Another day in paradise…outside temp 70 water temp 68.5 winds ne 10-15, light chop with some 3-5 offshore bumpers
Fished nearshore structure in 22-28 ft of gin clear water on an incoming tide, 5 gag grouper, all in the 19-20 inch size, which meant a quick release, maybe by late winter if they eat well, they’ll be 22 inches. I’m using light spinning tackle with braided line, so the fish may be short, but they don’t lack attitude, think largemouth bass on steroids.
Since this was a scouting trip I hit several inshore reefs from 2 miles to 3.8 miles from the canal mouth, this structure is compliments of the Mexico beach artificial reef asso., most of it consists of concrete fish pyramids and I’m finding consistent grouper, most just short, and periodic redfish bites that are larger than the 27 inch slot….the redfish are starting to school in the bay, and these big bulls are hanging around larger pieces of structure, use live pinfish on a slider rig with just enough weight to get it to the bottom at drift. There were plenty of glass minnows in the bay and the bluefish were ripping em and some small sharks, since the water is down to 68 the Spanish macks have moved to warmer waters.
Its still over 70 degrees out around 20 miles so the kings and Spanish aren’t too far away yet…the next couple of weeks should be hot amberjack, kingfish and wahoo fishing offshore out to 40 miles, like I said, the deeper water is still warm.
