[J.A. Veil]

Today was my final day of fishing in Florida before heading home. I looked for a fishing spot in the Tampa Bay area that was unaffected by red tide and provided shelter from a brisk southerly wind. I found a spot and launched my kayak about 10:00. On the way to my fishing grounds, I made a few casts over shallow grass beds and caught several specks.

I spent a long time casting a paddletail to mangrove shorelines looking for snook. After a lot of paddling and casting, I finally caught one snook.

I then moved over to a slightly deeper hole in a flat and anchored up. I cast a 3" paddletail into the hole and worked it slowly. Soon I had a strong bite with line getting pulled off the reel. After a hard fight, I landed a 19" gag grouper (personal best -- at least for a while).

On the very next cast, I hooked another grouper that pulled even harder than the first one. After a grueling fight, I landed a 25" gag grouper -- my new personal best.

I ended the day with 3 gags, 8 ladyfish, 8 specks, and 1 snook. After a slow fishing day yesterday, this was a good outcome for my last fishing day. By the way, since arriving in Florida on Feb 19, the air temp has been in the 80s every day, The first drop of rain I saw was tonight, as a small band of storms moved through the Tampa area.

 

[shoot-straight]

Great job- gags are cool. Grouper are cool.

 

[mdracer]

Nice report John.

 

[SteveL]

Thanks for the great fishing report!

 

[Market Price]

gags are cool. Grouper are cool.

And firm, and flaky, and yummy....

 

[Tom Hughes]

JV: Thanks for posting the report. Catching a variety of different species is exciting.

 

[J.A. Veil]

During the 19 days I fished on this trip, I caught 22 different fish species. Among them were two new-to-me species and personal best catches for 5 other species. There are far more potential species to catch in Florida than in Maryland.

 

[shoot-straight]

And firm, and flaky, and yummy....

All you wanted to pick up in Sarasota. Bon Appetite!

Red tide aside, Florida has done a great job managing grouper it seems. Plenty of them around.

 

[andypat]

We use to catch them way out on the Gulf. We had numbers to go to. And John caught his in the back shallow waters. Way to go John!

 

[J.A. Veil]

My grouper were caught about 200 yds from shore in roughly 8' depth. I used a 6'6" medium spinning rod and 3000 series reel, 10 lb braid, 20 lb fluoro leader, 3/16-oz jighead, 3" paddletail.

 

[snowwhite3]

geometry dash unblocked said:
Today was my final day of fishing in Florida before heading home. I looked for a fishing spot in the Tampa Bay area that was unaffected by red tide and provided shelter from a brisk southerly wind. I found a spot and launched my kayak about 10:00. On the way to my fishing grounds, I made a few casts over shallow grass beds and caught several specks.

View attachment 283949


I spent a long time casting a paddletail to mangrove shorelines looking for snook. After a lot of paddling and casting, I finally caught one snook.

I then moved over to a slightly deeper hole in a flat and anchored up. I cast a 3" paddletail into the hole and worked it slowly. Soon I had a strong bite with line getting pulled off the reel. After a hard fight, I landed a 19" gag grouper (personal best -- at least for a while).

View attachment 283950


On the very next cast, I hooked another grouper that pulled even harder than the first one. After a grueling fight, I landed a 25" gag grouper -- my new personal best.

View attachment 283951


I ended the day with 3 gags, 8 ladyfish, 8 specks, and 1 snook. After a slow fishing day yesterday, this was a good outcome for my last fishing day. By the way, since arriving in Florida on Feb 19, the air temp has been in the 80s every day, The first drop of rain I saw was tonight, as a small band of storms moved through the Tampa area.

Nice report

 

[Hvymax]

During the 19 days I fished on this trip, I caught 22 different fish species. Among them were two new-to-me species and personal best catches for 5 other species. There are far more potential species to catch in Florida than in Maryland.

It's not like they have to overwinter or go dormant.