This is an account from a recent trip and the intro to an article I’m working on for a local magazine. I thought I’d share.
Upon arriving at the spot, some 45 miles offshore of Hilton Head Island I eased back on the throttles. As my boat settled out I scanned the surface of the water around me. Two barnacle encrusted logger head turtles floated lazily nearby, a number of terns flew around busily searching for food, and several schools of baitfish holding just below the waters surface caused areas of the ocean to ripple and shake nervously. Our location, a natural lime stone outcropping on the ocean floor, was teeming with life.
I made a series of slow passes over a small rock ledge all the while studying my fish finder for signs of gamefish. Schools of baitfish hovering over the ledge showed as yellow and green clouds on my fish finder. I made another pass over the southern end of the ledge and a number of red, crescent shaped images appeared hovering just off the bottom on my fish finders screen. Bingo! These images were signs of larger bottom dwellers such as grouper and snapper and just what I was looking for.
I quickly saved the position in my GPS and swung the boat around stern into the current. “Go ahead and drop em boys”, I instructed as I slowly backed the boat into the current. Each of my four anglers dropped offerings of live pinfish and cigar minnows to the bottom 110 ft below. First one rod bowed under the weight of a fish, and then another, and then another, until all four anglers were in battle simultaneously. First over the rail was a pair of nice black sea bass, followed by a red porgy, and then a 23 inch scamp grouper.
This scene was repeated many times over with each drift of the ledge yielding a variety of species including vermillion snapper, cobia, red snapper, trigger fish, amber jack, and gag grouper. After getting the location of the largest concentrations of bottom dwellers dialed in we dropped the anchor and continued to fish baits on the bottom while
