Hot Grouper Spots!

November 16, 2008

Sarasota Florida Fishing Report
By Capt. Bob Smith


Fishing is still good but the coming cold front may slow it down. A large
variety of fish is showing up on the Bay and Gulf. Large bait-fish are hard
to find offshore, but trolling spoons and plugs is doing the job for King
mackerel and Spanish mackerel. Smaller white bait has been plentiful along
the beaches and will work if you can net them.

Some nice grouper and snapper are starting to show at the fifty foot depth
offshore. Live bait is best including shrimp for the snapper.

We have been finding redfish, large trout, pompano, mackerel, bluefish and
flounder on the bay. The redfish have mainly been in the deeper water, like
Zwicks canal and most of the other fish have been on the grass-flats.

Hot Grouper spots!

Like any place else, most of our area anglers are eager to share when, where
and how they caught fish, but grouper is the exception! When fishing in
saltwater, it is possible to catch a nice grouper any place in the Bay or
Gulf.

Don't expect anglers to give you their hot spots! Hot spots are what we
call grouper stacked-up on the bottom. They also could be in, under or
around a structure. In other words, it is a lot of keeper size grouper in
a very small area.

An experienced grouper digger will take a few nice fish, put the spot, if
new, in his GPS and move on to/or find another hot spot. This takes a lot
of discipline because it can take a lot of time, work, and luck to find
these spots. This way, the spot may be good for a month or much more. If
he hammered the fish, it could be over in a day or so. The fish would just
move to avoid all the outside activity. Due to the popularity of grouper,
if he went public or shared the GPS location, he could expect to find the
spot covered with dive boats and/or inexperienced grouper fishermen the next
day. That could be the end of that hot spot. Some Grouper diggers will
stop fishing or move out of the area if they see another boat coming towards
them. Don't stop and ask:-).

Enjoy & Protect
My Website: http//www.sarasota-fla-fishing.com

Thank you!

Capt. Bob Smith
Phone: (941) 366-2159 Cell: (941) 350-8583.
Email: capt.bobsmith@verizon.net
My Website: http//www.sarasota-fla-fishing.com