Deeper water has brought us the best offshore action this past week for the grouper and amberjack. Gag grouper, scamp grouper and amberjack are all more prolific and easier to catch the deeper you go. Up to around 280-300ft of water we are finding the jacks, gags and scamp biting well. Once you get closer to 150ft of water it gets much more difficult to find cooperative jacks, gags and scamp. The red grouper on the other hand can be found as shallow as 90-100ft and were finding them best around 120-160ft of water. The red grouper are tough though and we aren’t catching them like we did 5-10 years ago, but you can find em if you stick and move around the potholes and ledges out around these depths with live pinfish, strips of cut squid or octopus for bait. Mangrove snapper action is going well for us, this past weekend was one of the best mangrove snapper bites we have had in a long while. With the transitional period in full swing with the days getting shorter and things starting to cool down the fish are showing some excitement and aggression unlike we have seen through the hot summer time period. Those gag grouper will be moving closer to shore slowly as the cold fronts start rolling through and getting more aggressive as they start moving inshore. Jacks will become more concentrated and more aggressive as well. We see them mangrove snapper spread out a bit but the average size on those great eating fish seems to increase quite a bit with cooler temps too! All exciting things to come as we transition into the ‘cooler months’ and were looking forward to a great fall fishery for a few weeks.
Plus, we have been seeing some nice pelagic action offshore right now! We have caught some beautiful big mahi mahi this past week out in deeper waters around 150+ foot of water. They will swim up on us while were bottom fishing for grouper and snapper. You got to have a light tackle pitch rod ready with a bare hook and 30lb test floro leader to bait up with a piece of threadfin or live shrimp. However, I like using a gotcha plug or a buck tail style jig to cast out to them and retrieve quickly past their strike zone! Remember, once you hook one keep it in the water this will keep the school next to the boat while you are able to hook a second. Then remove the first one and leave the second one in the water next to the boat until you hook a third. You can repeat this process for quite a while before they catch on or someone pulls the fish holding the school near the boat out of the water unfortunately. Besides the mahi we have been seeing quite a few nice kingfish on the trolling lures or the flat lines. Also, a few blackfin tuna have been caught from time to time mainly on the flat lines at night time during our 39 or 44 hour trips.
