Offshore this month, our key players are Red Grouper, Amberjack, Mangrove Snapper, Cobia, Scamps and Black Fin Tuna. Spring is starting up with the influx of bait fish and previews of the Pelagic run. Cobia, King Fish, Spanish Mackerel, Bonita (a/k/a Little Tuna, False Albacore) and a variety of sharks including Black Tips & Spinners will be following the vast schools of bait closer to shore. On the wrecks, there will be lots of Amberjacks, Snappers, Cobia, a few Grouper and Barracudas. And don’t tell anyone but world class Permit will be showing up, too! You got to catch the crabs for them!
Back to our bread and butter – Red Grouper and Mangrove Snapper. We catch them all year long, but the Red Grouper are really hot right now as they are getting ready to spawn. Most of our full day trips we are coming in with our limit with Fire Trucks (Red Grouper) from 10 to 25 lb. Range. Capt. Larry’s tip for your trophy grouper is to look for hard bottom or “Swiss Cheese” as the locals call it. Start out in depths 100 ft. to 170 ft. with 150 ft. my backyard and favorite depth. Most of the time, dead smelly baits like Sardines & Squid work best but I also use large live baits like Pin Fish, Grunts, Sand Perch, etc. To find the fish, look for bait shows then anchor on them and fish right on the bottom. On calm days, you can drift for them, when you hook up, mark it on your GPS and/or throw out a buoy marker and go back and fish it. There you go! Tearing it up! That is how you find your Grouper; and the Snapper are usually living in the same house!
Black fin Tuna are going off 60 miles out to the middle grounds and the Elbow right now but as the spring heats up, they will be hanging out on the wrecks 15 to 30 miles out. Also, attacking bait schools with other Pelagics. They can’t resist a free lined live bait on 25 lb. test but will hit a chunked sardine or trolled lure, like a skirted Ballyhoo or Gold Bomber.
Always keep an eye out around the boat as a curious Cobia may swim up and want to crash the party! Don’t be a party pooper! Be ready to entertain surprise guests. Always loosen your drag before hooking up one of these brown bombers, as they will freak out when hooked at the boat and run! We have caught many of these near the boat this way.
Unless there is a late season cold front, look close to the beach for King Fish, Spanish Mackerel and Cobia. The major spring King run could start up any time. We just had the late fall run in January until the first cold front moved them south. From the fall to early January we were catching all you wanted up to about 40 lbs. All we were doing was anchoring up on a piece of hard bottom or ledge in the 40 – 70-foot range offshore Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key, catching grouper and snapper, then deploying a flat line with a cigar minnow, blue runner or sardine and placing the rod in a rod holder. We would place a chum block over the side and wait for the hit! At times, I have had guests ask me how would we know if we have a bite? You will know! The Rod will bend and the line will scream off the loud drag. Then we’ll do the Chinese fire drill, pulling in all the bottom fishing rods so our angler can fight his smoker kings without tangling up the lines going around the boat a few times. Pure Mayhem! When this run is in full swing, chumming wasn’t necessary as they were already there! We would cast out a variety of lures like King spoons, and bomber lures. They would hit in about 15 seconds! We were even breaking out some of our least favorite lures, tying on about an 8” of 60-80 lb. coffee colored steel leader (piano wire) and small black swivel, tying to 25 lb. mono with a reel holding 400 yards so we can reach out and touch somebody for the long sizzling runs! No need to troll … let them come to us!
I love to share techniques and strategies on how to catch more with everyone. My goal is to help anglers improve their game. As I help others it creates greater mojo and our catches continually increase!
Thanks,
Capt. Larry McGuire
SHOW ME THE FISH CHARTERS
Cell: (941) 720-6475
website www.captlarrymcguire.blogspot.com
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Operating out of the Bradenton Beach Marina
402 Church Avenue, Bradenton, FL 34217