Gulf of Mexico, FL Snook and Grunt fishing.
Posted on January 7th, 2014I took advantage of the calm seas today and rising tide after 12 noon and headed out to one of the farther reefs in the Gulf of Mexico to see if I could catch a variety of bottom fish. The last couple of weeks have been windy with cold fronts moving through and few people ventured out more than 3-miles in the Gulf to fish. Today I traveled about 6-miles out.
I was using a drop-shot rig with a 1 oz. bell sinker, Gamakatsu Octypus hook, Rapala rods and Rapalareels, Sufix 832 braid and Sufix Fluorocarbon leaders. I fished in about 40′ of water using live shrimp. The fishing was steady with the main fish being caught good size Grunts. I saw a boat next to me land a couple of Pompano which are one of the nicest eating fish you can catch in the Gulf just fishing reefs.
I had some excitement when I hooked a significantly larger fish which turned out to be about a 7-8 lb. Snook. The fight got interesting as I was fighting it due to a 200-300 lb. Goliath Grouper inhaling it head-first. If you take a close look at the fish in the image you can see where all the scales were roughed-up on both sides of it’s body near the tail. I was not going to let the Goliath Grouper eat the Snook, after all, the Snook season is closed. After a lengthy fight, the Grouper let it go, I landed the Snook, took a quick picture, and revived it until it swam away.
As you can see, we will be having a fresh fish dinner….again! Look like another cold front is moving through and the temperatures are predicted to dip in the 40F range be Tues., which is cold for south-west Florida. I think golfing sounds good for the next few days until the weather settles down again!
