Offshore Jax, FL bottom fishing

[Jared D]

Well, I got a last minute invite to hit some live bottom on Thanksgiving eve. NOAA was calling for 2-4 with a 6 second wave period... they missed by a bunch. It was 1 foot with a 12 sec period. Bait was everywhere. 20 minutes on the bait spot, and we had a live well full of Grouper and Snapper candy. Unfortunately, as soon as we started fishing, we found the bite to be slow. The current was dead. We managed to weed through a few throwback snapper and by 1pm we had 7 keeper snapper on board.
We then moved a few miles to a "sticky bottom" where we were hoping to catch a gag. After an hour, we had managed only one just keeper at 26inches and a bo-bo (bonita). The bonita changed everything. We ran to a different rock, and fired down strips of bonita and the bite fired off. Snapper snapper and more snapper.
I was then got my snapper rod (a 7 foot light action rod w/ 50# test) crushed by a big gag. Unfortunately he made quick work of the 50# and found his hole. We reset our drift and I sent down the grouper rod. Of course I get snagged and have to break off. That leaves me with a freshly rigged snapper rod or waste time rerigging....
Down goes the snapper rod with a 15inch piece of bo-bo. It hits bottom, I reel a couple cranks to cushion myself against the mosters below. It takes about 5 minutes before the gag finds it. Give and take, I finally get it up to with in sight. Monster gag (charcoal belly we call em when they get over 30 pounds... and this was definately over that). Hes almost to with in gaff range when he makes one last run and breaks the 50!
I did manage another gag right before departure, but this was signifigantly smaller than group-zilla I had just played with.
Finally tally was 12 legal snaps, 2 legal grouper, 1 founder and 50 SeaBass.

[flatbottom]

nice report and pic.

[WAHOONBOX]

???


THANKS FOR DA REPORT AND PIC JARED

[SeaBiscuit]

Nice report Jared. Sorry about the big one (we call them blackbellies here in NC) breaking you off. They are some awful powerful critters those big ones. I hope you get him AND his mama next time!
Glad you mentioned how the cut bait got the bite going. I too love fishing live bait, but firmly believe that smell and blood in the water sometimes is the only thing they want.
Come get some gags with us in NC and we'll come snapper fishing with you in Jax!
SeaBiscuit

[Jared D]

Yeah, this year they have definately preferred cut bait... though this has been my first bottom trips in the past 2 years... usually I only bottom fish if the troll is slow...
I am trying to figure out how yall have such a good Red Grouper fishery up there, and we have such a great Red Grouper fishery south of here... and Jacksonville only gets em here and there.

I would love to come up there and see how yall do things. Let me know if your ever down here, and we can get you on some snapper.
As to the snapper... they are a blast, but no where near as hard to catch as grouper, once you learn their bite. We used to have only a few here and there, then the since Hurricane Floyd we have had snapper out the ears. They have been shorts the past few years, this year we are seeing lots more keepers.

Wahoobox... bo-bo is another slang term for bonita. We use sea maggots, bone heads... and a few others for em.