If you have trouble catching grouper, try using frozen squid, octopus, or crab as they can’t fight back and a dead stink bait is an easier option at times for ambush predators such as groupers.
What is the best bait for gag grouper?
The best bait for grouper fishing are squid, chub mackerel, sardine, white crab, or octopus pieces, one of the favorite grouper food. But normally they bite any bait.
How do you catch a gag grouper in Florida?
The key to catching gag grouper is plenty of live bait. While a variety of baits work, Shidler prefers pinfish, which he catches in pinfish trips that he visits on the way out to fishing grounds. Shidler also sometimes chums with live bait to help bring the gags up from the bottom and entice them to feed.
What do gag grouper eat?
Adult gag grouper primarily feed on fishes, crabs, shrimps, and cephalopods while juveniles measuring less than 8 inches (20 cm) in length feed on crustaceans residing in shallow grass beds. Similar to other serranids, gag grouper are protogynous hermaphrodites.
How do you rig a gag grouper?
The rig consists of an egg sinker sliding on an 18-inch piece of 100-pound mono between two swivels. A 6-foot piece of 100-pound mono leads to a circle hook, with the size depending on the bait. “If I’m fishing for gags, my favorite bait is a live golden spot or a pinfish,” said Johnson.
What is the best month to catch grouper?
Generally speaking, the best time to catch grouper is from May to October. You’ll have the best chances fishing either in the early morning or late afternoon as these are the best times of the day for grouper in Florida.
Can you catch gag grouper night?
You may catch grouper during a full moon or under lights, but are typically not active at night. They are most active during the transition period between the fish that are active at night and the ones active during the day, dusk and dawn.
What is the best time to fish for grouper in Florida?
This fishery is usually at its peak from October through December but we can catch grouper inshore year round. Typically, we use 3 different techniques for catching the gags inshore, bottom fishing with bait, trolling shallow diving plugs, and casting plugs to the fish.
What is the season for gag grouper in Florida?
Open June 1 – December 31. If landings reach the recreational ACL, harvest will be prohibited for the remainder of the fishing year. Gag grouper is managed under an individual fishing quota (IFQ) program. Anyone commercially fishing for gag grouper must possess allocation and follow established protocols.
How do you get the gag grouper inshore?
Best Baits/Lures for Targeting Inshore Grouper
Grouper will eat nearly any live or cut bait, however, some of best include pilchards, threadfins, sardines, pinfish, and mullet. A live bait often works best, but sometimes grouper only want a dead cut bait instead, so its good to try some of both.
What is a groupers favorite food?
They habitually eat fish, octopuses, and crustaceans. Some species prefer to ambush their prey, while other species are active predators.
How deep do you fish for grouper?
30 to 60 feet deep
When you’re grouper trolling, you should do it in water that is 30 to 60 feet deep. You’ll have no trouble setting the hook even though it’s that deep. The stretch is going to give your fish some leeway anytime it strikes your moving lure, so it’s not cutting the mouth of the fish.
How many gag grouper can you keep in Florida?
Gulf state waters in Florida are from shore to 9 nautical miles. Federal waters begin where state waters end and extend to 200 nautical miles. The minimum size limit for gag grouper is 24 inches total length and the daily bag limit is two fish per person within the four grouper per person aggregate limit.
What pound test should I use for grouper fishing?
Smaller grouper, 30 to 40 pound line is fine with a 60 to 100 pound fluorocarbon leader. For bigger grouper, scale up to 50 to 80 pound line and you might be better off with braided line or some other type of super line with a 100 pound fluorocarbon leader.
Where can I deep drop for grouper?
“Snapper and grouper species like hard bottom with some structure,” he continued. “They can be anywhere from 400 to 1,000 feet deep, with wreckfish over 100 pounds in water that’s 2,000 feet deep. Swordfish can be found off the bottom but near it during the day in 1,600 to 1,800 feet of water.
How long should a grouper rig be?
Cut enough line so that after tying the hook and the barrel swivel on to each end, the resulting length is roughly 3 feet.
Where is the best grouper fishing in Florida?
Pensacola has one of the largest man-made reefs in the world just offshore, so it’s the perfect place to find and catch grouper. The Oriskany Memorial Reef is also called “the Great Carrier Reef”, and it provides groupers with tons of cover to hide from their prey – this attracts plenty of groupers for you to catch.
Is Mullet good bait for grouper?
Goliath Grouper are Huge and They Will Eat Big Baits
Some of the popular bigger fish to use as bait are large mullet and jack crevalle. Rays are used with good success too.
Can you catch grouper from shore in Florida?
Bottom fishing for Florida Grouper works great in both nearshore and offshore waters around wrecks and reefs.
What’s the biggest gag grouper ever caught?
680 pounds
As of 2021, the largest Goliath Grouper recorded caught in the wild is 680 pounds on the Southern coast of Florida. Anglers reeled the Grouper in May of 1961. In June 2021, another group of fishermen in Florida caught an almost-as-gargantuan Goliath that weighed in at about 500 pounds.
How big does a gag grouper get?
Gag may live for 26 years and grow to be 58 inches in length and weigh up to 81 pounds. Gag often congregate around rocky ledges and swim in small groups.