Left work a little early yesterday, told everyone I had an appointment (good seas appointment) and made the trip out to the 6HI reef. After making 5 failed attempt at getting the anchor to grab I was pretty pissed and told my buddy that I was moving one more time and if it doesn’t grab, we are leaving. As luck would have it the anchored grabed and we got to do some fishing. Dropped lines right below the boat and as soon as the weight hit the bottom (within 15 secs), BAM, Mutton Snapper. They were everywhere. As fast as you could reel one up and take it off and rebait and hit the bottom we would catch another. After limiting out on those I decided to cast out away from the boat a little to see what I could find. Alomst the same results, within 15 seconds of the first rig hitting the bottom, BAM, a double but this time it was BSB! I knew we aren’t in season right now, but I thought I heard or read that we can keep them now. But better safe then sorry, we threw them all back. After about 30 minutes of pulling in nothing but BSB and throwing them back (roughly 30-45 of them), we decide to head back in. Ran a comfortable 20 knots all the way back to the Hunting Island landing. All and all I wish I coulda kept some of the BSB but I know where they are laying. And hell catching fish and throwing them back is still a hell of a lot better thank being at work. I’ll try to get some pics up later.
Auburn
Auburn, is that your name or did you go to Auburn if you went to Auburn War Eagle and the BSb are legal game fish at this time check regulation for size. went to Auburn 1966-1970 live in SC fish out of Edisto and no reason to go back to Ala due to the need to catch Redfish trout and BSB
I think you arrived late yesterday when I was just leaving, around 4pm or so. The bite was good out there all day. Saw ya’ll dragging anchor a few times. We had one juvenile red snapper, that might be what your calling mutton.
Scott, Auburn is my real name, my family calls me Bubba… I’m not sure where it came from as my whole family is from NC. I can’t lie and say I’m an Auburn fan, as I am a UNC fan, but if I see Auburn playing I will usually watch them and pull for them to win (as long as they aren’t playing UNC). I still haven’t mastered the troat or redfish thing yet. Actually I have yet to catch a red. One day I will change my focus and get in the weeds (literally) with them.
Pro and BB, I’m not positive but thats what they looked like. They had the blue lines on there noses and heads like the Muttons. I know they weren’t juvenile red snapper. The only thing I could see diffrent from these and Mutton is the spot. I wish I had some pictures of them. BB, The guys that were out there diving pulled in several NICE Flounder. We got a little North East of those guys after alot of failed attempts at getting the anchor set thats when we started catching the BSB. They were really thick in there. Most of the time we were pulling them up 2 at a time. If you can help me out with what those other fish were that would be awesome.
Auburn
Sorry, I shoulda asked earlier, Is there a limit on the Blue Striped Grunts and are they worth keeping? We caught a whole mess of them before we started catching the BSB.
not to step on larry’s toes, because he certainly knows a lot… but from experience, white grunts are far more common here than blue stripes. whites are included in the snapper/grouper complex aggregate of 20, blue stripes were removed in april by the SAFMC and have no limits.
That thing is confusing! Maybe I’m not smart enough to fish anymore. I have’t tried them yet, I filleted them and put them in the freezer, I will hopefully try them out this weekend. Let me know what yoyu think and then after I try them I’ll let you know my opinion. Thank you for all the info though, thats really helpfull and a good chart!
quote:not to step on larry's toes, because he certainly knows a lot... but from experience, white grunts are far more common here than blue stripes.
No offense taken, I ain’t arguing either, because I haven’t even seen the fish in question:smiley: Just guessing based on location and description, and you are probably correct. I’m sure it’s more likely a grunt or a porgy than a mutton, in any case.
Grunts eat pretty good. Nothing wrong with a grunt:sunglasses: Not as good as a BSB though:smiley:
I’m sure it’s more likely a grunt or a porgy than a mutton, in any case.
I love BSB!