There was a time in my life that we took certain things for granted. For example, no limits and/or seasons on speckled trout, drum, flounder, and especially GROUPER! There are two words I never thought I would say in the same sentence: “grouper” and “season.” Never mind, I’m just venting because I prefer bottom fishing and light lining above all other types/styles of offshore fishing.
I went thru this last year about this time, but I’ll tell it again for those who might have missed it. It’s how I start every location we anchor or post up with the Rhodan.
Note: We take two boxes of squid on every trip and typically have live pinfish from the marina.
I typically have 3 or 4 folks with me on every trip. We start by firing down the whole squid on the jig while I’m on the sabiki, jigging up whatever is on the bottom below us. I don’t care what is coming up on the squid, as this is not the main focus. The real objective is setting a nice “chum slick” on the bottom to attract the fish you’re fishing for. After 4 or 5 rounds of the (whole) frozen squid, we will fire down live pinfish and whatever I’ve jigged up on the sabiki.
The other advantage of fishing a live pinfish, grass grunt, sailor’s choice, or whatever you can jig up as it eliminates the trash bites. In addition to eliminating the trash bites from small snapper, seabass, and other “undesirables,” it sets the psychological warfare stage as the gags, scamps, and reds cannot digest all that is happening here. To them, it appears the live baits are running around picking up squid pieces, and the (squid or crab) decoy jigs have caught them, and the live bait is struggling to get away. That’s when they can’t figure it out and can’t take it anymore, and BAM!!! The Bite Happens. This scenario is the difference between “bottom fishing” and coming home with a box of “bottom fish” and GROUPER fishing and coming home with grouper. Another bait that’s a dead ringer for a grouper bite is butterflied bait.
The butterflied bait on the bottom does the same thing as the squid … the small snapper and other smaller fish will hammer the filets until the grouper has had enough of it. You will feel the small fish biting it constantly, but the small “pecking” bites will suddenly stop. Get ready, and don’t move it, the grouper has moved in, and everyone else has to leave because it’s time for the real bite!
Enough about the bottom. I occasionally troll for a LITTLE WHILE, but this would be to accomplish two things simultaneously. First, catch a fish or two and locate the best part of any given ledge with lots of bait/fish on the bottom. When we find the bait, reel in the troll baits and get to work! Everything you catch trolling, you can catch on the light line while you’re grouper fishing. Tuna, dolphin, and wahoo are idiots for a big fat (live) greenie, sardine, cigar minnow, or goggle eye out behind the boat in the current.
SALTWATER TACKLE YOU MAY WANT TO TRY:
7/0 and 11/0 J-Hook Chin Weights: Target fish include Tuna, Wahoo, Mahi or Common Dolphin, King Mackerel, Wahoo, and more. Easy to rig!
4 oz. Crab Decoy Jig: Target fish for Striped Bass, nearshore Drum, Snook, Grouper, west coast bottom fish, and more.
4 oz. Tuna Squid Decoy Jig: From the eastern, western, Alaskan, and gulf coasts, target fish include: Tuna, Dolphin, Wahoo, Fluke, Flounder, Striped Bass, Seabass, Amberjack (east coast), Yellow Tail (west coast), California White Sea Bass (west coast), Grouper, Snapper, Halibut, Ling cod, and all Alaskan bottom fish.
8 oz. - 12 oz. 10/0 Squid Decoy Jig: Catch BIG Grouper, Amberjack, Giant Stripers, and more.
