't home or weren't hungry and the rubies were later released with only minor puncture wounds.

Brad did recreate his previous entanglement with an unknown below. Hooked a snapper (or something not too huge to pull up) and after a reel or two got freight trained down to the bottom and pulled the hooks.

We came prepared for the VW this time. I brought a 6/0 spooled with 150-pound braid, 200-pound leader, 5 pounds of lead and the biggest circle hook known to man.

Never even took'em out as the swells made me rethink my desire to tangle with something that triples my weight while struggling to keep my footing.

All in all, not a bad day but we could've used some better weather, less puking and more beer.

And now for pictures.

Wes drops.

Me hooked up with my biggest of the day -- maybe 7 pounds.

Brad waits patiently.

3/5 of the crew discuss why we decide to fish in 4-6 seas.

Post mortum fish pile. Bigs might have been 7 pounds or so. Maybe 8 if they were constipated.

Party Boy (aka The Snapper Bomber) declares jihad on the fish.

Eric, Sponngebob and a big RS.

We'll get back at it in April -- or whenever the man decides we get to fish for the snapper again.

Wednesday 11-5-08

Ocean Man — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:45:16 GMT

My Uncle James is on a 10 day vacation so he twisted my arm to take the day off yesterday to enjoy the great weather and calm seas. We launched the boat at Navy Point a little after daybreak and caught some pinfish at the dock. From there we headed out to some rocks in 330ft. The Gulf was a little rough on the way out but we had a following sea so it wasn't too bad. The fish were not cooperating on this hole, all we pulled off it was a small Tilefish. Around noon we moved in to some rocks in 230ft and got into a pretty good Scamp bite. We ended up catching 7 keepers before we ran out of small live pinfish. The bite was pretty slow for most of the day and we had to work for what we caught. About 4:30 we decided to pick up anchor and drift one last spot to see if we could pick up a few more fish for the box before we headed to the house. We had a nice slow drift going along a long strech of rocks. We picked up 2 nice football Mingo's just as it was starting to get dark. I dumped the fish on the deck for a for a quick picture of our catch before heading in.

James was still fishing while I was taking the picture and he caught another nice Mingo.

We hadn't been fishing in the Gulf for 3 months so we weren't going to leave when the fish started biting just because it was dark. So we continued on fishing putting lots of Mingo's in the box as well as 4 Lane Snapper and 2 Bigeye's. We called it quits for the day once we reached our Mingo limit. I once again dumped all the fish on the deck for a final pic. This time our box was much better.

Final tally for the day: 7 Scamp, 20 Mingo's, 4 Lane Snapper, 1 Trigger, 1 Almaco, 2 Bigeye's and 1 Tilefish. The Gulf had completly calmed off to a mirror like finish for the ride home in the dark. We got stopped by the man on the way back through the bayou. He hopped on board to check the fish so we once again dumped the fish on the deck for a quick inspection. He was a nice guy and even helped get the fish back in the box and the boat back in order. We arrived back at the dock a little after 10:00 after a much needed long day of fishing.

Grouper/Amberjack pics

jboweriii — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:48:52 GMT

Went to the 3 by 5's nov. 7. Released 3 amberjacks and 3 red snappers. My girl friend caught the little red grouper and was done. Caught everything on pinfish. The bite is on

[IMG]http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll70/jboweriii/100_1345.jpg[/IMG]

Spearfishing report 11/8/08

craasch210 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:03:19 GMT

Gonna have to make this quick. Headed out with Claydo, Alex (Askuropat), Chris (tightsnatch), Josh (Fender), and three others.

We made it out yesterday and were met with calm seas and 50-90 ft visibility. Water temp was 68 degrees at 168 ft, and 71 degrees at 89 ft.

We headed out deep to some well known public spots. Rolled two divers down deep and saw absolutely nothing, with exception to some undersized AJ's.

We picked up anchor (not an easy task on my boat) and moved to another spot that was just a few miles away. Huge difference, found some nice aj's, and grouper.

We moved closer in (13 miles out, 89 ft of water) and picked up some additional aj's lots of trigger, black snapper, and some grouper.

Did a total of 4 dives, and everyone had a good time. Had two guys on the top fishing with hook and line who caught some trigger and endangered red snapper.

Half way through the dive, one of our divers got tangled in the marker line that had been dropped by the fisherman and had to cut it. It was a very thin line that was virtualy invisible in the water. Lesson learned. In the future, we will use a thick braded line for our marker.

Thanks to the Chris (tightsnatch) for all the help on the boat.

On just about every dive, we had sharks show up after about five minutes. None of them were agressive and only required some gentle nudging to back off.

I think we might be a little early for the grouper as of yet. We did see several very large grouper out past the 25 mile mark. We also saw some small grouper in toward the 13 mile mark. They were still very skiddish and not many of them yet. Cant wait for the water to cool down. We did notice that the trigger were holding on bridge rubble. I mean as many trigger as you cared to shoot. I didnt clean up on them because I hate to shoot them, and Clay and his group got ran off by the sharks.

Red fishing

huntfishbum — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:13:58 GMT

I was trolling plugs for reds and caught several which we released. Also caught several spanish and kings on the same gear. I lost 4 plugs and the line was broken off at the snap swivel on the line , with the swivel and leader (80 Lb.) knot being the only thing left.CONFUSED... ANYONE HAVE ANY THOUGHTS... Thanks, Chuck

Finally found some keeper Grouper (Scamps) 11-9-08

Gone Fishin' Too — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:33:26 GMT

Went out Sunday 11-9-08 on an invite with a few friends on a 32' Tiarra. It was a little bumpy 2'-4' ft but not bad since we weren't getting wet!!! Headed to some spots south of the Edge to try our luck for groupers. I have never caught a legal grouper and feel that somehow there has been a grouper curse or hex placed upon me, so I was very excited to try my luck for them again. For the first 1-2 hours the 3 others on the boat were pulling in a few nice scamp and tangling in with those 28" AJ's that were wearing them out. :hotsun I wasn't worn out because I couldn't hook into anything.:banghead I thought the grouper curse was on me again!!!:boo I was getting frustrated and the others on the boat were jabbing and making fun of me because they were having all the success.:poke Finally, my patients paid off and I was able to start putting keeper scamp in the boat, I got my limit after a consistent bite and also caught a nice almaco jack that was also a first for me in the amberjack family!!! :letsdrink It was a beautiful day on the water,towards the end of the afternoon, the wind and waves started picking up, so we headed back to the dock to clean the fish and the boat. Hopefully the curse has been lifted and my next trip will be just as successful!!!

I'm the ugly one in the beige and desert camo!!!!

AJs, almacos,triggerfish,kings,oh yes snapper and more snapper

recess — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:31:32 GMT

We just had to get out fishing today friday the 14th. We had big plans to go to the rigs saturday but that was shot down by the weatherman. Tim and I left out of shermans cove around 06:15. First stop was the jetties to try and catch a few bait fish. About two dozen pigfish and another 16 large pinfish and off we go. The roughest part or the trip out and back was between the 11 and 12 bouys with the out going tide. Sea condition was about 1 foot and maybe a 2 footer now and then. Our plans was to look for some new spots to the west of were we normally fish. About 26 miles out we started to look at the bottom for some live bottom. With the sea conditions so calm we were able to mark 6 new areas of live bottom that we did not have. But the only thing we could catch on them today was snapper snapper and more snapper. As you can see by some of the pictures these are some fine size fish. Tim was able to catch 4 red short grouper. And it seemed that all I could catch there was AJs and almacos. We tried for a blackfin but then again all we could hook was kings. Look at the sea condition in the back ground in one of the pictures. I say we shoot the weatherman. That does not look like 2-4s and 20 knot wind. Oh well maybe next week I will see you all out there.We made it a short day back at the dock by 1. Gene

That was one big almaco

11/09 report

sail7seas — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:51:58 GMT

went out sunday morning with a couple of friends. we made a run out to the alabama alps area to find some rocks and fish. we got out there to the marathon reef and checked it out for a minute. got a red snapper and just small aj. moved on a few miles to the west and fished some natural bottom we had hit during the summer and caught some white snapper for the box. wanted some groupers so we went back to a ledge we had marked earlier in the day. the water went from 230 ft to 215 and it was decent sized area. we anchored up and caught fish right away. we landed 3 scamp while there, one on squid and two on pinfish. caught a bunch of aj's but they were all 28 inches to the fork.:banghead also caught some nice red snapper. below is a pic we took of one and successfully released. most of them were about that size. after a while i got a nice slam on a big pinfish. it was fighting hard and shaking its head. thought it was another juvy aj and up comes a nice 13 lb red grouper. the bite was consistent and we lost a couple of real good fish to the rocks. nice day with a nice mess of fish.

Off Shore Co-Op Friday/Saturday

allen_perkinson — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:26:26 GMT

Got a call from my buddy Austin (he charters what we call the poon-toon) to go out deep Friday and find some Marlin and Grouper. I haven't been Marlin fishing, let alone hook one, so I was all over the invite. We finally got on the water at about 8 in the morning. Had a rough time finding live bait, but we came prepared with a box boston nasty. Super slow to start, we bottom bumped a bunch of spots about 40 miles out with little result. Austin (wisely) didn't want to go as far as we originally planned due to the 4 foot seas. We tried trolling for an hour along the edge, no takers there either. Finally we saw something good on the sonar in about 280 feet of water. We fished the hell out of it and it produce pretty well. Ended up with a few large lesser AJs, a small Gag, a long King Mack, a few Beeliners, C/R 8/9 Lb Red Snapper and this little thing in the first pic. It was my first, and it was a fun ride. I brought her in on a nine foot med action rod banded with a Calcutta 400! that trip was more than worth the ride, thanks again for the invite Austin.

Day two Capt Gary-O (charters the Go~n~Mo) gave me an invite to go out and slaughter some flounder. He knew exactly where to find the bait, good thing it was right where we were fishing! (;P) The five of us ended the life of 25 good eatin flat fish! We were only out there for about 2 hours. If you want flounder, he is the guy to call. Last Jan, I went out with him and a few other guys. We limited out with 50 flatties in no time! Can't wait to see the carnage this coming Jan. Anyway, on to the good stuff. Enjoy the pics! And if you want to get up with one of these two charters, let me know, I will fwd you the Info. Tight Lines!

First Mahi cow. i watched her inhale my bait. Once she realized what she had just got her self into, my drag was screaming off and she was skipping on the water! Great ride!

King of the carnage with a 22 inch mat.

No, the girl wasn't on the trip. She was just in the pic to make the mess of fish jealous. Tight Lines!

Alabama Red Fish

Mr. Mike — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:15:09 GMT

Red Fish caught last Friday trolling Alabama beach west. 25#.

Mighty good blackened on the grill!! In Alabama - 1 redfish any size and 1 slot red fish.

FISH ID??????????

specslayer — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:53:53 GMT

what kind of fish is this...i was thinking red snapper but ive heard their endangered....what is this??????????????

report to follow......

[IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/alexhugginhisERS.jpg[/IMG]

Groupers,Groupers, and a few others

recess — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:27:36 GMT

Weather man today was pretty close. Left Sherman Cove at around 6:30 to try and find some bait. we managed to net a few LYs by the jetties and hook and line some pin fish. As we headed out the pass we were met with 2 -3s out of the SE. Our crew today was Bruce, Hall, Rob, Tim and myself. With high hopes to catch a few grouper and maybe a blackfin. The first stop did not yield any fish, so off to find another rock. Next stop was in 190 ft. and we had no problem setting the anchor. The red snapper were thick and at times hard to get a bait down to the groupers. No blackfin today but the kings and bobos would not leave us alone. We just stopped putting out the fly line. Here is a few pictures of our catch. Gene

11/5 Cubera Snapper

karma — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:28:03 GMT

Got out on 11/5 with live pinfish in the hunt for grouper. Caught a few shorts, plenty of red snapper, small amber jack on jigs, then loaded up with trigger fish, and had a rare catch for our area.

A 28" cubera snapper capped the day:

Washed the boat then cheezed for the picture! Awesome weather, the cruise back was enjoyable.

[img]http://www.orangebeachfishingforum.com/fishingforum/Attachment5448.aspx[/img]

Limit of Scamp,Snappers,Almacos and a few others

recess — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:59:22 GMT

The forcast was for 5 to 10 with seas 1 to 2. The weatherman did not get that one right. Seas around the edge turned to 3 to 4's with a 5 footer now and then. White caps and so on. But we had it in mind to catch a few fish, since this was the first trip on the new to us Contender. We set anchor in about 180 feet with 600 feet of rode out. It was a little rough but when the scamp started coming over the side everything was alright. Its funny when you are catching fish how you dont mind the rough weather as much as when you are not. Kevin (GONU) on the PFF and a friend of Tim's from work, Kevin also. Tim and myself made up the crew. Here is a few pictures of our catch. Yes Rob and Hall we missed you out there but know you had to WORK. Gene

Jigging offshore in November

heathhampton — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:23:00 GMT

I am coming to Pensacola at the end of November and wanted to try some jigging on some of the public spots. I fish out of Pensacola Pass alot in the summer but was wondering what I can expect this time of year. By the way, for those of you that haven't tried jigging yet...I started doing it this summer and am absolutely hooked! It is a blast and can't wait to feel another hit from a big fish.

Thanks in advance.

Beautiful Day

xyzzy — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:55:26 GMT

What a gorgeous day offshore today. Left the Destin pass around 11am, and faced an onslaught of the elusive, endangered Red Snapper, more bonita than you knew what to do with (but will make great bait later), lots of Snowy Grouper at some numbers around 18 offshore.

Full pix and report at [url=http://hookup.80concepts.com/?p=78]my blog here[/url]

11/02 edge-yellow gravel report

sail7seas — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:44:16 GMT

my buddy jason and i headed out of perdido pass around 630 sunday morning. we really didnt expect to get to far with noaa calling for 3-5. kept heading out and it was solid 3's with an occasional 4 in there. not great but not bad enough to keep us from going. got to the edge and immediately started catching juvy aj's. they were fun for a little bit but we couldnt find a keeper in the bunch. we did have one wild incident happen. jason had a chicken rig on the bottom and the reel doubled over and started peeling off line with the drag locked down. we figured a shark was on. a few seconds later flipper jumps about 6 feet in the air a couple hundred feet behind the boat and i see the line hanging from its mouth. it spits the hook on that jump and we get back a circle hook that was straightened out. couldnt believe flipper got himself hooked. we put out two freelines and immediately got double hookups on kings. kept 2 and released 1 or 2 more. we got tired of the baby aj's and went to the yellow gravel. here we couldnt get past the legal size red snapper to the grouper. they ate our live pinfish like crazy. we moved around to several different depths and areas but couldnt keep the snapper off. we vented all those fish that needed it and they all swam off. finally got one scamp and kept a couple of beeliners and white snapper.

Snapper report, Thursday,Friday ,in Fl. waters and fishing for whatever Saturday in Alabama

fishinwhits — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:51:49 GMT

I haven't fished with my buddy, Randy,in his boat in years. He went to some state numbers Thursday afternoon by himself and caught his limit of snappers and a nice grouper.

So needless to say, I was fired up for Friday.

Awoke to the sounds of a roaring surf Friday, at the Al.Gulf State Park,and knew it would be a tough day.Lauched the boat at Warrington,and on our way we go. Pretty ugly leaving the pass, but tried it anyway. Arrived at first spot,and our first drops we boated 2 keeper snapper .I thought the way it started off we wouldn't be out long but the winds kept increasing,seas got tough,and you couldn't stand up with out having a death grip to something.We started taking water over the bow pretty regularly,so much that it wasn't bailing out quick enough.As much as we love to catch snapper,it was time to go. Unreal ride in,and Pensacola Pass never looks so good. But I have to say that little cat is one tough boat.I'd been in some rough stuff in this boat before, but Friday was the roughest by far. The 55 hp Yamaha is is also one tough machine. He's logged over 2500 miles on his gps with this motor and boat.

Waited around Sat.am till the wind laid,and left perdido pass at noon. Went to the Liberty Ship Allen,hoping to find some A.J.'s. No luck on A.J.'s just keeper snapper one after another,got tired of catching and releasing snapper and the dolphins showed up,and I hate feeding flipper. Although I seen flipper do something I'd never seen before. He'd catch the released snapper then throw it a few feet into the air,catch it again,and then eat.Put on quite a show.

Well all in all ended the Elusive Red Snapper Season with some nice fish. I'm so thankful that Florida still has a long season for snapper.Hope it be he same next year.

Here's a picture of that bad little cat

And here is a picture I took today of the snapper Randy caught Friday.

10-30-08 snapper trip

daddytime — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 22:21:42 GMT

Went out 7 miles Thursday with Mark, Scott, and Jim Porter, Dwayne Gafford and self for a final bottom trip for the year. Met at the boat at 6:00 am and was back at 10:00 am with a limit of snapper, one black snapper, and 2 triggers. Seas were less than 2 feet but I imagine it was rougher offshore.

KATHY II Closes Snapper Season from Edge on Back

NoCatch — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:42:49 GMT

One last trip for the elusive Red Snapper, plus.

Gathered at Sherman Cove Thursday morn (Captain Terry, Ed, Skip, Archie, and me). Beautiful morning/NAS lit up just before dawn:

"Cool" weather gear on, headed out to the edge:

Weather report had it a "little bit" wrong. The 2 or less seas were big and bumpy going out. Hit our Mingo hole about 31 miles out/190 feet of water. Started dropping down pin fish and squid and BAM, BAM, BAM, three poles bent over! Well, we started pulling in big and beautiful Red Snapper (all of which went back for a better purpose?). I think everyone "limited out" if we could keep em! Pulled in some Mingo, etc., but other than snapper, the bite was slow.

Sea Gulls gave us a visit at the Edge:

Caught a "petty" eel, brown and colored spots. Was going to keep for UWF or some acquarium, but too much of a hassel keeping it alive.

A few more tries and a double thrown in by Ed (some one elses line included):

After awhile headed back to State waters for some "legal" snapper, and the bite was on.

Warmed up nicely, everyone stripped down (Keep your minds out of the gutter!).

Had a "ghost" ship sitting on "our Hole".

Caught the boat's limit (on the Port Side anyhow). Ride back in was nice and smooth seas. "Plumber" John looking for a dropped snapper!

Captain Terry with his "hog":

And, of course, the Crew!

Bye, bye Red Snapper, see ya next year!

Out of Destin Mon and Tues

tightdrag — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:13:26 GMT

Went out Mon and Tues, Mon pretty rough more than 1-3' the weather man forcasted. Fished inshore most of the morning by noon the seas layed a little so we shot out to the edge. Got on anchor and fishing by 1:30, way of the spot so re-anchored, dead on, we caught 2 red grouper, 2 gag, 2 scamp and some mingos. Called it quits around 4;30 then headed inshore for a couple of snapper. Did win monkey boat daileys for the red snapper and open for the red grouper. The biggest gag went 25# .

Tues the weather was great so headed back to the same edge spot and the grouper bite was off all day, ended up with three scamp, 4 kings and a couple of mingos, the biggest king did win a dailey. All in all not a bad two days of fishing.

Three trips on the Tide in Knots

JoeZ — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:50:22 GMT

There's much more to the story but it's been three weeks since the first of the three and I'm fuzzy on stuff.

Here's the highlights.

Brad Sauers (Tide in Knots) and I went out three Fridays ago and wore the snapper out.
We implemented a boat minimum size of 22 inches that day on snapper and only threw a couple back.
Got a grouper -- my second on this spot in as many weeks -- and Brad had some horrendous catastrophies with a very large, very strong animal on the bottom. Not break offs, not cut offs just let the hook go after a short but fierce -- and fruitless struggle. Whatever it was ate the first fish that bit his bait - live pins -- and wasn't budging.
We think we know what it is and have a plan for him so I'll keep you posted on that.
Friday before last, I had a load of folks coming to town and they needed feeding. Brad and I left Pcola Pass about 10:30 a.m. after making bait in the bay and hit the spot.
Back home and cleaning a 2-man limit of snapper and one more grouper by 2:30 or so.
The yankees from Chicago ate well that night.
Well, my boy from CHI doesn't fish much -- and never in the salt before -- and Brad having a vacation day to blow took us out to the spot again. Three times in two weeks or so and I thought maybe our luck would run out.
Not so much.
If you remember last week, it was breezy. 2-3 and a rookie onboard equals chum.
But my boy made it through and got his two snapper.
I landed a half dozen trigger maybe and Brad found his big angry friend again -- I think it's a bromance with those two because he doesn't bother me at all, just Brad.
The yankees ate well that night too as we tried the old snapper on the half shell. Why? A: It's good, just butter and garlic and lemon to your preference. B: I didn't feel like finishing cleaning all the fish so I lelft them that way and got drunk once we got to the beach house.
The crowd was pleased to say the least. Like, to the point where I asked my wife if it was really that good -- I ate it but it all tastes good to me when I cook. Apparently, it's a new keeper recipe around here, wish I could remember it all.
All in all, that was a helluva couple trips and I do believe that 19-foot Palm Beach has some magic on it.
Oh, we also had three of these.
http://www.youtube.com/user/JoeEyechart

And for state water snaps in October -- not too shabby

Brad's 10.5 above.

Oh I got a Brand New Pair of roller SKATES

reelfinatical — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:56:03 GMT

We went offshore today and needless to say we are back early - lol -

Left at 7am sharp and went 26 - 28 miles to try more spots out there that we didnt get to last time - at 10 miles from the area, seas went from flat to 2-4' steep, stacked, back to back, white caps everywhere. Winds just a blowing. Thank goodness for our boats nice Carolina flare!

Once there, drifting was horrible and anchoring (if even possible) woulda made it that much more uncomfortable. It was hard to keep balanced, hard to move around, hard to fish, and the fish had lockjaw everywhere we tried out there.

After awhile we called it quits in that mess. I think it took us 1.5 hours (or so it seemed?!) to get from there back to the Sand Flea where the seas would be calmer - put the nose up as high as she'd go and gave it gas, didn't get above 25mph, which was plenty fast on top of those bumpy seas if you ask me, lol.

Nearshore the seas were just a lil teeny tiny bit choppy. We got our limit of snapper (all 18"s), and got some triggers, a small shark, a sailcat , and a pair of skates - and then came home.

It looked like it was calming to a nice evening as we were coming in. Hope the rest of you had better luck offshore than we did today.

I don't think I have any pictures worth a poot this time, but I'll check and see.

26 October- "Over the Edge" report

Brad K — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:03:06 GMT

My father sent his pictures to me to post for him......So here we go.

I called Dad Saturday night to see if he wanted to go on the "GAMBLER" with us. He said nope, he was going to one of his seceret honey holes in his boat. So Him, Raoul, Krista, Brittany, Cheri headed out. Looks like he made a really good decision. Here are a few pictures from their trip..

I am sure that he will add some comments later

Great Day On the Gambler, with lots of New Friends 10/26

amberj — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:15:44 GMT

The captain of the Gambler called me up Saturday night and asked to see if I was interesed in going fishing, of course I was ready to go. So we met up at the boat at 645 for a great day on the water. Got to finally meet the infamous Brad K(the best deck I have ever seen in action, and hes retired for being a deck hand) and his girlfriend. Lets see whom all was there. Capt Buzz, Capt Brian, Brad K and his lovely (girlfriend OH YEAH!!!!!) Brian Campbell, Jason and his son, Kenny and his 3 sons(great bunch of boys), and Myself. We left the dock @ 700 and headed out the gulf. Great weather, good cold beer, and laughing the entire way. We made a few stops on the way out to check some wrecks the Capt Brian and Capt Buzz put out this spring to see how they were producing. We stopped at a few spots and got some nice trigger fish and a ton of legal sized, endandered snapper(but we were outside of state waters). So Brad K vented all of them and threw them all back over board. We hit up several spots and got some nice football size mingo snapper after leaving there. Well Capt Brian and Kenny wanted to do some diving so we dropped them off and we did some nice fishing. Capt Brian shot one of the biggest Trigger Fish I have ever seen while, Kenny shot some nice black snapper. We started catching a lot of Banded Rudderfish on this spot and got a nice bit of those and we were back in state waters and started pulling up the legal red snapper. We left that spot and headed for another one loaded up with more banded rudder fish, mingos, triggers, and more red snapper, Brian and Kenny did another dive while we fished some more. We fish for awile and spot the divers coming up and they are yelling hurry and pick them up they have a shark on there ass. We pick up lines and got over there real quick to find out that they had a 6 ft bull shark running around them and had all ready at 2 of there fish, one real nice snapper, and a flounder. But still they got some nice black snapper, one huge red snapper, by this time we were done fishing and time to head back to the dock, We cleaned the boat up on the way in and continued to empty the cooler of beer and laugh and talk, SHAKE AND BAKE!!!!!! We got back to the boat while Capt Brian and Brad K cleaned up the fish and we split them all up taking our time cleaning everything. Just having a great time. I took some picks of the day but Brad K will be adding some more as well. We sat around the boat just talking and really laughing over our day. I tell you what, this was one of the best fishing trips I have ever taken and one I will never forget. Meeting new people and having the time of our lives!!!

Capt Brian getting his Scuba Gear ready to go!!!

Brad K and Brian and Brian

As said on the boat by someone that will remain nameless while joking "He Must Work Out"

Triggers!!!!

Endangered Red Snapper

Brad K Smoking up the electric knife

Captn Brian Cleaning Fish.

I tell you what you couldnt of asked for a better day on the water. I want to personally thank Brad K for deck handing everything for us, Capt Brian, Capt Buzz, and Kenny for inviting us all and just having an amazing day on the water!!! I want give a big SHAKE and Bake out to the GAMBLER, the best Charter Boat out there in my opinion!!!

Sunday 10/26 Offshore

BMH77 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:33:05 GMT

I have watched the weather for the past few weeks and not had a good day to line up with my work schedule until this weekend. We loaded up and got on the water around 11:00 Sunday morning. Caught some bait and headed south to the edge for some bottom bumping. Fished the edge for a bit with no luck and the wind kicked up quite a bit and my wife had enough of the being beat around so we headed back to a couple of wrecks around twenty miles out. Fished there and eneded up with a 37 inch amberjack, a scamp, and a couple of triggerfish. Took the ride back in a bit closer and ended up with a few various snapper to finish up the day. I enjoy hunting but it just doesn't compare to a great day on the water.

Destin Rodeo Trip 10/26/08 on Chasin' Tail

Kobia — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:23:21 GMT

The boys and I decided to get another trip in before the end of the fishing rodeo on Sunday. Greg, Jason (bombtosser) and Rick all joined in for this one. We struck out catching live bait in the morning so we left with only a few pinfish in our livewell. The seas slowly built as we moved offshore but it was nothing we couldn’t handle. We put a few nice triggers in the box at our first stop.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/trigger-2.jpg[/img]

We trolled for a few hours without any luck and switched back to bottom fishing and checked out a little hole I like to call scamp town. Well scamp town lived up to its name as we quickly put two nice scamp in the boat and some really nice snappers. Jason sends down a large mingo and is rewared with this nice 17 lb gag.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/gag.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/gag1.jpg[/img]

With our lack of live bait I start fishing with dead bait and hook something fat. I slowly work him to the surface and up comes the largest red grouper I have ever seen! I’m so excited that I nearly dropped the rod over when I saw the fat boy surface.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/red.jpg[/img]

On the very next drop I hook something big again. About halfway up he gets much lighter…. Ut ohh, I think he just got bitten in half. Up comes a GIANT snapper head. We guessed the snapper to be in the 15lb range.

We proceed to lose several more fish including one so heavy he stripped the gears out on my 4/0 penn:banghead. We decided to call it a day and we start making our way back in to the scales.

We arrive at AJ’s and there are probably 500 people all hanging out watching the weigh in with it being such a nice afternoon. We pull out the fat red grouper and our best snapper. The weighmaster announces that our grouper is 20.6 lbs and the new leader in the red grouper division! The crowd cheers and we all exchange high 5’s. In all the excitement Jason walked backwards off the barge into the water! Well the crowd went nuts cheering, I didn’t see him fall in so I think the crowd is cheering for our fish. Greg runs over to help him back over the rail but he can’t lift him over the bow of the boat so he has to drop him back into the water. Finally he makes his way to the back of the boat and Greg assists him over the rail. We all laugh the entire way back to the ramp. I think we did our part to keep the crowd entertained as well.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/greg.jpg[/img]

-Koby

ShurKetch out again!!

ShurKetch — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:57:11 GMT

Had a short trip just getting some more Snapper before season close. Skip, Terry, and I were the only ones on board. John, our official photographer, wasn't able to go. We had limited out on Snapper by 0800. Stayed out for a few more hours just drifting around for other endangered species. Can't believe the weather forecasters got in right yesterday. It was a perfect day with calm seas and warm temperature. Don't you love those gasoline prices??

Next week it will be fishing back on the edge!

10/26 Offshore Report

true-king — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:46:15 GMT

We headed out early for the edge. The weather was really nice and the seas were calm.

We saw some bonita on the way out and couldn't resist.

We got to the edge and looked for blackfin, but we didn't see any. We trolled around for a while, then we fished some edge bottom spots. After not getting anything, we headed to the tenneco. We spotted some cudas and out came the cuda tube. I have to say those cuda tubes really work, this was my first fish on one.

After that, chris got him one.

After loosing a couple vertical jigs to kings, we decided to head on to another wreck. We got there and found some jacks. On the first drop, I hooked a nice one that I fought for a few minutes, but it broke off before I could get a look at it. :banghead

Here's one caught by Chris.

We caught a bunch of short fish for a while and had a ball.

I dropped the jig down on a school of AJs and hooked up. Got him near the surface and noticed it was red! Too bad we were outside of 9 miles. :banghead:banghead

Inside of 9 miles, we were fishing for red snapper when I dropped a jig down on light tackle. Got this nice 33 inch king, not bad for 10 lb test with a 30 lb mono leader! I released it as I already had mackerel left over from yesterday.

We got back to shoreline just before sundown. It was a great day on the water.

king mackerel

roofordie — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:03:33 GMT

How far off the beach are the Kings right now? Has anyone been hooking them? Planning a trip out Sunday, just wanna get an idea where I need to be

Destin Rodeo 10/17/08

Kobia — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:23:59 GMT

Got the good ole boys together (Rick and Jason) early Friday morning with the idea of doing some daybreak trolling at the edge. We felt our way out of the harbor at 5am under an almost full moon and we were greeted by completely flat seas.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/rick.jpg[/img]

We get our lines in the water at daylight and start trolling.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/sunrise.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/trolling.jpg[/img]

We failed to hook up one quick strike just as we are putting the lines out. Seas are dead... so is the bite.... until around 9am we get nailed. Something erupts on one of our lures and one of the reels starts screaming. I picked the rod up just in time to see a REALLY nice mahi skyrocket out of the water. The massive mahi jumps... and jumps.. and jumps. We are worried he is going to spit the lure with all the violent head shaking jumps. Finally he settles in for a 5 minute long run. After a long fight (30 mins if you ask me, 15 if you ask other people). We finally had him boatside. Rick gently grabs the leader and hand lines him in for Jason to do a perfect gaff shot.

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/dolphin.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/kobra187/d2.jpg[/img]

After all the excitement we settle in for another couple hours of trolling with no luck. We find a few nice spots on the edge and decide to send down the bottom reels to see whats up. We pull up a couple keeper grouper and a few triggers. Afterwards we head to our snapper hole, we pick up a nice grouper and one snapper then 5 HUNGRY porpoise show up. Everytime we hook anything after that it became dinner for flipper :banghead so we decided to point it towords home which turned out to be a good decision as the skys starting turning grey to the north on our way in.

We head to the scales to see if our beast will make the boards in the dolphin category. We are a bit worried since there is no "monkey boat" division for mahi and we will be competing against every big boat in destin. It turns out that our fish is good enough to be in first place 26.0 lb (for now).

This was truly one of the best trips of my life, with the teamwork of two of my best friends we got an amazing fish in the boat and had an awesome day on the water.

10-22-08 Destin Report

Sailor50 — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:30:20 GMT

Thought it might be calm enough to do some fishing in the morning so headed out of Joe's Bayou around 0630. Pass not too bad , got some bait and headed to the FWB Liberty ship. Had had some luck there recently so thought we would try it again on the way out. Seas/wind got steadily rougher, good 3-4'. Hard to stay over the ship, did some drift fishing over it using live bait. Not much really biting, one breakoff, friend got a nice Mangrove snapper (my fish id is not that good yet, correct me if i am wrong)

Just too rough so headed back, hit AJ Bimini & the barrel barge on the way back. Only a few small red snappers on the barrel barge. Took an hour to get back to the pass as we couldnt get much over 8-10 mph due to seas. Trolled a red/white stretch 25 on the way back and got one small king.

Stopped at the Destin Bridge for a little while, other boats were hauling in blue fish and red fish. Got one blue fish and decided to call it a day.

10-21-08 REPORT

Deeplines — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:45:50 GMT

I just noticed that I posted 10-21-08 on the report date. It was 10-22-08 or Wednesday.

Met up with Badazzchef and FlounderKing. Got the "Boat with No Name" launched and heading out at 8AM sharp. In search for the endangered Red Snapper.

Hit the pass with the current going out. Wind was out of the east at about 8MPH at this time. Pass was around 1-2' with some 3' rouges. It became evident quickly that this was going to be a rough day of fishing but this was my last chance to fish before heading back to work next week and wanted to fish with friends.

Was running at 12MPH in the rough seas so just decided to slow to 7MPH and troll to the spot. Was able to boat on small king on the troll to the public spots. Got to the 1st spot around 10AM. Seas were up to around 3-4'. It was hard to stand up but we were determined to get the snapper. Wind picked up to around 15MPH and the waves were close together. Again, it was rough but felt safe in the OLD BOAT.

We hit about 8 public wrecks total and was able to catch enough 12" trigger to fill all three of our quotas but not one single 14" trigger. :banghead No trigger samiches. :reallycrying

Was able to boat two keeper snapper, one lane snapper, a pogy, plenty of short snapper and short triggers, one short AJ and a spanish on the way back in.

Rough day fishing but was worth it fishing with two buddies. Chris has the pixs.

Squid seemed to the bait of choice for the bottom fishing. I think both hits on the streaches came on the blue/black tiger.

Seas close in died down on the way back to about 1' around 3 miles out. We fished around 8 miles out all day.

fishin oct 21st

Ozeanjager — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:37:12 GMT

sorry no pics ..but the day started with kinda ruff water .... putz around the pass looking for big red and put some spanish to deat layed down ....then it layed down magicly.... went to some holes near the barges and rounded up some endangered snapper .... caught a 20 lb king on my flippin spanish rod with a momo leader and 12 lb test...high light there... some small ajs and grouper ,,,but what a beutiful day.... with all the limits the fish came to about $20 a pound .... but is was worth it .... next time i will have fotos ...and bigger tails to tell.

late 10/19 with lots of pics

specslayer — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:07:12 GMT

put in at shoreline at 600 last sunday and ran to the pass. couldnt find bait so we started trolling east straight into the waves but was catching spray from hell so we pointed her south. as i was looking back i saw a 10-15lb king come skyrocketing like 10ft out of the water and the rod goes off but hooks dont catch. after that we started catching bobo after bobo i think we ended up catching 9-12 of em mostly this size

[IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/10-19031.jpg[/IMG]

then i caught my first king wasnt the biggest one ive ever seen but it was decent.

[IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/10-19023.jpg[/IMG]

we ended up at oops barge and tried to stay over it and i got one nice 18inch ERS

[IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/10-19024.jpg[/IMG]

after that we hit a few other bottom spots and my dad got another nice red snapper and i got a pretty decent mingo for in 60ft of water, we both barely got them away from a pretty big cuda that was hanging out under the boat.

[IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/CaptainMarkSparrow.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/10-19034.jpg[/IMG]

then on the way in we had a couple more bobo then the one rod goes smoking off and i jackem and give it to my brother and it ends up being a nice 20lb king...the biggest fish for our boat so far.

[IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/alexandking.jpg[/IMG]

from there we just ran all the way in on FLAT seas:banghead:banghead after fighting 3-4 with an occasional 5 thrown in for fun. all in all we had a fun trip and melted some ice.

[IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/10-19040.jpg[/IMG]

heres a vid of another king we caught but let go...sry for the jumpy ness but it was my dads first time on the cam

[URL=http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/?action=view&current=10-19042.flv][IMG]http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff101/specslayer/th_10-19042.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Grouper, Triggers, Mingos, Lane Snappas + on RF 10/21/08

reelfinatical — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:32:05 GMT

Tuesday, October 21 2008

Started early today at 7am - stopped by the Liberty Ship to get some live baits but only got a few mingos & small triggers. bluh. Headed on 26nm SW of Destin to fish some natural bottom. Seas were bumpy 2' going out but like Reefcast predicted winds died in the pm & it was a BEAUTIFUL afternoon.

Could NOT get any live baits out at any spot we tried because of Flipper - so no Kings or Jaws today. =(

Today was mostly all about who could get the fish first - you or Flipper. So it was REEL REEL REEL as fast as you could all day long, lol.

Got into some nice Lane Snappers - biggest was 4 lbs & smallest was 18".

Also kept getting Red Grouper, all same size, 4" too short & 13.5" Triggers.

Scott brought up 2 Red Snapper that were 5 lbs a piece, a sea robin, & a really small moray eel.

Most fish caught using frozen baits (cigar minnows, boston mackerel, squid) & strips off fresh white snapper.

Back on the hill at 5pm - stinky, tired, sunburnt, and I learned my lesson never wear a white t-shirt out there again =)

...Drinking a Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale now & got a feeling its going to be an early night.. lol..

Here's some pics:

WHO GETS CLAIMS TO THIS FISH? WE BOTH HOOKED INTO IT! LOL...
[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album35/DSCF2585.sized.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album35/DSCF2587_001.sized.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album35/DSCF2588.sized.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album35/DSCF2589.sized.jpg[/img]

EVERY SINGLE ONE WAS THIS SIZE:
[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album35/DSCF2595.sized.jpg[/img]

NICE RIDE HOME - I PUT THE MATE TO WORK CLEANING, HAHA!
[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album35/DSCF2603.sized.jpg[/img]

KATHY II hit limit AGAIN!

NoCatch — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:03:29 GMT

Gathered together Thursday morn, 23rd (National Boss Day) (Captain Terry, Ed, Skip, and me). Launched out of Sherman under a beautiful morning sky.

Temps about 65 and seas 1-4?, and it was a bit wet going East toward the edge to try out some new numbers (new to us!) under a cresting sun.

Found our spot with nice craters and domes. Seas calmed a bit. Using pin fish, squid, and cigs, started the catch of AJs, Kings,

Trigger and Mingo (and of course some Red Snapper that flipper enjoyed!).

Double Trigger snag by ed:

Terry brings in another King:

We had the usual break offs and mangled fish. Look at the head on this AJ that Skip hauled in!

Catch started to turn into everything just a little short, and Mingo catch wasn't that great, so headed to our snapper hole.

Snapper catch was on, with Skip bringing in this monster:

All hands contributed:

I counted the box and came up with 7 Red Snapper, so we fished on until a recount was done and we had NINE! Hey, I graduated from Worcester Boys' Trade High School and Troy State, give me a break!

Off we went to park the boat and called it a day.

Another beautiful day on the water! Luv it :usaflag