The Tampa Bay Times
Red grouper season ended early this year and the last legal red groupers for recreational spearfishermen were taken on the last day of August. We found a few nice ones over 12 pounds last weekend, but they were in depths over 100’. The closure of red grouper will undoubtedly put more pressure on other groupers, such as gag, scamp and black groupers. Gag grouper hunting is still having a banner year. In most depths, if there is enough underwater visibility to see fish, legal sized gag groupers can be spotted. However, spotting gags does not always mean harvesting gags. Gag grouper season has been open for a while now and these crafty fish are very wary. They are not as easy to approach as the red groupers. We found good amounts of gags last weekend in the Florida Middle Grounds. The largest was in the thirty-pound class, but most were 10 to 20 pounds. The key to finding the gags was finding the thermocline. I went back and looked at the logbook section of my dive computer and on one of the good dives the logbook showed 89 degrees on my descent to about 120’, and then the water temperature drastically dropped to 79 degrees. This big temperature drop contained big schools of bait and with the bait were plenty of gag groupers. The cooler water had the fish in a frenzy. Most of the fish really enjoy the cooler water temperatures and when the bait has found the cooler thermocline too, the action can be hot.
- Jay Mastry - March 26, 2024
- Captains Corner, Gorta - March 23, 2024
- Dave Zalewski - March 12, 2024
