By Capt. Bart Marx
Hello fellow anglers. This is a great time of year to target red grouper. The natural migration for the reds is to come closer to shore as the water temperatures of the gulf rise. The gag grouper migrates to deeper waters when the waters heat up. Something that has carried over for years in my tackle box is, we bring plenty of frozen baits, squid, sardines, etcetera for bottom fishing. We would stop in an area where we knew you could catch squirrelfish or aka sand perch. We like to catch about three or four dozen of these baits, some you may hook them wrong they will not live. These are the ones you throw in the frozen bait box for later, as you use them for cut bait. When you have what you think is enough, then you travel out to the spot to target grouper. Some anglers like to drift, it can be very productive if you have some hard bottom spots large enough to get this job done. Depending on the wind/current as to how much weight you need to use to keep your bait on bottom. This is different too if you anchor up on a spot to fish. I have shared in the past that I like to use frozen or dead baits to get a bite started, frozen squid or squirrelfish chunks or sardines that come frozen from the bait shop. If you have live squirrelfish or pinfish that you have caught with a net or white bait, this is when you start using the live ones. And if you have a good supplier of live shrimp, they are great too. As a rule, the red grouper like dead baits, as they are more a scavenger, unlike the gags they prefer live baits. But you need to know they both will eat both dead and live baits. Most of this type of fishing I use thirty to fifty-pound class rigs. Note, if you are not getting many bites and you see fish on the bottom machine, drop your leader size . If you carry a little larger rod for a bonus rod, you can put a six or eight-ounce weight and hang a bait straight down. This is where you use one of your live squirrelfish for bait, hook it in the tail and keep it up a couple of feet from the bottom. Make sure your rod holder can take a large fish pulling down, trying to get back in the structure you are fishing. This is a great way to get the gags to bite, they like the live ones.