It’s been a yearlong wait, but the gag grouper season is opening, and anglers get a whole month to keep them.
In recent years, the season has been limited to just two weeks, but this year it runs Sept. 1-30, doubling the opportunity. It’s a far cry from the long open seasons of the past, but a full month is welcome, indeed.
As usual, there will be a massive rush to get out on day one and start catching hungry gags. Frozen bait is likely to be in short supply, so anglers will want to buy as soon as they can. Fuel is pricey right now, so those who have some shallow-water honey holes will be hitting the 10- to 12-foot depths on the hard, limestone bottom at just 7 or 8 miles, where guides Josh Fritz and Cody Albright have been hammering big gags on pre-season scouting trips. That fishing is specialized and traditionally limited to those with a collection of producing hotspots, so most will be starting in 20 feet come Sept. 1, working out to as deep as 50 feet or even deeper. Frozen bait is all that’s needed, though live pinfish and live scaled sardines (if large enough) are top producers. Small grunts, or just the head of a larger grunt, can attract some of the largest gags and have the advantage of discouraging the little ones.
Anglers are allowed two gags of at least 24 inches per day.
Guide bites
Capt. Cody Albright (727) 992-3918: Capt. Cody began finding great action inside the Cotee and Anclote rivers a couple of weeks back, and he’s been sticking with it, as the snook, reds and trout are still there. He had one day with 30 reds between 24 and 27 inches landed from underneath docks in the Anclote, and he’s gotten into pods of them in the Cotee between 16 and 30 inches from near the mouth up to U.S. 19. Live sardines have been his bait of choice. The snook are there, as well, with most being smaller males 14 to 26 inches. Docks, bars and mangrove points are holding them. Trout to 22 inches have come from both rivers on his trips, and on several trips tarpon to 25 pounds were landed, providing anglers with a coveted Inshore super slam of a trout, red, snook and tarpon on the same day. Capt. Cody did some catch-and-release shallow-water grouper fishing in about 10 feet of water, his four anglers limiting quickly using live sardines. The gag population where he’s been fishing northwest of Hudson is such that he suspects there will be plenty to go around when the season opens Sept. 1. He noted that the bite was best in the morning, with the bite slowing down by 9:30 a.m. For those netting sardines for bait, he says the supply is good on Pasco grass flats but get them before sunrise or the task gets tough.
Capt. Josh Fritz (352) 345-9304: Capt. Josh says the redfish action is solid, with plenty of fish around hard-bottom, outside points, bars and rocky island shorelines. He’s been using live sardines to take slot-sized fish with regularity. Most have come from pods of three or four fish, though he’s encountered small schools of up to 20 fish. His anglers have hooked snook while fishing for them, with one trip yielding four fish up to 28 inches. He hasn’t found any trout in the shallows over the past week, but notes they are on the grass beds in 10 feet of water. He had to work for a few keeper fish on that outing, as the numbers of undersized fish were high, as were lots of undersized black sea bass. Fish long; move often to connect with the keepers. Offshore, the gag grouper fishing has been “insane” in 8 to 12 feet of water. The fish are on the hard, limestone bottom, and are there in big numbers. There also are some real jumbos. The season opens Sept. 1 and the way it’s looking, it’s going to be a good one. A good source reported that there are schooling bonito and mackerel offshore between 35 and 42 feet of water, where the hogfish and mangrove snapper bite also is on. Live shrimp is the ticket for those.
Tackle shop roundup
The Rusty Bucket (727) 645-6598: Capt. Bill says rains cooled the water and heated up the snook action. Backwater Pasco areas after rains have seen the fish get fired up and taking live sardines and plugs early in the morning. The snook bite can taper off as the day wears on, but anglers can switch to reds around oyster bars, with outgoing tides productive. Offshore, you don’t have to go deeper than 10 to 20 feet of water for nice mangrove snapper. Structure and hard bottom is where to find them. Chumming with a commercial chum bar or pieces of scaled sardine gets the fish feeding. Throw a live shrimp or small sardine into the feeding fish. Tripletail are starting to show up in greater numbers offshore, so anglers will want to look around buoys and floating grass mats, where they hang out to feed on small baitfish, crabs and shrimp. If spotted, free line them with shrimp or artificial shrimp. They are not a year-round species, so anglers have the opportunity now to catch them. The limit is two fish per angler per day, with a minimum length of 18 inches.