On The Hook

When the water temps here in Southwest Florida head into the frig, your chances of bringing home a big fish narrow to a single species.

Easy answer: It’s grouper! The delectable resident of deep water caves, ledges and rocky bottom that thrills the angler with it’s bullish struggle before succumbing and later gracing the dinner table with mouth watering filets.

Bet you can’t wait to get out there; to go deep with gas prices down, and bring some of those great red and gag grouper to the cleaning table. Well you better make January count because that’s all you going to get this winter!

The bad news is “badder” than last year’s closure of red grouper for one month. This year you can add to that red grouper one month closure (from Feb. 15 to March 15), a gag grouper closure from Feb. 1 to March 31 — that’s two full months with no-take of the grouper species most prevalent here during the winter months.

Hate to do it, but here’s another grenade. The closures will be total (i.e. effective) in both federal and state waters. The independent position of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission on not shadowing the federal rules is over. We have the authorities in lockstep; there’s a good chance that will be the operational posture from now on.

It would be easy to get into the arguments and laments of these actions that are riddled with factors of questionable data, a terribly negative blow in the face of the national economic situation or, the classic grievance, of the allocation between commercial and recreational sectors, but we’re not going there.

Rather, I would like to take the issue of gross closures like these right down to the individual level and demonstrate, up close and personal, how they effect the recreational angler.
It was about this time of year, chilly and right before Christmas, a couple of years back, when I booked a charter for a fellow from the U.K., who was here for the holidays, bored stiff with the wife’s shopping and yearned for a nice filet or two of fresh fish.

Simon was very cordial and low key as we set out on a chilly morning filled with brilliant sunshine. His goals for the trip were quite modest; a morning on the pristine waters; a photo or two of some curious and cooperating dolphin and a nice size fish or two for the evening’s supper.
Easy enough, I thought. Wrong!

We set up early on a traditional sheepshead spot — maybe two of these guys would do the trick. With baits in the water, we experienced “taps and takes” right off the bat. The sheepies were hard at work doing what they do best; nudging and swiping your bait long before you react. I tried everything including having Simon put his baited rod in the rodholder. The sheepshead even did their thing before Simon could wrench the rod out of the holder.
Enough. We went off to try for snapper.

Simon did well on the snapper. He was landing them left and right. All of them were barely bigger than the shrimp we were using. He called them “wee” fish, certainly not what he or I had in mind.

Enough. We went off to try for spotted seatrout.

We worked the pass with tipped jigs and sure enough, Simon latched onto a hefty trout on a drift that gave him quite a struggle as he worked hard in the retrieval.
“Now, that’s more like it” he exclaimed as a 18” keeper trout squirmed on the hook.
“Nice fish, Simon, but the trout season is closed and we’re going to have to put him back,” was my timid response.

“Well I’ve heard that snook is a sizeable fish and great table fare. Can we fish for those” was Simons follow up response. I told Simon it would be my pleasure, but the season was also closed on snook. Even if we landed one, we would have to release.

Simon wasn’t too easy going after that. It took me a while to explain the closure. He listened but wasn’t buying, at all.
“I’m in the travel business and send people here to Southwest Florida all the time” Simon spewed. ”Many of them come to fish and pour lots of dollars into your economy and here you blokes have these fishing absolutes of none of these and none of those and that’s too small and that’s too big. It’s maddening!”
Trying to change the banter and move on I suggested that we move out onto the nearshore reefs for the possibility of a grouper. Simon’s caustic inquiry was anticipated “is the season closed on grouper, too”.

I assured him it wasn’t on the grouper we were after, but there were significant size restrictions.
“Figures, but we might as well go try” was Simon’s dejected response.
We set up on structure and gold hooked a dozen or so pinfish and set major rigs with live bait a turn or two off the bottom. We were catching grouper on just about every drop but, you guessed it, all too small.

Then all of the sudden the rod doubled over and was pushed to breaking. Simon grabbed the rod and the struggle was on. He shouted “this is a major fish. This is it.” Simon pulled up and the fish pulled down, time and time again. Finally after what seemed the longest 15 minutes ever, Simon surfaced his mammoth fish, a goliath grouper.
The boat was much too small for me to find a place to hide. But I knew I had to tell him.
“Simon that’s a goliath grouper, not one of the types we were after and, I’m sorry to say, they are permanently out of season.”

The look on Simon’s face was a show stopper as we released the goliath grouper and tried to go back fishing. But he was done.
We talked on the way home.

“Tell me, Captain, how many of those fish we were after today can one keep” asked Simon.
“You can keep five grouper and four sea trout per person” was the response.
“Well there’s the problem. Five or even four sizeable fish are much too many for any one day’s keep for one person. Most would be satisfied with one or at the most two on such a trip. If your authorities, limited the number taken, they could at least lessen this nonsense of closed seasons.”
Think of this little story, come February and you’re releasing keeper grouper and hoping to come home with a handful of 14” snapper.

Capt. Bill Walsh owns an established Marco Island charter fishing business and holds a current U.S. Coast Guard license. Send comments or questions to dawnpatrolcharters@compuserve.com.