Gag Grouper

[Cutiger]

Try pulling those Manns lures in the area of the buoy 24 barge in the fall and winter once the water gets cold. That 24 barge is popular, but a there's fish there (or used to be when I still lived at home down there) and is a good place to cut your teeth on it and start figuring it out.

Get on the FWC website and get the numbers for all the artificial reefs. Again, very popular and you'll be sorting through lots of small fish. But they're easy to find and good start for you cutting your teeth on it, learning to read your bottom machine, and getting your anchoring down. You'll need to become very accurate with your anchoring. If you're 20 feet off the hole, you can forget catching keeper grouper.

Grouper move out to deeper water as the water warms up, and come in shallower during the fall and winter. We used to run to 80-120 feet during the summer, which is a fricking haul out of St. Marks to the SW, but we were in a 29 Mako, not a run you'll do a single engine 20 footer. But keeper grouper can definitely be caught within 10 miles during the cooler months.

Also, if you want to get into grouper fishing considering going and learning Carrabelle. Even just that little bit of a drive further west gets you to some deeper water much quicker than St. Marks. Haven't been to it in years, but we had a small unmarked hole not 5 miles off the beach at Dog Island that was loaded with grouper. Great for a day in a 20 footer or quick run out there for a couple hours. Grouper holes don't have to big big wrecks. Sometimes it's just a 1 or 2 foot ledge, or a depression the size of a boat. Some of the bottom out of St. Marks looks like swiss cheese full of holes. You won't see much at all on the bottom machine, but it's there.

I have a 3 ring binder slammed full of bottom fishing numbers from St. Marks to Panama City. Some we found, some gifted by good friends who are life long gulf grouper fishermen. Unfortunately, they're old and probably 90% of them are in Loran.

Rods and reels, all you need is a Penn Senator 113H loaded with 50 lb mono. You don't need to spend a ton of money on braid. You can catch all the grouper you care to catch out of St. Marks or Carrabelle on 50 lb mono. And you're better off with the mono if you're going to troll with them too. We always used Star rods, 5'9" or 6". We've always been in camp that believes in short stiff bottom rods. There's another camp that believes in big azz 8' rods, but not me.