Captain's Report - August 17, 2003
by Capt. Dave Mistretta
Anglers must mix it up a bit during this heated month of August.
Grouper fishing is quite active in the shallower depths of fifty to sixty feet, but legal size fish are minimal. Pick.pick.pick... that's the only way anglers can come home with a few keepers. Troll the wrecks for barracuda to start the day off. Once the rods have been bent for a bit, go do something else. Mangrove snapper are quite willing to grab a small horse minnow or live shrimp if presented during the moving part of the tide. A recent night trip last week produced dozens of these tasty fin fish within the first hour of the incoming tide.
Spanish mackerel are everywhere eating with ferocious appetites. Small fry baits are schooling in depths up to sixty feet providing great light tackle action. These smaller cousins to the kingfish make much better table fare and are quite thrilling on some ultra light tackle (6 to 8 pound line).
Another fish we've been targeting is the largest member of the grouper family, the goliath grouper. This mammoth-sized bottom dweller possesses an endless appetite owning all the local wrecks. Just about any fish hooked in the vicinity of a wreck can easily become prey. We've landed over fifty of these beastly fish since the beginning of summer. This is some of the most exciting catch and release action, especially for tourists, who have never seen a fish so large. The average weight of the giant grouper is three hundred pounds. Our biggest to date is a whopping 600 lbs., caught last year at this time.
Offshore action can be as thrilling as it gets if you can find the shrimp boats about thirty miles from shore. Our last voyage started out with hungry Bonito screaming drags out in all directions. Within minutes, spinner sharks began to attack the hooked bonitos as they fought for their lives. Hundreds of the ravenous cartilage fish attacked anything that moved. We even witnessed the sharks biting each other while fighting over bonito carcasses. All six anglers were hooked up for hours until their arms were tired. The spinners averaged 100 lbs. and six feet in length, producing quite a battle. All we could think about was what would happen if someone fell in the water. This was truly a shark frenzy in full force.
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