Gulf of Mexico, FL reef fishing.
Posted on January 16th, 2014
After working the Toronto Boat Show this past weekend, it was nice to be back in Florida and to get out on the water the first time this year with my wife Barbara and our pup Mulligan. Air temperatures were in the 70’s, winds were light, & even though they were calling for rain we headed out about 5-miles into the Gulf of Mexico to try and catch some tasty fish for dinner.

Both Barb & I hooked lot’s of fish including snapper, small grouper and a variety of chunky grunts & sheepshead which are both excellent eating. Barbara even hooked a nice trigger fish!

We caught all of our fish using the Rapala freshwater rods equipped with Rapala freshwater reels, Sufix 832 braid/Sufix Fluorocarbon leaders and Gamakatsu Circle Hooks fishing in 40′ of water and using live shrimp.
We used the Humminbird 800 series sonar with hydrographic charts to locate the reef, and because we had calm seas, we also used the Minn Kota Rip Tide 80 thrusts AP electric to stay on the reef and to move around so we covered more water!
Temperatures are dropping again today and they are calling for lows in the 30-40F range over the next couple of nights. We think we will wait for it to warm up before we head out again.