The Tampa Bay Times
Black grouper is now open for recreational divers and fishermen in depths exceeding 120’. April 1st brought this opening and now the big fish divers are heading deep to try to find some big blacks or if they’re not home, maybe some nice size scamps, red groupers or african pompanos. In depths exceeding 150’, these fish can be found. In the past weeks, commercial divers have scored on a handful of black groupers that tipped the scales over 100 pounds. Now that recreational divers can hunt these deeper waters they hope to get lucky and find some nice groupers in depths from 150’ to 190’. Scamps can regularly present in the 24’ to 34” range and that’s well over the minimum size of 16”. Scamp grouper is one of my favorite grouper to eat. Scamp groper is a very mild white fish. The flesh is firm and sweet with a limited bloodline. In these deeper diving depths nice sized red grouper are also on the same bottom structure at the black grouper and scamps. Up in the water column in these depths the tasty and beautiful african pompano fish are hovering over nice bottom structure. They like to gather over wrecks and springs. They are just moving more north and can be found just south of Sarasota. In a few weeks there will be more of these fish heading north to the Middle Grounds.
- Jay Mastry - March 26, 2024
- Captains Corner, Gorta - March 23, 2024
- Dave Zalewski - March 12, 2024
