If you have the patience to hunt these guys down, I will offer up the same great strategy that seems to work for me. To start off, I utilize medium lite to medium size fishing rods–our “weapons of choice” are Star Rods. I prefer a 10 to 15-pound rod rating, but you can go with whatever you have the most confidence in. As usual, the line of choice is 15-pound Daiwa J- Braid attached to a 20-pound fluorocarbon leader. What I feel is the most critical component of my setup is the use of a ¼-ounce jig head. The jig heads of preference are from Highwater Fishing Lures–their hooks are very sharp.
Now that we talked about the setup, let’s get to how to find them. I’m going to suggest you search around the Skyway area for the natural bottom–there’s no need to look for the biggest rock pile. I tend to have my biggest rate of success when I fish the beginnings and ends of each tide. When fishing these areas and using this type of rig, you will also hook up with a fair amount of mangrove snapper and Key West grunts. The water depth I am looking to fish in is 25 to 30-feet. Save yourself some of your hard-earned money–there is no need to buy the biggest shrimp at the bait shop to catch these guys. Regular or hand-picked shrimp work just fine for this application, but make sure you bring plenty of them. As a rule of thumb, I typically make sure to bring 15 dozen shrimp for my clients when I’m running a four-hour charter.
So, when you’re out there hoggin’, try to bring a 4/0 reel lined with 80-pound test and matched with a stout rod. You’re going to want to drop a 3 to 5-ounce sinker (depending on the current) to the bottom with a dead bait. My personal favorite here is to have a butterflied Key West grunt attached to the business end. Make sure you lock the drag down and then simply set it in a rod holder. You just may happen to pull up a nice red grouper or a possibly a nice gag grouper. If you put these tips to use, you’ll set yourself up for some great cool weather fishing and some of the best tasting fish you can get!