Gulf Fishing 35 miles offshore on Friday

[NPR_Scott]

With the calm conditions and the first couple of mild cold fronts behind us, I could not resist hitting some old numbers I have 35 miles off the coast of Port Richey, FL. I can tell you 35 miles is the absolute max I would take a 19' boat offshore, and some may think it's a little reckless. My boat has an EPIRB and radio, and it ran great the whole trip. Seas were flat calm and the grouper bite is on. My dog and I enjoyed the trip, and have some grouper meat.

Since I haven't posted any photos yet I'll also include a few from the barrier islands and scalloping.

I purchased this from a seller I found on this forum, and I am really enjoying my FSH 190. For a 19' boat it fishes really nice without tripping over things (except my dog!).

 

[Hannibal]

Man I'm jealous! Thirty five is a good stretch no doubt. We've had ours about 10 miles out of Clearwater Pass in <2ft seas. The 190FSH felt kind of small but did fine. Wife got tired of bouncing and rocking and I didn't disagree so we came on back in. We have a Garmin 741sx and Standard Horizon VHF radio. The EPIRB in on the wish list as is a hand held VHF radio. This is my first boat in almost 40 years so I'm still getting my feet wet and feeling some butterflies about what I'm not sure of or familiar with yet like the old SeaRay never happened. Looks like some good eatin' and a good time too. Love the beach pic! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bruce]

Can you tell us about how you caught the grouper? My wife @Rana loves grouper and wants to catch one while we are in Bimini. We have a Penn Levelwind 309 combo with 65 pound braid. For the past two years we have planned to chum for yellow tail then put a small wounded one on a big hook with a big sinker and see if we could hook a grouper. But the one time we actually chummed the trigger and yellow tail were biting our smaller tackle so fast we never got around to trying for the big fish.

 

[NPR_Scott]

Man I'm jealous! Thirty five is a good stretch no doubt. We've had ours about 10 miles out of Clearwater Pass in <2ft seas. The 190FSH felt kind of small but did fine. Wife got tired of bouncing and rocking and I didn't disagree so we came on back in. We have a Garmin 741sx and Standard Horizon VHF radio. The EPIRB in on the wish list as is a hand held VHF radio. This is my first boat in almost 40 years so I'm still getting my feet wet and feeling some butterflies about what I'm not sure of or familiar with yet like the old SeaRay never happened. Looks like some good eatin' and a good time too. Love the beach pic! Thanks for sharing.

I would never want to encourage anyone to take a single engine boat out 35 miles, and it is a long way out for this boat. I remember the days of owning a large 34' Venture 34 with twin 300s. In a larger twin engine boat, you can run out in a tight weather window. I was confident running this far out because it was flat calm and forecast for 3 straight days to stay the same, so if I broke down it was going to stay calm waiting for SeaTow. And yes, I had both a VHF and an EPIRB.

By all means, make that EPIRB priority 1...even 5 miles offshore. It seems like nearly every tragedy you read about at sea could have been prevented with an EPIRB.

Thanks for your comment and hope you and your wife enjoy your boat.

 

[NPR_Scott]

Can you tell us about how you caught the grouper? My wife @Rana loves grouper and wants to catch one while we are in Bimini. We have a Penn Levelwind 309 combo with 65 pound braid. For the past two years we have planned to chum for yellow tail then put a small wounded one on a big hook with a big sinker and see if we could hook a grouper. But the one time we actually chummed the trigger and yellow tail were biting our smaller tackle so fast we never got around to trying for the big fish.

Sure, it's really basic. It was my first time out in a long time and I just grabbed what I had on hand from years ago. It was a fairly light set-up for grouper. Penn 500 reels with 70# mono using 5 oz bullet sinkers with swivels. Just tie the line onto the weight and use the other swivel to tie off your leader. I only used 50# fluorocarbon for my leader. I used 5/o Owner circle hooks (those were new). Although a light set-up, it was stout enough to turn the groupers and get them up into the water column and out of structure.

For bait, very simple. Just go to the tackle shop and buy frozen greenbacks. I took 2 pounds of greenies with me but if it was a full day trip I'd have 4 or 5 pounds. Grouper love them. I like to put a little slice in the bait to get the juices going. They were hitting it as soon as it hit the bottom. This time of year, just find some good hard bottom. Best of luck.

 

[Bruce]

Thanks Scott, great info. I think that next year we will drop the grouper bait to the bottom before we start trying for the yellow tail.

Will grouper go after squid? We normally carry a supply of squid for bait and feeding the rays.

 

[Hannibal]

The last time out with my cousins on their boats, a SeaHunt 225 Triton and Mako 25, we used squid. We were getting hits with every drop. I learned to pull the bait back up from the bottom about 2' to keep the grouper from racing back to their hiding hole and losing my rig. Still got hits but I was reeling them in instead of tying on new rigs.
I agree on single engine off shore. We'll be going out with at least one other boat when we go out grouper fishing. Cousin's Mako has two 150 Mercs. I'd love to have a new Mako 234 with twin Mercs.

 

[NPR_Scott]

Agreed, grouper will hit squid. They'll hit about anything if they're hungry. Live bait it always great but if they're feeding they'll hit squid, shrimp, sardines, etc. I like the sardine greenbacks because they are a perfect size bait and the grouper seem to love them. If I was more patient I'd go chum up some sardines inshore and throw a net on them.

Hannibal....good point about "buddy boating." Next time that far out, even in great weather, I'll ask around to see if anyone is going to be in the area. It's a nice safety net to have.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Groupers will hit anything when hungry and the rule of thumb is that the bigger the bait, the bigger the catch. My local groupers will usually hit on frozen pin fish(white/silver 6-8"), squid and any meat in chunks. The key is to find some bottom cover where the hide. Use your smaller snappers and other bait fish you'll catch while seeking the big guys as bait.

 

[Bruce]

@Murf'n'surf, you will have to bring your son and show us how to do it!

 

[Murf'n'surf]

@Murf'n'surf, you will have to bring your son and show us how to do it!

Gonna have to work on that passport.

 

[Scottintexas]

Grouper is Good! my son caught one, a 28" record for the season at the boy scout camp in the keys, it was even better because after a day of deep sea fishing you spend the night on an island in tents with no electricty and eat all the fish you caught, we have grouper, mahi and somekind of tuna (maybe tuny)