Quote Originally Posted by waterdog101 View Post
hey man, I went yesterday deep sea fishing, it was out of ft myers, from the getaway marina on captian tonys boat. I met some of the nices guys ever, we went out 24 miles, couldn't see anything but water. they took up 2 dollars each for whoever caught the largest single fish. a 25 inch grouper won the big fish pool. most of the fish that were being caught were grunt fish. I caught 5 fish. it was fun but I thought the fish would be of better size. but over all it was a fun trip. didn't take any pictures the fish were to small.
If you're bottom fishing, the average size tends to be small, but the numbers are usually really good!

I've been offshore of Islamorada several times, and we did well on grouper, grunts, and bluerunner bottom/reef fishing. Grunts are something you can catch from pier near shore - I stayed in a beachfront house while in Islamorada that had a pier/boat dock. In the evenings it was nothing to load up on 50+ grunts in a matter of an hour or so...they are almost like the bluegill of the sea, next to the pinfish. We only had to go maybe 5 or 10 miles, if that, offshore to get to some decent grouper fishing. On one trip, I asked the crew if there was a way to skip the bottom fishing and just cast live bait off the side for some schooling fish...they allowed me to do that and I was able to hook up on some great king mackerel!

On the gulf side, you really do have to go out far to get to good reef fishing - those continental shelves go way out and it takes forever to get to deeper water. I went offshore several times out of Crystal River, FL and we had to go 40 miles out to get to some good reefs...but it was worth it in that the grouper and red snapper were plentiful and huge!

Congrats on the grouper! Those make some of the best fish sandwiches!!!

Any word on the King Mackerel there in Fort Walton? I always enjoyed walking the docks in the late afternoon as guys were coming in to see what the catch of the day was. That also helped me decide who to go out with the next day or what species to try and target.