Despite the current closed grouper seasons we have had a couple of great offshore trips over the last week.



We have been running to the 30 mile range to target porgies that have flooded that area over the last month or so. We are also catching some nice mangrove snapper, triggerfish, a few scamp grouper, and a ton of nice red grouper along with a few gags that have to be released.



We have been using mainly squid and live shrimp for bait as well as cut threadfin herrings.



To try to avoid catching the out of season grouper we have been fishing very small baits, even cutting the shrimp in half, and using small squid rings pinned to 1/0 hooks on 20# spinning gear.



At times the red grouper to the upper 20” marks are still taking the baits before anything else can get to them. With lots of trips scheduled through the end of the year we anticipate fishing the same style until red grouper season opens back up the first of the year.