by Capt. Bart Marx
Hello Fellow Anglers, November has once again rolled around. This is to me, the month you start preparing for lots of family time. Yea, with Thanksgiving and Christmas lurking over the horizon it helps us get focused on the most important thing, spending time with family. This is the month that I like to start trolling for gag grouper; as the water cools down they tend to move closer to shore. I have learned that a deep diving lure will attract these fish and they will come up to attack a lure ten to fifteen feet if the water is clear. Something I have learned is that salt water is corrosive to stainless steel downrigger wire. Doing some research, the kingfish guys use braided line as it is thinner and salt water has minimal effect on it. Thinner means less resistance so your weight stays down better and while some wires hum, braid is pretty quiet. With a downrigger you can run more than one line off the same weight, called stacking lines. This way you may fish the whole water column. While you are pulling these lures over some good bottom, you may find a cobia, black fin tuna, or amberjacks in search of a meal. Most of all, make sure you have your eyes glued to the fish finder. This is a great time to find a spot to go back later and bottom fish with some squid, sardines, and shrimp that will draw a quick bite if they are there. I like to do a drop without the anchor deployed first so if you don’t get slammed quickly you may want to look a little better as to find the best spot closest to your findings. Make a good mark and get the anchor ready for some fun. This is when you cut up some squid, sardines, and shrimp. Each angler uses a different bait to see what the fish want. There could be porgies, triggers, lanes, mangroves, red and gag grouper depending on how far offshore you travel. If you are in federal waters past the nine-mile mark, you may harvest ten mangrove snapper with a twelve inch minimum. If you plan to go out, make sure you know where you are and what the regulations are. I like to take the family out to spend time with them on the water making memories and harvesting some fish for a fish fry for the relatives. I know there are some of you out there that have family that come from out of town to visit. Feel free to make it a family annual treat to go fishing with Capt. Bart Marx and have fresh fish while they are visiting.