good grouper bites in NC today

[kilsong]

Gag bite well in shallow water (65 -86 ft) though they didn't respond to jigs well.





















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[PeteC]

Very nice Kilsong congrats on a nice trip. And also wanted to thank you for the help with a lot of the small things i needed the other day.

[swell rider]

This time of year those Gags will not bite the jigs real well .. It's all a bait show in the fall..Shallow water Gags don't respond well to jigs..Now in the summer and fall months the Red and Scamp Grouper in 120 and deeper will hit jigs, so go DEEP!!!!

[gottaflylee]

Kilson, it was a pleasure getting to meet you and fish with you today. Look forward to doing it again soon. You sure got on a roll midday and poped them good. Again it was a pleasure...
Lee

This time of year those Gags will not bite the jigs .. It's all a bait show in the fall..Shallow water Gags don't respond well to jigs..Now in the summer and fall months the Red and Scamp Grouper in 120 and deeper will hit jigs, so go DEEP!!!!

Hi Ken, sorry to disgree, but I have found that if you go small, very small (about 56g)they will eat much better, you should try it.

This was on 9- 25 or 26 last year or year before last...

[WhiteLakeBuc]

I completely agree with Lee on jigging nearshore gags. We have been jigging gags 55 to 65 feet of water just off the beach all year long. This time of year is great for doing this IMHO. Like Lee, I have found that the Maria Viva Parade is a GREAT jig for doing this. The color I like is CR, Green back, with a gold stripe down the side and resembles a spanish sardine. Small is def. key for shallow grouper

[swell rider]

Hey Lee,

I agree those small jigs work but the type of fishing were doing I just haven't had the sucess..Were on the hook 99% of the time and though we do catch a handfull on jigs while anchored I had much better sucess while drifting offshore..Next time I get a chance to do some fun fishing I'll bring a few of those small jigs with me..

[kilsong]

Kilson, it was a pleasure getting to meet you and fish with you today. Look forward to doing it again soon. You sure got on a roll midday and poped them good. Again it was a pleasure...
Lee

Lee,
nice fishing with you. I met many fishermen through Capt Joe and all are great. I didn't know there is good redfish fishery in NC. I used to go down to Florida just to catch redfish and sheepshead.

It is an interesting theory that smaller jigs work better in shallow water. But a few jigs I used in 65 ft water were pretty small on the first spot. It was unbelievable they wouldn't hit any jig at all tough the spot must had a hundred grouper.

When we went to 80 ft later on, jigging started to work.
Normally I have every thackle from flounder to tun in my car, but I found I forgot to bring reels on this trip. I moved the reels from my car after Texas trip last weekend to clean them and I forgot about it. I used a 80 lbs mono on a spare reel this time and it cost at least 6 - 7 nice grouper on jigs.
If I had a my reel with braided line, it could be one of the best jigging trip in NC. I don't know grouper responded to jig because we fished a little deeper or it was time for them to turn on jigs.

[Capt_John]

I only thought Lee came to Sneads Ferry for the redfish, now he's coming for offshore too. Just kidding man, it was good seeing you at the marina yesterday morning. I knew you guys would kill em'.

[kilsong]

How did you do, John ?
Any luck with poppers for AJ ?

[kilsong]

I was planning to fish Cape Cod this week, but I didn't see good weather there. So instead I decided to drive down to NC for grouper as wheaher forecast was good there and it's been long time since I fished grouper in NC. I called Capt Joe and he told me to come down on Friday and he has a charter on Thursday.
As I had to finish some work before the trip, I could leave my office after 8:00 PM on Thursday and I barely arrives at Sneads Ferry, NC just before scheduled time at 6:00 am without any rest.
Lee, who is a professional guide for redfish, joined the trip.
When I checked my tackles, I found I didn't bring my reels. :?
I borrowed 80 lbs mono lines from Capt Joe and put it in a spare reel.

The first spot is only 8 miles from the inlet in 65 feet and I was surprised pretty decent size gag grouper 8 - 15 lbs were caught there. I tried jigs for a while, but I couldn't get any hit at all though there were lots of nice groupers under the boat. I switched to bait and I landed immediately 5 nice groupers. I couldn't understand why they didn't hit my jigs though there were lots of groupers.
But, this was not the first time that groupers ignored my jigs.
Joe worked slowly toward deeper water by checking many spots he stored in his machine. You got to see how many spots he stored from almost 30 years commercial grouper fishing
After some slow fishing around noon, we started to catch again in deeper water in 80 f - 85 ft. For some reason I don't know, grouper hit my jigs this time. But I kept losing them as mono stretched too much. I don't know how I jigged cod in 300ft - 400ft before braid line era. @( If I had my reel with braided line, I could have landed at least 6 - 8 nice groupers on jigs on the trip.
The trip was cut short due to severe thunderstorm warning and it was a quite scary running through lightening thunder storm

The grouper regulations are changed to the worse. The current regulation is 3 grouper per day per person with only one gag is allowed. And the recreational/commercial grouper fishing is closed from Jan. 1st. It is another rediculous regulations as there are so many groupers in NC and there are very few fishing pressures.