Tuna, Grouper, Dolphin, Wahoo

[Super Strike Charters]

The offshore fishing over the past week has been excellent. Most days the bite was early for tuna and dolphin and then it was off to fish for reef fish. The weather wasn’t the greatest with a lot of thunderstorm activity towards the later half of the weekend but not bad enough to keep us from getting offshore. We were mostly just limited as to where we could go. The tuna fishing has been about as good as it gets but you had to have lines in the water no later than 7:15 a.m. and with a little luck, in-shape anglers, you could have a better than average day. The fish were a little smaller this week with most of them averaging about 50-60lbs., but they were plentiful. There are a lot of bigger ones out there right now, however, you may have to do a little searching. Mahi Mahi have shown up, but the grass lines have not really been forming up that great so we have been catching most of them while tuna fishing. Wahoo are here and there as well. Once we get a decent rip line there will be bigger numbers of them caught. A lot of billfish have been caught this year, and I don’t expect that to slow down any this month. Snapper season was good but not the best I have seen over the past couple of years. There was a lot of pressure this season, probably the most I’ve ever seen. Everything from the usual offshore boats to bay boats, crab boats, flat boats, and bass boats were out fishing for snapper. Some days there was a waiting line at certain rigs in order to get a spot. The fish are there but a lot of strong currents and fishing pressure kept us from fishing our usual areas and we had to move around some to find our limit some days, but we always got it. Over the past week our main problem was the amount of untargeted species such as Jack Crevalle, Sharks, and Mackerel. They seemed to have taken over a few areas that were holding a lot of snapper. We will see what next year brings us. As far as Cobia and Grouper go, this has been one of the best years I have seen for catching these species. Cobia have really made a showing in our area, probably due to the low river, clean water, and a lot of bait fish. Grouper are there and are mostly eating live bait. If you can find the right size live bait (small) limits of Scamp Grouper are easily caught along with a few gags. Warsaw Grouper are numerous as well, but it definitely requires a little more patience and the right conditions.

Damon McKnight
Super Strike Charters

info@superstrikecharters.com

[smallz]

great video and pics, thats alot of sushi and sandwiches!! good to see the Gulf producing quality fish...