Grouper Bite is On in the Keys

[drichitt]

The fishing continues to be as expected off Marathon. Cooler temps have slowed some types of fishing (mostly snapper) but the grouper fishing has been awesome; well of course it has since you can't keep them right now.

Bought a pinfish trap and that has produced one of the best baits for catching grouper. I love livelining rock but hooking up a grouper is a whole different game. We have had a couple fish that made quick time of our lighter gear and we never had a chance. We plan to step it up with some heavier gear in the coming days but for now we are having some non-stop action days.

Not able to catch the amount of pinfish that I would like to have but we have found that livelining ballyhoo is just as good. If you pick the right place on a reef you will have hundreds of ballyhoo at the back of the boat moments after the frozen chum block hits the water. My wife Dawn enjoys some down time catching them one at a time with a small #14 hook baited with a small piece of squid, but a cast net is the quickest method. The ones caught using a cast net seem to be more 'shell-shocked' though.

Larry (Thrillseeker) and his buddy Robert arrived this past week in Larry's RV and are staying nearby at an RV park. We have had some pretty good days both near-shore and out on the reef. Here are some recent pics:







Plan is to get offshore the next two days as we have a nice break in the weather with the forecasted winds to lay down a bit. Larry is a big time offshore troller and he brought a bunch of his gear down. Hope the sailfish and dolphin are as cooperative as the grouper and snapper have been.