Outdoors Column | Fishing at ‘the grocery store’ brings many pleasant surprises
Good weather windows have been few and far between in 2020 keeping offshore anglers stuck inland more often than not. When good weather allows, the fishing has been excellent, and the warmth of spring ahead looks like it will be full of variety for those venturing west.
During a recent light wind day I was able to venture offshore with Taylor Chadsey III. He, like myself, has been constantly watching the weather and looking for the opportunity to head out. When it finally arrived, we anxiously prepared for a little of everything springtime can offer.
The first stop saw us on a ledge in about 110-feet that Chadsey calls the grocery store. It offers up a little bit of everything from grouper and snapper to hogfish and porgies. This depth could have everything on the surface as well, as he told me stories of tuna, mahi and sailfish that were landed while fishing there.
To start I rigged up a 1-ounce Hogball and used the rig like I would for hogfish. On the first drop it produced a small yellowtail snapper, providing the feeling of a good day ahead.
Chadsey set up a chumline of glass minnows and some cut dead bait, hoping to lure the snapper up higher in the water column. We continued to work the bottom catching more yellowtails, a bunch of scamp grouper and a monster throwback gag grouper.
To fish more in the chumline I went to a lighter jig. In colder water, which showed 63-degrees on the Garmin, snapper don’t always rise in the water column to spend energy but just in case I wanted to give it a shot. On the first drop it worked, as the biggest yellowtail of the day fell victim to half a shrimp on an 1/8-ounce jig. A few mangove snapper worked their way into the chumline on the bottom and another scamp grouper was put into the box as well.
When the spot slowed we picked up and moved to a few nearby numbers. The first spot lacked red snapper, but the next few made up for it as we cranked up multiple large American reds over 10-pounds. A nice 18-inch mangrove snapper between the red snapper was landed before we bounced around finding a pile of lane snapper and big red grouper.
The rest of the time we spent checking spots and landing a variety of fish while working our way back east. We added four hogfish in 50-feet, the dessert to top off box. By the end of the day we had a cooler of lane snapper, mangrove snapper, yellowtail snapper, scamp grouper, red grouper, speckled hind and hogfish.
Springtime is the time for variety in the Gulf of Mexico. We didn’t spend much time fishing for pelagics with water temperatures in the low to mid 60’s, but with the forecast the week ahead the gulf should warm up into the 70’s.
When that happens schools of bait will come pushing up the coast and seasonal travelers won’t be far behind. Look for reports of tuna, kingfish, cobia and more to pick up soon. It’s best to be ready for everything when running offshore, because you never know what you’ll run into!