Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

So I finally took the plunge and went out on the vertical jigging trip with Captain Wayne.

The trip started out a bit slow as we ran out deep to drop on some wrecks in the 400-500 foot range. We got one small blackfin, (I lost another at the boat) and we pulled in a couple of bonitas. Then finally up comes this snowy grouper.


Next we went inside to 100 feet to take advantage of a hot king bite that was going on. We caught about 8 kings in under an hour on the jigs and on live bait.

We left the kings biting to go try out some wrecks in the 200-350 foot range. First wreck we drop on Bernardo gets slammed and fought this huge Almaco Jack for a good 15 minutes.


Next someone caught this tiny Vermillion.


And another Snowy Grouper.


Then we were about to go in and Captain Wayne says "one more wreck". Well you know how that goes, we all look over and there is Jorge fighting a monster at the Stern. After a nice fight this huge Warsaw Grouper hits the deck. We released the behemoth after some pics.



Here is a video with some of the highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFAcWsdM ... AqoBimz28m

Holy Crap, I cannot wait till this sunday. Nice fish very nice fish.

Nicely done! Do I smell Live Bait?

Great report

englishadam wrote:Nicely done! Do I smell Live Bait?

Yea looks like someone cheated to catch that warsaw

englishadam wrote:Nicely done! Do I smell Live Bait?

Yeah, the Warsaw and a couple of kings were on livies, everything else on the jigs.

Great Trip and video!!!

What size rod was used on the Almaco?

hey.. that's not cheating.. That's Catching!! lol
Great job! Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can keep snowies now even with the other seasons closed??? either way, that is awesome and I wish we had more grouper action on the 31st!

Charles

I need to change my name to bonita man because that's all I'm catching lol. Got my ass kicked by what I believe were big jacks. Got cut off on the bottom on one and the other one just came off some how.

Yep, i was standing right there and the drag was screaming.

What rod blank is that your using?

Just checked the regs and it turns out we could have kept the Warsaw and the two Snowys.

Oh well, next time.

why are the regs so confusing

was that considered federal or state waters that you guys were in, how far did you travel out???? That might be a deciding factor in it, last time Capt. Wayne said there are no regs on snowies where we were, at least that is what I understood (because my snowy was tiny! lol)

Charles

Rijkaard wrote:Charter and headboats that hold federal snapper-grouper permits are required to abide by federal rules, even in state waters.

End of story!

That is one hell of an Almaco! Congrats to Bernardo and Jorge on those awesome catches.

The bag limit for snowy grouper is reduced from one fish per person per day to one fish per vessel per day.

I much rather leave the rule translation to the Captains and the FWC. The captains run the risk of loosing their license and getting hefty fines if they interpret the law incorrectly. I do believe that Captains do go to special seminars that explain the Laws. I think Captain Kenny said that one snowie in State water is allowed. My self, I would let fish in question go to not get in trouble. It's better to be safe than sorry. So they did great by releasing them.

That is a great idea the captain had on the releasing of fish. With the rope and heavy steel letting them go in deeper water to assist them in revival. he explained that method before grouper season closed. He wants to make sure the fishery stays healthy.


By the way next month they are scheduled to drop 17B.

cudaman wrote:By the way next month they are scheduled to drop 17B.