With windy conditions from our first cold front of the year, cooling waters will help many near shore species to bite. The shallow water grouper bite is one of them. Plugging for gag grouper is special to our area because of the many rocks and reef structure that scatter the coastline from 5 to 15 feet. Medium to heavy spinning tackle with 30lb. braid and a 60lb. mono leader is the best tackle for pulling a keeper gag grouper at 24″ from the rocky structure. Some of my favorite plugs are those that have a short lip and with run about three feet under the surface. Some of the best colors are fire tiger, gold/black or chrome. Cast the plug just past the rock and to either edge so to make the fish to chase the plug away from the rock to have a better chance of getter “rocked up” with a large grouper. The hard part about shallow water grouper is finding the structure. My suggestion is to run a north or south line from Homosassa Marker #4 and look for yellow bottom with a dark patch in the middle. Generally if an angler finds one rock there are more near it, One way to find the other rocks is to look for turtles breaching the surface. Green turtles live near and on the rocks and sometimes schools of small glass minnows will dimple the water at top of the rocks on a calm day.
Capt. William Toney is a full time 4th generation fishing guide from Homosassa. Experience some of Florida’s best inshore fishing and beautiful unspoiled backcountry. His boat is a custom built 23 foot Tremblay and uses G-Loomis rods with Shimano reels. Trout, redfish and shore lunch are Capt. Williams specialty’s but many other species are caught or targeted.
- Nature Coast - March 23, 2024
- William Toney - February 29, 2024
- Nature Coast - February 14, 2024
