It's the middle of February and what can you catch? Trout are closed up inshore, Red Snapper offshore and now starting this year Grouper are closed in federal waters Feb. 15th till March 15.
Plenty of fins to chase and some pretty good dinners to take home too if you just adjust your trips a little. I went over to Indian Pass last weekend to do some work around the fish camp. Got all my chores done and went playin' on Monday. First thing out I took my son and a couple neighbors out to the oyster bars and we picked up our limit of some of the saltiest, fattest oysters of the year. A stiff North wind had blown all the water out of the bay and made oysterin' by hand super easy. With a good dinner gaurunteed we dropped the neighbors back at the ramp and my son and I went fishing.
That same low tide had run all the redfish out of the usual flats that were now high and dry. I headed to where I thought a few might have staged up waiting for more water. Before I slowed the boat down to climb up on the platform we could see a patch of muddy water of about 2 acres in the middle of an otherwise clear flat. The reds had schooled up tight and there were hudreds and hundreds of fish in all sizes just milling around waiting to be able to disperse back to thier usual haunts. While it makes it easy to hook a few fish I must admit that I prefer to find 'em scattered out a little. When they are that tight the water is all muddied up and you can't pick out a fish to throw to and watch him eat. They fight just as hard though and the one I took home for dinner sure did taste good!
Back to Seagrove to a run a couple trips in the Gulf this week. The first trip had a young angler with a rather "wounded" group of adult anglers. I had wanted to fish in close a while for the young man and then run offshore to try for amberjacks for the big guys. The plan was working good till one of the adults caught a nice gag grouper. We were up inside of state waters so he was legal to keep but if we were to run offshore we would have to throw him back. My crew quickly decided this was a good reason to not have to ride offshore and voted to stay in close on a short trip. We came in with the grouper, a trigger, a dozen vermillion snappers and a dozen Pinks. Plenty of fish for a couple good dinners. We also released quite a few Red snapper one of which was about 15#. He made a great picture and is still out there for somebody else to tangle with.
Yesterday my crew was a couple that had only been in saltwater once before, catching spanish and skipppies. We stayed up in shore most of the morning getting some triggers and pinks in the box and filling up the live well. When the Gulf slicked off I ran offshore to where the amberjacks have been living. We got 'em fired up pretty easy. Broke off 4 big ones, released 3 or 4 "shorts" and put our 3 fish limit in the box.My guys said there was no way they could fight another one so I turned it North. A great catch of fish and the trip home was as calm and pleasant a boat ride as the Gulf can give. A perfect way to end a trip.
Plenty to catch and plenty to eat. Just know the rules and fish with 'em in mind----
Capt Larry Pentel