Take your boat 30-85 miles offshore, then anchor your boat 150 feet up current from where you want to fish. Toss a block or bag of chum to the ocean floor and attach live bait to your hook. Drop the line straight down, then crank the reel so the bait is suspended off the ocean floor.
What is the best bait to use for 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.
What kind of rod do you use for grouper?
A 6 1/2 foot to 7 foot medium heavy rod with a 30-40 or 3/0 to 4/0 series reel is a good all-around and versatile grouper fishing outfit. This can handle most the bottom fishing situations as well as some light tackle trolling. Most grouper fishing is done bottom fishing. Casting is not required.
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.
Do you use a sinker with live bait?
Using a sinker anchors the bait to the bottom and may mean no fish feeds there. Letting a live bait swim around mid-water is great as it will cover a lot more area than being anchored in one spot. Floats can be used to keep track of your bait and indicate when your target species hits the bait.
What is the best hook for live bait?
For live-bait fishing, I recommend thin wire hooks. This style penetrates your bait more easily and damages it less, thus allowing it to move freely on the hook and stay alive longer than when using heavy-weight hooks. Most live-bait hooks for inshore salt waters range from size 1/0 to 8/0.
What is a groupers favorite food?
Grouper Baits
Grouper also like crustaceans such as shrimp and many will eat squid. They are not all that picky, as their large mouths would suggest.
How do you target a grouper?
The trick to targeting only the grouper has been using big live bait such as grunts and large pinfish. Frozen sardines have been the standby for red grouper, but these smaller, soft baits usually get inhaled by the snapper well before they reach the bottom.
Is Mullet good bait for grouper?
Baits for Grouper
Sardines are probably the most successful live bait, especially if caught fresh with a net or baitfish rig. A close second is a pinfish and third are mullet. Any of these fish are as likely to get a response from a grouper as any bait on the planet.
Where do you catch grouper fish?
Some species of grouper range from New England to southern Brazil and Texas. They are common near almost any kind of bottom structure. In southern Florida, they inhabit all of the tropical coral reefs. North of Florida, they can be found in and around bottom ledges, live bottom, and artificial reefs and wrecks.
How heavy is a grouper?
This fish will generally reach a weight of around 400 pounds. However, there have been some much larger fish caught. One in Florida that was caught with a hook and line weighed 680 pounds. They can get larger, though.
What size hooks for grouper?
“They require a 7/0 or 8/0 hook.
How far offshore can you get grouper?
To get the best grouper, you should go 30 miles (48.2 kilometers) to 85 miles (136.794 kilometers) offshore. Grouper will naturally swim on the current and into your bait.
Where is the best place to catch grouper 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.
Does the sinker go above or below the hook?
Place one or two split shot sinkers 2–3 inches (5.1–7.6 cm) above the hook. Press your line into the narrow groove running through the middle of the sinkers. When picking out your sinkers, use enough weight to bring the bait closer to the bottom, but not enough to weigh down your line.
How do you fish for grouper in Florida?
All you need to have is your rod, a reel with a very long line, lures, or a weighted hook, as well as live or dead bait. Of course, deeper waters require heavier sinkers. Bottom fishing for Florida Grouper works great in both nearshore and offshore waters around wrecks and reefs.
What size hook do you use for live worms?
A live bait hook, aberdeen hook or octopus hook have long shanks that are a great fit for live worms. Match the size of the hook to the size of the worm. A size 3/0 to 5/0 should do the trick. You’ll also need your choice of bobber and a couple of light split shot weights.
Do circle hooks catch more fish?
A circle hook is a fishing hook manufactured so that the point is turned perpendicularly back to the hook shank to form a generally circular, or oval, shape. Various studies have shown that circle hooks mouth-hook a greater proportion of fish than typical “J” pattern hooks.
What is the best snapper rig?
With fresh bait as the ideal candidate to target snapper, a 2 Hook Paternoster Rig is the best choice for presentation and hook set. The 2 Hook Paternoster Rig is a bottom weighted snapper fishing rig designed to bring the bait down effectively and easily.
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