Surf's Up Fishing Grayton Beach

After one of the longest runs of calm pretty weather in recent memory, the surf and southerly winds came up this weekend.

I'm sure all my skinny friends with short boards and the surf shop owners thought it would never happen! We had some great catches right before it got rough and even slid in one trip between the weather and got a full board of fish.

I took a father/daughter team before the weekend who got on the boat for a six-hour trip saying "Grouper" . They have fished with me several times before and are getting to know the drill pretty well. Not only did they limit out on Grouper with five Scamps a couple Reds and a Gag but we had a good mix of other critters including a fun time with a school of Mahi.

A Wonderfull Father/Daughter Trip!

Friday and we have another opening day for Red Snapper. What can I say- there are lots of 'em out there!

These folks had a blast catching a few of everything!

Friday afternoons trip got a slick calm gulf and a chance to run offshore on a three hour trip. Gave me a chance to prove there are still some BIG Snappers around too.

The rest of the board is nice but that one on the end is fine!

Saturday morning the wind started blowing and the folks I had come every year to fish 2 days in a row for a "freezer" trip. I told 'em we would hit 'em as best we could that morning but not to count on Sunday.

They did just fine on a sloppy day.

I tried to cancel Saturday afternoon but my folks just had to go. We came in with some nice snappers but lost most of our bites to a rough sea and dolphins I couldn't run way from.

I really didn't think Sunday morning was going to be fishable but was quite surprised to find the beach calmer at daylight than the day before. I launched and caught bait, called my folks and ran a long way into the direction I though the wind would blow up from.

The plan came together perfectly with the breeze kickin' in right when we got fishing. We fished straight down sea back to Grayton in some easy conditions, we came out just as the surf was building. By the time I was done cleaning fish there were 4 foot waves breaking on the bar. We had slid another great board out from a hole in the weather!

Plenty for the Freezers! Check Out the Red Grouper on the far Right. What a Fireplug - he went into his hole and we waited 'em out for five minutes to catch 'em.

I imagine that we will get back into a more normal fall weather pattern with a few fantastic and a couple rough days each week for the next month. Watch that forecast and be ready to go when the conditions are at the "fantastic" end! There are plenty of fish out there!

I am going to spend these next couple rough days trying to fix all that tackle that these fish have broke. It doesnt matter how much back up you have - when you run everyday the "broke" pile has to get dealt with eventually!