RED (grouper) OCTOBER

10.21.10
Tide: very low to high tide (full moon)
Water: mid to hi 70's very clear
wind: N 15 mph to 5 mph late
2 footers leveling off to calm late

Me and my Broski Doug headed out to try and chase down some grouper and try and get our lines stretched.
The day started out very choppy with winds blowing form the north.  We had hopes that if we kind of wandered out slowly the winds would lay, so the weather report said.  (And they were right for once)!
We headed out to 2 flat with the idea to try a couple of drifts and get whatever would bite, and some pinfish.  I was hoping for some bull reds, but Doug hooked up on two nice spanish.

I managed a few pinfish.

We headed over to Rotary reef, but could only manage a few small rockies while trolling.

As the water tried to calm down, I figured we could start heading out to the big water. We decided to try and head out to the spot Nancy and I slayed them a couple of weeks ago.

As we approached the area of the 26 marker, I knew that we weren't gonna venture out to the really big water today, as the water was pretty rough for the Nan Z.

So, I headed east to a few places I had on the ol' GPS.
We started at my place I call "Coral" and caught a bunch of small rockies, one keeper.

Next was a slow troll towards "Yank Wreck".  Got a couple more rockies. We trolled over the wreck and I could see fish on the fish finder, but no takers.

We got up on the wreck and as soon as we let our baits down, it was on.
Red (grouper) October indeed.

We caught them as fast as we could get our bait down.  Grouper after grouper coming aboard for a look.  We caught some that had already eaten our baits. Adding insult to us, they would spit them up in the boat.

Doug with The Biggest Red of the Day

As the bite died there, we moved to our "good" hole about a 1 1/2 away and again. We were led there by a group of 4 dolphins that swam along with us. As soon as we got down, fish were coming up.

Again the red grouper were tearing it up.

We also caught a few gags and blacks during the day, but the reds led the way.

We had a beautiful ride back to the hill as the wind layed and seas turned calm.  We were watching all of the Monarch butterflies heading to Mexico.
On the ride home, we saw probably a hundred of them.

Doug got to go home with a cooler full of grouper and rock bass.  He did leave a few for me and Nancy.  He's a nice brother.