Mccallister

The gulf coast of Florida delivers some of the best grouper fishing around. The Gulf has pretty calm water most of the year (except for our new 11 month latest hurricane season). The gear is fairly simple: a relatively stout rod, I say pretty stout simply because you don�t want your rod as well stiff because this will impact the action it has on the bait�more on this later. I use 40lb line on the reel with a 100lb shock leader, and about an eight/ hook. I like to use reside bait for grouper fishing but some favor jigs, spoons, and even heavy grade trolling lures.

After gear, guests, and boat are ready we require to catch some bait. I like to use the �junk� fish that you catch when bottom fishing with smaller rigs. Blue runners, sand perch, lizard fish, etc� Grouper are not true picky eaters when it comes to reside bait. Yes, they do have favorites like something else that eats, but the fish talked about above will work excellent. I begin my day with a piece of a big squid, about the size of you open hand is normally sufficient. I like to use large squid since it is tougher and stays on the hook much better. Check you nearby fish market for availability.

We head out and stop about the 45� location and start off seeking for our bait. Most of the time there are no clear indicators of where the bait is, you just have to maintain attempting till you have some luck. The bait we are looking for is holding on the bottom most of the time unless you can find some sardines in the region, then attempt a Sabaki rig or some thing comparable. Cut your squid into small strips and send it to the bottom and see if any modest bait fish are going cooperate with your plans. Unless you have a favored region to catch bait, you may have to move about till you begin getting bites. We typically move about 300-500 feet each move till the bait begins biting.

Immediately after you get a couple dozen baitfish in the livewell head on out to your fishing location. Ours is about the one hundred foot mark and is a series of GPS marks in a 3-5 mile square area. If we do not get a bite in 20-30 minutes or so we will move on to an additional GPS mark in the area, (and no, I will not give you my GPS #�s)�sorry!

audiologist

This article is continued in part II.