 |
October Red Fish and Grouper fishing!!
Capt. Zachary Hoffman
October 14, 2013
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report
Big Gags and Hogs…. That was the theme of my last trip on Sunday with a couple of great guys from Gainesville. We brought a few tanks and spear guns out to 35 feet of water to see what we could "WACK" (Dale's wording.) These guys slayed some fish, on both Rod and Spear. We used some of my favorite tactics; we pulled up to each dive spot and fished it for about 20 minutes, picking up a few nice grouper, grunts and Mangos off of each spot, then did our Spearing. When you use this approach, you allow time for a spot to calm down from you motoring around and setting the anchor and also bring the grunts and grouper directly under the boat. Even if you do not catch a lot of grouper off of a spot, there may be a good size school down there; I have been on many dives where the fish would not bite any bait, from live pins to threads and squid; then you drop down and see a pile of gags, hogs, mangos and many other species. (On a side note, I have learned so much about fishing and how current flow affects different spots from diving, it just gives you a different perspective on what it "really" going on down there.) Well today we had a good example of this reasoning, we anchored right on top of a great spot on a slack tide, didn't get a single grouper, then went down to the bottom and shot some scamp, Red Grouper, Big Hogs, and a few Nice Gags….. We ended the day with a nice box full of Grouper, Hogs, and a few nice Mangos, The best table fare around.
The day before this (Saturday) I did a trip out of plantation with a very cool guy named Joe and his wife Barb and his Friend Cery. We fished all over the place targeting everything from reds to gags. We had our best luck in the morning targeting reds, Joe found a perfect red hiding on a oyster bar around Crystal River (26 and ¾ inches.) Right before he hooked that red we lost two nice reds and had a big snook blow up on a cork after a red broke the leader on the oyster bar, about 4 feet from the boat, what a sight! Lots of short trout were biting in the morning and through out the day, but the big trout did not seem to turn on until after the trip when I was running back to Homosassa in my skiff. Which is often the case, around this area it is all about hitting that perfect tide, or that perfect time of day. The best way to really learn the big bend is record keeping…. Just keep track of when you have the best luck, write down the tides, time of day, water temp and so on. Most people think about these things while they are fishing but forget to write them down. Just like everything else in life the devil is in the details, and noticing patterns is what it is all about, and getting luck every now and then. The trout are moving in and the reds are still biting good, we are coming into the best time of year to inshore fish very soon in the BB.
Homosassa Fishing Forecast:
Gag grouper have started moving in, we can easily limit out on gags in 20-30 feet of water most days, this trend will continue, the trout bite will only get better over the next few weeks, and the Red Fish bite will stay strong.
Target Species:
Red Fish, Trout, Grouper
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
