This is the first trip offshore since my birthday. I will be keeping this blog until July 13, next summer. I went out with Lynn and Bill on the world famous "MISS AMANDA" a 20' Key West. We left Shem creek at 5:30 and went to Morris Island to get live bait. The Menhaden did not disappoint us, and in short order we had a full live well.
A 30 mile run put us in the area known as the Garden (100'), and after a little searching, I found a suitable piece of ledge, and the carnage began. We dropped J-hook rigs for triggers and B-liners and Carolina rigs for Grouper. The triggers and red mouth grunts were hungry, but the groupers were not eating. Let me add that 3 weeks ago, we limited out on grouper in twenty minutes here. We moved out to one of my hot spots, known as "Day Maker" (120') and tried again for the grouper. I hooked up with at least two large Gags, but had one tear out, and the other "rocked" me and shredded the leader. We ended up catching a limit of B-liners, Red Porgy. Black fish and Triggers, but no grouper. We saw one small dolphin, a 50 lb Cobia, and lots of Barracudas. We worked back in to the rock pile and another ledge in the garden, but it was not to be for the Grouper today. I will have to say that it was a hot, miserable day on the water. No breeze, and staggering humidity, coupled with being on a boat with no T-top, made for a long day. I checked with a few divers that were out in the same area, and they reported bad visibility, with no grouper either, so I don't feel so bad. Will be planning to get back out there this weekend.
