I made the call based on SST and past early season experience to run way deep (15+ past the 226) and leave the fleet and it turned out to be the wrong call. We found water at 78 degrees but no good weed lines or rips at all. No fish after 4 hours of trolling so we decided to run in found a weed line (and the whole fleet) in 1300. We trolled it for about 30 min but it looked like the bite was off and none of the other dozens of boats around us were hooking up either. Saw one dolphin being chased by flipper but that was it.
We moved in to the ledge to jig for grouper and got nothing but snapper. We then moved in to some bottom numbers and loaded up on trigger, vermillion, and seabass. We also managed plenty more red snapper which we vented and released. One was chased up by a big shark but I managed to pull him over the side before he was eaten.
