Frying Pan Tower fishing report

[djwhitman]

Left Masonboro Inlet @7am this morning at 33kt for the tower. The ride was good til bout 1/2 way out then it bumped up a little, but still arrived at 8:10. Temp was 62 at the tower so we headed offshore to the north east until we hit 66.7 temp about 8 miles out from the tower. Second line in had a fish on and it was like that until we had our limit. Had several doubles, a couple triples and once had 4 fish on. Lost 2 to bite offs, one mysterious break at the downrigger and several to hook up for a second or two then pull off. We had our limit at 11:30 with the smallest being around 13lbs and the average being 15lbs or better w/ one close to 20. We found them stacked up in one particular spot(no bait, temp break or structure, but plenty of kings, go figure) but couldn't get anyone to come fish it with us. Once we had our limit of 12 we dropped some extra baits off with some friends that had run out we took off to do some bottom fishing. Caught @ a dozen large sea bass, and 25 or more pink snapper with 12 going 3lbs or better. A few grunts and a bunch of beeliners, sharks and misc. other junk fish. OH, Mark also hooked up and landed one very nice alby. That was fun on light spinning tackle and a pleasant surprise to top off the day. Gave a guy a gallon of oil when he stopped by and said he had no money and was out of oil. He was a commercial fisherman and he wanted us to go by HIS dock and find him to get the money back for the oil so we asked for a grouper number instead,, lol, that didn't work out too well so.... Guess that's how it goes. Had to dock next to the CG that was occupying a ramp(for a while apparently) but got lucky since he bypassed us and went to check all the other boats. Guess he figured if we were brave enough to dock next to him with 3 other ramps open we had to be good to go. Actually, that was the best dock to pull our boat(which is bigger than our truck by a ton!!) and we just didn't think about moving over 'cuz we were too freakin tired, lol. PHEW!!!! This was the day that we fished thru all the bad days to get to.. finally. Catching kings on light spinning reels weighing in the upper teens is a blast at anytime!

Anywho..Great day on the water(Little rougher than expected) with tons of fish and all of them were nice in size. Great friends and crew with Mark, Dad and Roy on board the "Little Bit".

Hope everyone did as well as we did!!!
DJ Whitman

[Chasin Tale]

Way to hit 'em DJ. Hard to get a good day this time of year. Hope all is well in your camp. I'll tell Blair I saw you posting here. Trying to get him to commit to The Big Rock on my boat. Take care.

[Turkey Feeder]

Good report DJ....way to mix it-up.
Jim

[JMS-ILM]

we were down towards the FPT on friday as well. heard you on the radio i believe and saw you at the ramp that evening......big maycraft with a big white van for a tow vehicle, correct???

we did aight, i think .......

[djwhitman]

Hey Jamie,, good to see you still kicking man. Good luck gettin Blair, it's hard to get him off the couch these days . We're gonna try to get a day with him if he can ever get thru these mechanic blues he's going thru.. man.. it's been rough on him.
Yeah JMS, that was us.... The guys with more boat than truck,.. it's always an adventure at the ramp when we're around!!!. Looks like you guys had a nice catch as well.. we just havn't been able to get on the grouper yet.. any suggestions?
Thanks guys.. catch'm up!!
DJ

[SeaBiscuit]

DJ,
here's my suggestions on grouper fishing:
Keep you eyes on your bottom machine at all times when running or trolling.
Mark (on the GPS) any spot you see with bait or relief
Investigate these spots when bottom fishing
Try to anchor so that the boat is directly on top of the break or ledge.
Use heavy tackle (beefy rods and 100 lb braid) lock the drags down.
Use 2 hook 100 lb mono (or heavier) chicken rigs with 7 or 8/O offset, heavy, sharp hooks. Chicken rigs, have short leaders and straight hooks (not circles) and are useful when people fishing are not very familiar with the grouper bite. Setting on the bite will prevent the groupers from rocking you.
Use the smallest amount of led that will get you straight to the bottom.
Use large baits. Start with frozen sardines, or mackerel or little tunny. Oily bait will get them fired up. Fresh (or even better live) menheaden, tomtates, ringtails, bluefish, pinfish and beeliners should be used after you start getting bites on the dead stuff. Those will selectively get the attention of the groupers and will be left alone by the grunts.
Last but not least:
Be alert! Set hard and lift on the bite. 90% of the time when you feel like your hook is "snagged" while bottomfishing, you caught a grouper and he rocked you. When this happens the bite will often end. Also happens when you break a fish off. You have to get them off the bottom fast.
Good luck,
SeaBiscuit