Yes, everyone wants to catch a grouper, or three, but you should be prepared—tackle-wise—to come home with “the groceries.”
One way to accomplish this is to keep a beeliner/triggerfish rig ready on a rod and to have someone willing to use it when you get on the right mark. Not all big stacks of bait on the recorder are beeliners and triggerfish, but get accustomed to it and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you’re looking at. The bigger species of the reef complex tend hang out under a big stack of bait, like cigar minnows, sardines, beeliners, etc. But the truth of the matter is, what you might be looking for is near the top of the stack.
For example, the larger beeliners might sometimes be the first taps you get on your jig as it drops toward the bottom. When I’m grouper fishing, I fish a revolving spool reel rather than a spinning reel for several reasons. The main reason is so I can feel the bait as it drops. If you feel the bait on the jig getting tapped on the way down, understand that you’re in beeliners, triggers and/or American reds. At that point, it’s up to you to capitalize or just continue to grouper fish for grouper only. If you choose to do it, you can load up on some pretty tasty groceries by sizing down your tackle.
I take a 5-lb. box of squid on every trip offshore for a number of reasons, but this is one of the main reasons. Using a small 1/0 circle hook, double tackle and a 2- or 3-oz. bank sinker, you can harvest grouper bait and dinners deluxe. I count the strips it takes to get to the fish. This is also where multi-colored line can come into play. Drop your bait down to the same color where they were hitting, and then start a very slow descent.
These fish like to eat bait as it falls. When you feel the tap or the bait just stops falling, click the reel into gear and let the circle hook do its work. When you get them working upward in the water column, keep them going. If you stop catching them, you’ll see the top of the mark start working it’s way back closer to the bottom. The top of the school is typically where the larger fish will be, especially the triggerfish. Triggers are hard to catch on the grouper jigs, but smaller circle hooks are deadly on these crafty bait stealers.
I always anchor to grouper/bottom fish. This style of teasing beeliners and triggers up toward the surface only works from a stationary boat, not drifting.
Check out videos on rigging and using double-circle-hook tackle at barefootcatsandtackle.com.