Despite persistent red tide, still great fishing in Gulf of Mexico

After months of red tide and the vicious Hurricane Michael, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect running west into the Gulf of Mexico. My expectations were fairly high after many days of hard east wind, hoping red tide to be a memory of the past.

I hooked up with Tom Howard and a gentleman named Dale to plan a trip for snapper, grouper and hogfish on a football Sunday. We would use the middle of the day to head offshore and fish the afternoon and evening when it would be much calmer following another morning of strong east wind. After pushing off around noon from the Bradenton Yacht Club, we headed to the mouth of the Manatee River where the water was extremely clean and bait was plentiful.

We pointed southwest from Bean Point and ran into a two-foot sea, destination more than 20 miles away. As the sight of land shrunk at our backs there were no signs of red tide, dead fish or anything that might be considered poor water quality. In fact, there were birds, bait and predators in relentless schools scattered nonstop deeper than 50 feet.

Our fishing began over an area of hard bottom in 90 feet of water. It started a little slow with the wind and current opposing each other, making fishing a little difficult. We picked off a few mangrove and lane snapper as well as released some undersized grouper. As predicted, the wind calmed allowing a calm run north a few miles to fish bigger ledges thinking they would hold more fish after the rough week prior in the gulf.

The Rhodan trolling motor held us over the ledge as Howard dropped a Hogball jig down to the bottom with a shrimp. He was hooked up immediately on what turned out to be his favorite fish to eat, a hogfish. Two more mangrove snapper quickly followed before fishing slowed.

With the sun lowering toward the horizon, we felt the fishing was going to get good. We made one more move to another ledge, and the Simrad fish finder lit up upon arrival signifying plenty of life below.

The bite was on. I started by dropping 3/8-ounce Hogballs and catching nice mangrove snapper. I noticed they were coming higher up in the water column and switched to an even lighter 1/16-ounce jig head. It proved effective with quality mangroves and a surprise 10-pound red snapper. Dale fished whitebait on the bottom catching a few snapper, grouper and a small cobia. Howard switched to his lighter jig and landed a second small cobia on one, a great fight on the light tackle we were using.

When our three-person mangrove snapper limit was reached, I said its time to try for hogfish. I grabbed a heavier 3-ounce Hogball XL and sent it to the bottom with a shrimp straight past the by-catch we had been experiencing. I gave it a few twitches to stir up some sand and was hooked into a bigger fish. It felt like a big hogfish by its fight, but the battle was lost as I was cut off by something on the way up. It was perhaps a large bull shark we saw following up a previously caught gag grouper.

Not dismayed, I was excited to know that what I was doing was working. I grabbed another Hogball XL and sent it down. After a few other fish, I hooked into another one that felt like a hogfish.

Looking down, I saw my instincts were correct. Hogfish fight similar to a barjack mixed with a triggerfish, making sideways runs with plenty of big head shakes. This one came in at 17 inches, my first of the season and destined for the dinner table. As the sun crept lower, we decided to keep a bit of sunlight available for our run home.

All told it was a beautiful afternoon in the gulf. In the fall, there will be periods of strong morning east winds which means a great time to head out will be in the afternoon when the weather is calmer. Bait is everywhere for snapper and grouper, and if you want to target hogfish they are feeding, just remember to get your Hogballs and bring plenty of shrimp.

This fall is sure to be great fishing off the west coast of Florida, and anglers should get out and take advantage.