Last week's great weather produced great offshore fishing for almost anything that was targeted. Baitfish are in abundance everywhere and can be caught with a few throws of a cast net or jigged up with sabiki rigs.
May is a transition month when fisheries usually change. Red grouper become the target of choice for bottom fishermen. Reds started feeding last week on their usual hard bottom areas around 90 feet.
Vermillion snapper called "beeliners" in our area inhabit these same waters and at times become a nuisance when they pick clean-baited hooks intended for the grouper before they reach the bottom. Beeliners are an excellent bait when targeting large red grouper on the swiss-cheese bottom. Normally the red grouper cannot catch the active snapper, but when one is wounded and falls to the bottom it quickly becomes a gourmet meal. They can be caught on small hooks using pieces of squid for bait or can be sabikied up using a No. 14 rig.
Beeliners can be hooked above the anal fin and used just as any live bait such as pinfish or grunts. The dorsal fin, and about one inch of the flesh beneath it cut from just in back of the head to the tail, might work when nothing else does. This strip should be hooked in one end so that it will produce an enticing wiggle in the current.
Butterflying, by cutting from behind the head to the tail on each side of the fish and removing the back backbone, creates a bait that has the smell of a wounded fish along with the action of the flapping, which is effective.
Beeliners make excellent table fare. The minimum size is 10 inches.
- Dave Zalewski charters the Lucky Too out of Madeira Beach and can be reached at 727 397-8815 or by e-mail at Luckytoo2@aol.com
