Local fishermen make the best of poor Gulf weather with mangrove snapper and hogfish
When a small window of good weather was forecast last week, anglers around the west coast of Florida were itching to get offshore to see what would await them. Unfortunately for those who ventured west, the forecast was off and instead of calm seas, they were greeted with sloppy conditions and a cold north-northwest wind.
But the fishing was good.
I know because I was out on Dec. 27, disappointed in the underestimated two-foot seas forecast. We were expecting fog, which usually means calm winds. Instead, there were dark clouds and rain on the horizon for the entirety of the trip. Also out that day was a captain who shared in his surprise.
“It got gnarly as soon as I got off plane 20 miles out, it started blowing 20 to 25!” he said. “It was a fire bite in the morning, but in the p.m., the bite sucked.”
I joined Jay Travis aboard his 32-foot Contender. Luckily, his boat rides well, so the sloppy three- to four-foot seas slowed us down but were manageable and ultimately kept our visions of a deepwater trip held back for another day.
The plan changed to nearshore fishing. Our first stop in about 55 feet was good as Travis landed a nice keeper hogfish on the first drop using a shrimp on a white Hogball rigged with 20-pound leader.
From there, the hogfish bite was good and we managed a half dozen keeper-sized fish. I caught my biggest of the year to date at 25 inches after a good fight in which I was thankful that an opportunistic shark wasn’t lingering nearby.
As the bite slowed around noon, we bounced around looking to find hungry fish. Red grouper, porgies and a few grunts kept rods bent but weren’t quite what we were hoping for. A five-mile run to a bigger ledge was our next goal and it paid off when quality mangrove snapper began to fill the box after eating our shrimp offerings.
After another hogfish mixed in during the mangrove snapper rally, a few gag grouper got aggressive. A subject of much discussion this fall and winter, we caught and released about seven keeper-sized gag grouper up to 30 inches as bycatch on light tackle.
A few bigger ones outclassed us on the light spinning rod setups we were using. Others have reported a decent amount of gag grouper, a good sign that the numbers of them are decent for the future.
We bounced around to a few more ledges working out slightly deeper to around 100 feet as the seas slightly calmed. The catch seemed the same as we kept getting mangrove snapper on spot after spot, eventually getting our boat limit of 40 with four anglers. To go with the hogfish, a few porgies, a nice scamp grouper and many throwback keeper-sized red and gag grouper, it was evident the shallow water Gulf of Mexico fishery is healthy for the future.
Windy weather is going to persist for the future with small breaks allowing anglers to get offshore. Take advantage when possible and fishing bigger bottom structures will have fish concentrated more than smaller bottom. Using light tackle snapper, hogfish and other tasty bycatch will be the focus as we open up a few more fish for keeping heading into the new year.