The Grouper bite had been nothing short of fantastic the past 10 days. Lots of fish, some days Reds, the next Gags and lots of days, both chewin' hard. The only downside to this bite has been all the hooks I have had to tie on due to fish lost in the bottom!
We've had several days of beautiful weather (finally) the past week - just in time for the big vacation crowds to have gone home. The folks that have been here have been treated to uncrowded beaches, clearer water, and great fishing.
The title is way too accurate for this fishin' report. The weather has not been conducive to fishing in the Gulf much at all the past couple of months.
The Gulf calmed down from Issac last weekend and the water cleared up pretty quick. I took my wife and youngest daughter out Saturday afternoon to put out a couple bait traps and do a quick "fish check".
After a week of big surf and a pretty good surge from Issac, the gulf has calmed down quickly. While we did get some beach erosion and my dock here on Eastern Lake is under water by a couple inches from the trapped surge, Hurricane Issac was not that big a deal here.
The wind never got past "breezy" and we had very little rain. With everything calming down, the forecast for is for calm water. I have trips booked and can't wait to get out and see how the fishing is. As most folks who have fished off the beach know, the best fishing can be the two weeks or so following a big storm.
Back at Indian Pass today after being at Grayton Beach for 10 days. The bite with the fish was Grayt but the weather has not been very cooperative at all for the past two weeks. I have had to cancel over half my trips lately do to thunderstorms. Oh well- I always say the guy that said you can't fight Mother Nature was wrong- you can always fight her, you are just always gonna lose.
Got back to Seagrove from a little over two weeks at Indian Pass and I'm pleased to report that there are plenty of Tarpon over there. There was also quite a bit of rain (and lightning ) on most of the days I had trips.
Well the Red Snapper season for 2012 came to end with a nice calm day. We have been fortunate to find that with that species closed the other critters that we haven't been chasing for a while are around and seem eager to be caught.
The Grouper bite continues to be good. You still have to be able to get 'em off the bottom after they bite but we have been getting quite a few to bite! I'm off this afternoon to go to Indian Pass and chase Tarpons for a few weeks so I may be slow in the next fishing report. In the meantime here are a few pics from the past week.
Whew! I have been running hard, two trips a day. Today was the first day in over two weeks I had to cancel a trip due to weather. This morning we had a great catch but it was bouncy coming in and by 1PM I sure didn't want to be back offshore!
Tropical Storm Debbie moved a pile of Groupers up into our area without chasing the Red Snapper away.
Whew! I'm glad June is over. With all the bad weather, including Tropical Storm Debby I only got to run 11 days out of the month. I hate losing so many days during Snapper season when it's "easy"! The Feds got pressured by quite a few coastal politicians ( not the least of which was Rep. Steve Southerland- thank you) about all the lost days in Red Snapper season and they (NOAA) have extended our (meager) 40 days an additional six. So it's official, we can keep Red Snapper through July 16th.
Man, been a blowy June so far this year. At this rate we'll be lucky if we get 20 days of Red Snapper season in.
We had a week of surf and rough seas since my last report and then two really nice days. Yesterday started out beautiful at daylight but the wind quickly started blowing hard and coming around from the North to the East as the sun came up.
