Snowy Grouper Season

by Capt. John Sahagian

One of my favorite activities is coming of season come January 1.  That is the opening of snowy grouper season.  While deep dropping is one of my favorite kinds of fishing it just isn’t the same without being able to keep the one snowy grouper per boat per day allowed by the federal rules.  While the State of Florida is much more reasonable in its limits it is indeed rare to catch a snowy grouper within the state’s boundaries.

While I find the federal seasonal and bag limit restrictions ridiculous, the rules are the rules.  So until rational thinking prevails we have to do our best to maximize what we are forced to work within.

If you are going to get only one shot a day at a keeper, make it a BIG one.  In the old days before the draconian restrictions, I would use the same baits and rig for grouper as I would for tilefish, barrelfish and rose fish.  The size of the grouper would run the gamut from itty bitty to huge.  To insure that you keep to the huge side of the spectrum, it is imperative to weed out all but the most over-sized specimens.

When it comes to choosing your bait, go big or go home.  When you inspect the mouth of a snowy grouper the first thing that you will notice is that its mouth is huge, even more so than its cousin the red grouper.  I use this as kind of a template for how big of a bait to choose.

Bonita, mackerel, dolphin, octopus and squid all make fine bait for snowys.   I have tried several live baits, however I have not had luck with them.  Filet of bonita  is my favorite and I will use a whole filet of a medium bonita or maybe just half it’s a larger bonita.  If using squid, you should be looking for individual bats to be about a foot or longer.  It is acceptable to stack several squid on one hook.

Speaking of hooks, yes a big circle hook is in order.  I wish I could just blurt out a number for the size hook that you should be using, but unlike J hooks, the tackle industry missed the boat on using a universal size for sizing circle hooks.  Every manufacture has a different scale for their hooks, and some even have a different scale for different models of circle hook within their own line.   Mustad heavy duty circle hook in 12/0 to 14/0 is the size that I prefer, so if you can identify the size of this hook you will know what you are looking for in other brands.

When I target other species deep dropping I usually will deploy a 4 hook rig.  When I target snowy grouper I will drop back to two hooks.  I make a simple dropper.  I start with 12 feet of sixty pound fluorocarbon leader.  I tie a surgeons end loop on each end then two more evenly spaced between the ends.  The top loop is fastened to a snap swivel on the main line.  The bottom is connected to a dropper with the weights.  To fasten the hooks to the center loops just pass the loop through the eye of the hook then pass the body of the hook through the loop and snug down.  Just make sure to make the loop long enough to pass the hook through.   I do like to add a flashing light to the top of the leader.  I usually just put it into the snap of the snap swivel.

How much weight you’ll need to hold bottom depends on several factors.  The most important of which is how much wind that you have to fight.  You need to stay above your bait to the greatest extent possible.  I usually find that I have to back the boat down to keep over my bait.  If the wind is crossing the direction of the current it also takes more weight to hold bottom.  I usually start with a pound and a half and go up until I am able to stay near the bottom without constantly dropping the bait by letting more line out.

The use of braded line has allowed the use of much smaller reels for deep dropping until now I am successfully using spinning reels as my primary deep drop rig.  Fifty pound line is plenty strong to lift anything that I have hooked while dropping.  Thanks to its thin diameter it has little drag through the water and because it has virtually no stretch you can feel the smallest bump or nibble even over 700 feet down.

Inevitably you will be in the situation where you will have to release a grouper.  When brought up from these great depths there is a significant amount of barotrauma suffered by the fish.  Simply venting it with a venting tool and dropping it back into the water will rarely allow the fish to return to the depths.  To have the best chance of success I use my down rigger to return fish to a depth at which the gas bubbles in their tissues have all but disappeared.   A fish that is stiff as a board upon reaching the surface will begin to tug at the line again when dropped back to depth.

I have replaced my stainless steel cable with heavy braid and have over 300 feet on the reel.  A ten pound down rigger weight will return all but the largest grouper.  I use a small bronzed hook that will corrode quickly and bridle the fish with a light piece of monofilament line.  When the fish is at depth just power the boat forward quickly and snap the line from the weight.  Only once have I had a fish with so much buoyancy that I had to add a second cannon ball to get it down.

Deep dropping for snowy grouper is the perfect activity for an angler with Fishing ADD.  Often times you have your limit on the first drop leaving plenty of time for other pursuits.

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