Reel Retrun grouper NR Inlet

[reelreturn]

I think I spent more time this week eyeing the weather forecast than watching the election returns. It seems that the pollsters are much more accurate that the weather man. Friday looked like the better day to grab a few more grouper before the season closure, so I called my friend Kelly Cooper to try some nearshore gags and some BSB's. Our first stop at 8 miles out produced numerous BSB's with only a few keepers in the mix. My numbers in this area were not holding bait or fish, so we went exploring to find a few more near shore spots for grouper.Tried a couple of more likely looking spots only to find nada fish. Finally found a nice 7 ft ledge late in the day and knew this had better produce or we would be skunked on our grouper quest. I started catching my usual citation sized grunts, but the grouper definitely were being tight lipped. Finally caught several short gags, and noted that they were bloated with forage. After glancing at my watch, I started hearing the jingle to final Jeopardy and knew time was running out. I put out a 2 dropper rig and set the pole in the rod holder and went back to jigging, but noted that something was gently tugging on the 2 dropper rig. Picked up the rod and it was slammed by something nice. I started playing the tug o war number on the fish and was rewarded with a nice 18lb 10 oz gag.



Kelly managed a keeper gag shortly after icing down the day saving fish, we decided to run to the hill and try this ledge on another day.Final count for the day was 2 keeper gags, five keeper BSB's and a nice octopus for appetizer.

[SeaBiscuit]

"bloated with forage" I loved that! That piglet ate one morsel too many.
Congratulations on a very nice fish Taylor, more importantly way to go on going exploring and finding quality fish. You are now officially a bottom fishing addict!
Thanks for the cool report and pics.
Nick

[JMS-ILM]

you better run that cat off before he too becomes "bloated with forage"!

pretty work on your fishes Taylor.

[reelreturn]

The cats definitely do not have "table manners". Brown cat was too bloated with forage to jump on the fish cleaning station- hence was out of the picture. Was a great day on the water and persistance paid off.

[BOTTOM DWELLER]

Great day, looks like your hard work paid off. Hopefully you can get out a few more times before the clousure. Thanks for sharing your pictures and report.

[merry marlin]

Thanks for the cool report and nice job on being patient for that Gag to finally come!
MM