# GROUPERS! on the Reel Finatical (Friday 12/19)



## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

7am - Scott woke up, peeped out the door & it was foggy. So he said we ain't fishing & went to playing his PS2.

9am - He looks out the door again & it's SUNNY. HOT DAMN! lol We get going around 10am, shedding layers before we even got to the ramp a few minutes behind Sailor50 (I think that was him). 

Took the rollers in the Inlet & kept heading slowly out to our spot in steep/stacked 2' seas. We stopped along the way to pick up some live baits off the bottom. 

Anchored on the natural bottom, 110' of water, & Scott hooks into a red snapper and small red grouper at the same time on "homemade circle hook sabikis". Then I put down a half alive half dead squirrelfish & go over to put down rig #2 (we fish 2 rods a piece on our boat). I get fish on #2 and then I glance over and my #1 is bent over! I yell for some help from Scott. I gave him the lighter hookup in my hand & I took control of my big one.  Up comes a FAT Red Grouper that was 20LBs on the scales! It upchucked a tomtate so I picked it up & put it on the hook & sent it down. Not 5 minutes later got another 11LB Grouper! 

Well to make a long story short, there were PLENTY NICE GROUPER out there today!! They were killing every small to medium live & dead whole bait we put down. We also caught a few 14" Triggers but we didn't want to keep any. 

Since it's just the 2 of us in our house, we brought home 2 fish total & let the rest go for someone else to enjoy. (Even with those 2 fish we gave away a whole bag of filets to our neighbor too.) 

Arrived back on the hill at 4 & one of our neighbors (John) stopped in & helped clean and filet the Grouper. He showed us how to cut out the cheeks and throat to eat. (I woulda never thought of eating those! lol). Nice fella.

GREAT DAY ON THE WATER TODAY! We both have nice Christmas sunburns. 

PS - Scott, sorry I outfished you today, lmao.=) 

I have a bunch of pictures but here are some of the better fish:

Starting the day:






















































A big boat backed up to the East Jetty fishing, lol


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## Private Pilot (Oct 3, 2007)

Thats awesome! Nice job:bowdown


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## parrothead (Oct 1, 2007)

Great report Amanda !!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing. Those grouper will cook up reeeeeel good. With just those two fish you kept, you'll probably be still giving fish away. Nice pictures to. Looks like Scott got out fished AGAIN !!!!!!!

Scott


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## recess (Oct 8, 2007)

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Nice groupers and good job catching some live bait. It was smart of Scott not to leave until the fog cleared and the seas settled down. Also Amanda congrat on being the GROUPER MASTER today LOL. Gene


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## Stressless (Oct 2, 2007)

Great post and pics - Can't wait to get out!



Stressless


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

Nice catchin. Keep em comin.


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## rauber (Oct 10, 2007)

awesome job! was that jack an amberine? 

captain kirk and his ss enterprise didnt even make it out of the jetties:doh


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

> *rauber (12/20/2008)*awesome job! was that jack an amberine?




They looked like Banded Rudderfish to me (reference: http://www.halfhitch.com/fishdefault.asp?fishID=50 & http://www.identicards.com/allaboutsaltwaterfish/species.asp?fish=Banded rudderfish ) - -They were slender & long, white tips on their tails, just not quite like AJs or Amberines. (Anyone correct me if you know something I am missing.)



They were swimming around in a school of at least 100 all day yesterday, under the boat, around the boat. We caught a bunch throwing shiny jigs out, but we quit messing with them because they were so bloody! =(



not the best pics in the world:


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## Sailor50 (Nov 8, 2007)

Nice fish, I should have followed you guys as I came back with nothing.Guess that was me you saw at Joes Bayou around 1000. Planned on just checking out some new spots plus wanted to try for some grouper. However, had some GPSproblems and didnt want to come back in any fog without one so decided not to get too far away. Headed to the SSW, checking outspots on the way. For bait I got some Tomtates, a squirrel fish,plus this sea robin, never got one before. (Did not use him for bait, scared to touch it)But no fish other than red snappers. 



















Found one new site that produced some good red snapper (what doesnt now) but no grouper. Only made it out about 11 miles, 100 feet, guess I need to go deeper for the grouper.

Wasnt feeling that good toward the end of the day (Itend to get sea sick) and headed back in toJoes bayou around sunset. 



















Saw you all working on your boat,was going to come over and say hello but my wife said i was late and needed to get home - next time. Again, nice fish.


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## pogypumper (Mar 24, 2008)

Good to see the grouper have finally moved in from the tall water. It appears they were a little late this year.

Thanks for the report.


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

Sailor, those are some awesome shots you took. I like the close up of the sea robin - all the colors in its eye - very cool looking!


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## PompNewbie (Oct 1, 2007)

nice post amanda ... very sweet grouper!:clap


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## still flippen (Oct 6, 2007)

:bowdown:bowdown Back to back "fat boys". Congrats on the fine catch. That red grouper looks as round as a basketball


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Thats a fatty red grouper there! I hope we get some good ones down in the keys next week.


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## need2fish (Oct 2, 2007)

Nice Groupers! Thanks for the report and pics


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