Guided some regular clients, Brett and Bryan Enabnit, this morning. They asked to do something a little different today as they have mastered the legal redfish, speckled trout, sight fishing for legal/over-sized redfish, pompano and flounder with me in the past. Today’s request was bay grouper. I quickly admitted that they may have a more productive day with other inshore guides, namely Matt, Chris and anyone else with Hot Spots Charters. I am no expert in bottom fishing especially in our bays. They talked me into it, packed the Penn 6/0 and struggled to put together a plan. Met at first light and looked for some menhaden and medium-sized mullet. Found plenty but it would have been much easier if I was more skilled at throwing a castnet. Maybe it’s because my net is 12′ and weighs a ton. Anyway, actually threw a ton of livebait into my well normally reserved for 27″ redfish. Another problem is that I don’t have a bottomfinder on the Hewes 21 Redfisher, only a GPS chart but I know the general areas where I might find some grouper. Began a series of drifts and started getting some big bites. Each bite was plotted on my GPS and we returned a few times to pull some nice grouper off of each small spot. Caught tons of legal snapper and some large redfish as well. Quite a few breakoffs on huge baits. Ended up with 7 grouper but only kept as many as they could eat in the next few evenings. A very fun trip and I learned that a bottomfinder would be a great addition to the Hewes. Today we used Penn 6/0 reels with Penn 50-80Lb. Slammers, 60z. lead with 5′ 60# fluoro leaders and a circle hook. Most fish caught on the mid-sized mullet. I think a few more trips of this natural are in Redfish U’s future. Thanks, E Holstman
Please click an image to enlarge.
