Rick and I started at the ledge between the SWB and hole at about 6:20AM- too much wind and current to get anchored over good grouper after 4 tries. Started drift/motor fishing, but remembered quickly that grouper are good at geometry and this means cut leaders over rocky bottom unless you are straight up and down over them. Came into shallower water off Georgetown and found some great looking lumps and ledges, but still couldn’t find the elusive Americanos. Closest I got was a red grouper. Caught several big triggers, pinkies, BSB, etc. and a few big sharks. Just now feeling like I could go do it again… it drained us a lot Saturday for some reason. Always good to be out there though.
And the bird over my right shoulder was a beast. He could outrun an 8oz egg weight with cut bait as it sank and I’d have to reel him up and sling him off it. Had to start casting my bait 40-50’ from the bote in order for him not to snatch it before it was out of his dive range.
He kept pestering me until I brought up a big tiger shark.
Nice fish. That bird has some relatives! They pestered us, also. I liked the way they would stick their heads under the water and look for our bait…then go after it. THAT may be a reason for all the dead birds being reported.
I went back to work today. Not catching fish is much better than working. Trust me!!
Pro tip:
If you are going for the S4G look you need a visor for bottom fishing and a Contender visor for trolling:wink:
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a
pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly
used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming–WOW–What a ride!!!”
-Stuart Wilde-
All Rise - 31 Contender Fish Around with a pair of 250 Yamahas
I went back to work today. Not catching fish is much better than working. Trust me!!
Pro tip:
If you are going for the S4G look you need a visor for bottom fishing and a Contender visor for trolling:wink:
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a
pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly
used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming–WOW–What a ride!!!”
-Stuart Wilde-
All Rise - 31 Contender Fish Around with a pair of 250 Yamahas
Scoutin,
You’ve been posting some impressive photos. You must’ve had a darn good camera man onboard.
when you mark good bottom do you through out a marker then come back and anchor up current?
That is the surest way to do it. My granddaddy used to throw out a jug with a half cinder block on 1/4" line as soon as he saw good stuff with big arches on the paper graph. Then, he’d go upwind to anchor and then scope out or use the motor to cheat over until the fishing lines were going down to what the jug was marking. Today, with GPS, you don’t have to use a physical marker unless you will be diving it and need something to follow on the way down to good stuff. Mark your stuff on the GPS and then go into neutral so you can see at least which way your boat is going to drift from the wind. Then, anchor. If you don’t get it right the first time because of miscalculation or current that catches you when you are hooked tight on the anchor, then take note of your first anchor course and create a new GPS waypoint for where you want to drop your anchor and then let the same amount of anchor line out on the 2nd try so you will be sitting on top of the fish. If you don’t get it right, keep on trying it or you will be wasting time. It can get tough sometimes, but it is a matter of practice to get good at it; like backing a trailer or throwing a cast net. Also, understanding how to adjust your fish finder and interpret it will help you out more than anything bottom fishing. After a while, you’ll be able to predict what kind of fish you’ll catch in a given spot. So long as they cooperate.
