Bring extra water onboard, it is going to get HOT, and you don’t want to find yourself in need of water. Dehydration is real and happens fast. One gallon per person is the starting point.
Gag grouper fishing is really good, but can be frustrating, due to the abundance of red snapper. There are three choices. One, fish through the red snapper, and catch the occasional keeper gag, while gut-hooking and killing numerous red snapper in the process. That’s not a good option. Two, troll deep diving plugs, which separates the snapper from the grouper bite. That technique has been working well. Or, fish shallower, where the red snapper are less abundant.
Florida snapper and sea bass fishing has came back strong. The best catching of keepers is between forty and fifty feet. Any deeper, and you’ll run into the problem of catching red snapper. The bait is typically squid or cut bait. Many of the Fl snapper and sea bass caught recently, have been exceptionally large. For more fun, scale down the tackle.
Trout and red fish are being brought back to the docks with regularity. I don’t have the 411 on any particular bait or color, so I’d go with the best bait you have, confidence.
Cobia–my favorite fish—are being caught all around me, to my chagrin. I fish the best baits, at the best locales, only to slink away empty, or with a tale of woe as the fish escaped in some marine Houdini-fashion. Then someone, using a hand-me-down push button reel, with the original line regale, “I was drifting along trout fishing, when this fish swam up to the boat and swallowed my jig. It wiggled a little, but then I stuffed it, as best I could, in my trout net and pulled it into the boat. It weighed forty-six pounds at the marina, and the fella told me it was a cobia.” In the meanwhile, I’m running around in need, like a Democrat in search of a support-puppy, and I got nothing to show. Life ain’t fair, but I’m happy for that guy. Now, back to the empathy tent.
Don’t forget those succulent little bivalves that cause the youngest to the oldest to get off the sofa, and into the pristine estuaries off of Steinhatchee, for a big-kid’s easter egg hunt! Scallops are abundant and the season will be in full swing by the time you read this.
Thank you to the men and women that have given their alls for our freedom!