May 2024 | Fort Pierce Sportfishing Club Seminar
Brian Godwin of Savage Pursuit Charters gives a lecture about bottom fishing
been 18 and captain’s license I lived in I grew up down in Palm City that’s I went to Martin County um through that time I actually when I was a freshman we moved down to keys I spent 14 years down there reason of all this is my dad he was a commercial fisherman he did Snapper grouper he had a permit at the time so that’s what I did Growing Up was bottom fishing but we’ll get more to that here in a second but after the keys I moved back here for probably 17 years ago and I’ve been back and forth here since um my whole time growing up in Palm City this is probably the most section of fishing we did uh the groupers when since I’ve been little the groupers this was the spot the Snappers pretty much everything for B unless we got down to the keys or up towards ST augus which I spent a lot of time out um getting from that last couple years we introduced some more boats into the crowd I started with a 25 foot Southern Cross which that’s for the last three and a half years is the only boat I had which kind of eliminated me from some days of when it got rough to being able to get out on so now last year this year being the first full year with it we got a 34t CV which has trip Merks on it I can pretty much do anything you want to do I can pretty much catch anything you want you dream it I’ll catch it or we’ll we’ll try it for sure um also during the winter from November going into February you know it gets rough we get them northe e also with that it brings good stuff we get the pompo the permits and all that kind of stuff that come in so now coming into those times of years I’m going to pretty much be doing a lot of inore stuff specializing in things that other people don’t try to do you know like the pompo the permit and Snook which can’t leave up with snook but my biggest Focus tonight is going to be on bottom fishing I know that’s pretty much what everybody wants to hear wants me to talk about so I’m just kind of going to walk you through everything here at a four Pier you know it’s about 13 to 14 miles we get to the Natural Reef line when I’m saying that it’s the natural Reef natural rocks that run pretty much from here to North Carolina same line all the way down to Key West only thing that differ it the more south you go you don’t have to run as far you go out of Jupiter same 80 foot depth that we’re fishing out of here three miles out of here 14 you go up north say Daytona St Augustine 72 to 80 miles you’re getting into the 80 foot line somewhere when you’re running straight out between 655 to 100 there’s going to be a reef line no doubt about it there’s going to be some areas we have big rocks which you here are bethl shs that’s some of the biggest reef probably on this Coast that you’ll see some of the biggest Ledges rocks this monster stuff out there and then more south you go you’ll see how it breaks up you see on that se more maps big thing shows a lot of Secrets if you don’t have many numbers I suggest getting mapping systems like that see more maps ionics Garmin they all make good stuff to show a lot of things that can really help you like going south get back to that you know the re cars just split up a little bit it’s more that’s why you’ll see mutton Snappers a lot more mutton Snappers more south you go because they don’t really care for that big giant structure they just like hard bottom you know because they’ll get out and lay in sand most of the time now up here more North we go we start to see the big mangroves the real big ones you know we catch them 14 lbs and that’s when you’ll see them up shs has that big structure they like those big rocks they get up tight and in that stuff that’s their home it’s like a condo they move in move out they just keep hopping Down The Reef they follow water temperature like grouper people don’t realize how much a grouper will move um like you see this year everybody’s killing them lots of grber being CAU this winter we had a lot of Northeast hard Northeast winds after Northeast after Northeast and all that cold pushes those fish um grouper fishing up in North Carolina you you watch people up there those captains that run out there they do real good on them and you know those fish migrate they move and I think this year we got a big herd of fish that came in but going to it like that when made this normal ref fishing I’m going talk a lot about so when we get out to 80 foot and I fish anywhere from 65 to 100 foot first thing you know every day is different you can’t go out there and expect the same thing you seen yesterday that’s for sure you get out there the day you were out there you fish with 3 oz or you were swinging around the anchor straight down or you go out the next day and it takes 20 o to hold the bottom so you never know what to spec so you got to be prepared for about everything when you get out there guys the biggest thing when you’re looking out on the roof you marking you guys you know there’s got to be something down there to catch so you run around you got that hard red on the bottom you get out there the best way to find spots is trolling when you go trolling spend some days trolling you know zigzagging on that Reef line you’re looking for you’ll see little scatters come up to it you know but somewhere along that you’re looking for a ledge a big depth change or something you’ll see just big pod big pod Mark big giant what it is is grunts it’s grunts for Millions sers Lanes just a bunch of little life lots of life and you want that for that’s what gets the mangr and the muttons and everything in that area that kind of makes it a good spot once you get get there and you get anchored up on it you know the first thing I do which tells you pretty much everything it’s a chicken rig old chicken rig with some squid now everyone knows everything like squid I just run some normal one up hooks it’s the first thing I do when I get tied on the anchor and anchor up I pick someone in the crowd probably the person doesn’t look like they never fished too much before is this it’s the easiest rout to use anyone can do this and depending on the ti you know start with a 5 oz and it also telling me a lot of other things it’s telling me how much current I got if I hand this to the guy and I put the squid on there and I say hey this is the only ride you’re going to snatch on today so when this thing hits the bottom and you lock it up and it starts shaking give it a snatch what I’m looking for is the grunts but you never know what else you get you see the big all them trigger fish and stuff you see me catch a lot of times this one little Rod that guys hold and catches most of those trigger fish a lot of those Lane Snappers cuz most of all my other stuff I’m using bigger profile baits that I’m handing out which the tomtate which is the gr it’s the official name it’s the big thing I’m wanting I try to catch a bucket full of those things because throughout the day that’s my favorite bait I cut those things in a plugs I use the heads and I cut it and I’ll show you here in a minute you get that you get that grunt you top that Top Fin cut it right off you lay him down cut that tail off you look down that grunt you see a little Gold Line that runs down it just split right down the middle so you now you got two little pieces sitting here wiggling kind right behind his gills just like you’re going to do it and cut those two pieces off so you got two little plugs and his head now with the head we’ll get back to that with the two little plugs we’ll use on some lighter tackle and stuff but the chicken rig that’s what we’re using mainly need to do is get some bait in the boat and stuff also when they’re dropping it down and I look at them a second later and I just see the line blowing out of it kind of telling me how I’m going have to rig my other stuff fish that day how much current I’m going to have which is a big deal why they make so many different Siz leads what you can get at the Brooks there my buddy about everything you see in my box comes from that tackle shop right there he knows a lot of my secrets so he’ll probably tell you what tackle and stuff that I that I might miss I know he passes it out a little bit but other than that guys that’s the first thing I do when we get there we’ll drop that down get some squid get some grunts see what’s going on and I’ll keep somebody on that Rod that generating movement down there getting life you know something going up and down up and down all those grunts you catch Little Bee liners and you’re throwing them back that’s what gets those cobas and that kind of stuff interested they’re very interested fish so all that going up and down gets their attention just other things all that banging on the bottom it’s the mangr and the muttons moving around the mutton sitting out in the sand gets them pumped up this thing’s happening while I’m doing that I’m getting other things ready another important Rod that I have on the boat I don’t do too much troll only when it’s really good when the trollers catching dolphin I’m catching dolphin on anchor cuz they’re swimming right down that Reef line that Reef generate has bait so when the water’s right and everything else is happening those fish are there too one of my favorite rigs there nothing but three six0 mustach hooks that I took and crimped together and what this the second thing I do is I grab me an old fresh frozen lime bait out of old 5 lb sardine box starting out his tail I put this hook in in this one in and this one ends right on top of the Sardine right through his lip so you look at it just perfectly sitting on that bait so when I throw it out there it’s nice little live bait bang it on the surface that catches the kingfish the dolphin everything I call the black fin everything you see in my pictures and stuff most of the time I do put live bits and stuff out when I can get them you know using Stinger rig or something like that but preferably this is one of my favorite things to do and you know this Kingfish being a Striker most of the time they hit off the back two hooks so very rarely do you get I mean they will bite it off sometimes but they catches a bunch of them without having to deal with the wire and all that all right does that rig have a name what we call it triple hooks triple hook rig triple hook rig triple well you want to see how I make it sure all right well I can do that too that’s something I’m good at come on Alex you can hold this microphone for me you want me to hold it yeah man okay see I got to get organized like you like that’s hardest part my best tackle box right there I had everything as like those I get to P Cy I lose all my reels and everything use it for leader for a lot of things for mutton fishing you couldn’t afford to use Flor carbon mutton fishing the way I do it’s got the amount of line I throw out sometimes but we’ll get to that next dig got all this crap here get the hooks here you go buddy this real quick very important thing to keep especially when you’re a charter Captain you get a tensional hook in you these pliers have saved my day because they’re only one of the few pliers you know that cut right through a hook when it gets in me first thing I do is grab a hold of that line and him whole steel cut the line I reach over there and pull it through and push it out cut the bar so these things no matter how rough they get which Alex carries these spin $70 so you you spray some WD40 on them a bunch and try to take care of them but these here going on about seven months very important thing for to have in the boat in my opinion and I keep keep them close but when you take the 6 hook mustach get you three of them out you take it right there just a little corner of those wires just kind of pinch it pull like that take that other one there you slide it in there now on these Manley they’re one of the only pliers that are designed to do this you see the little Groove in there it keeps it from sliding around on you so you can slide that hook in there just crimp it back closed and then the same thing on the next one now on fishing inside the reef you know unless there’s a lot of tiing the time until you get out a little deeper and you got a lot of Tide I’ll take and I’ll put a swivel in front of the hook like on that one you seen right there to keep it from like spinning around you know CU it getting on it up are you separating the eye or twisting it off to the side I am separating digging those pliers and just getting inside right there and just crimping pushing down and pulling it apart a little bit just enough only takes a little bit you want to make sure you crimp it back cuz it will if you don’t it will pop out there you’ll most of the time it doesn’t happen because it’s tight on the fish is when you Gap him Lan and he shakes his head Miracle you see hooks fly two different ways like I still got him is there a reason you don’t use the ones that come already open they come loose a lot easier they do come loose easier okay I just had experienced a lot of issues with them and I just the ones that I crimp and undo myself they’re just much much more better okay my opinion my opinion my opinion okay much more better there a reason I’m a [Laughter] fisherman any questions on that what’s the Branded pliers Manley okay Manley yeah they make a shest thing but these you know you can squish down on them and they’ll cut I ain’t had a hook I use 10o circle hooks on grouper and that’s the last thing I had in me and it went right through it so it can go through some through some through some hooks I mean you’re just good for everything you just got to take care of them cuz they didn’t build them the last all right any questions on that the chicken rig the grunts the bait anything I wonder how going on the next thing chicken rig chicken rig is the name how did it get its name did someone put chicken on it no they call Red Snappers chickens over on the golf and over there they’ll tie multiple rigs like the commercial guys do they use like 32 hooks at one time catch them oh yeah You’ look it on YouTube you can watch them pull it up one after another that’s why you got the name chicken rap and they call Red Snappers chicken and the next thing I’ll hand everybody out are these little spin rods now one idea of this thing is I’m just trying to burn time A lot of times but these things do catch fish now the mangr Snappers and stuff oh I have box of sardines on a boat and while they’re catching ground so I’ll take the sardines you like the little Frozen ones you’ll get call them popsicles they’re all individually Frozen we’ll cut the tails off you guys want to look at that and I’ll try to keep them as Frozen as I can I keep it cooler on the boat you know and keep them separated cuz you know when it gets mushy you drop them down they no they blow it off real quick you know Snapper when he sniffs at it it just feels like it comes with the hook so you can keep it nice firm baited helps a lot so I’ll pass these out while some one’s catching Grunts and I’ll pass these out you know every day different if there’s a lot of Tide I won’t hand these out you know I try to keep it anything more than a 4 oun Sinker on these spinning rods but these things are rated real heavy this is like a 200 lb class rod and reason it’s so heavy is I’ll show you here in a second I lock it down there’s 30 lb braid on this and then I put backing on it you know for the stretch like you’ve heard and it’s 30 lb pink Angy that I roll up probably 15 to 20 yards into it going to a Double Uni single giving to the leader this is a 3 oz on here right now which those plugs that we were talking about earlier coming off the ground so all those little ones you know they’re not little you don’t want to make them little small things you know unless you’re trying to catch lane snapper love them but when I’m out there I’m trying to catch the big snapper the mangr the muttons I’m known as a meat fisherman I’m trying to fill a cooler every time I go out there I I want to kill so definitely that’s how I grew up we didn’t have have excuse my langage if we didn’t have fish in the Box we Ain making no money but now with the charter it’s a little different but I’m not that kind of guy I want to go out there and kill I want to fill the Box up even though it takes me two and a half hours to clean 40 mangr in a grouper hell yeah put it on Facebook make everybody jealous gold a day but um going on you know with it’s got lost I was talking about two must demon three 40 three times yeah three better get these things in stock NOW boy 9174 I use the mustach I’m a must all the way around um these are the demons three times strong I use a heavy hook because you know you get a Kobe on there or something they straighten it going back to the drags you know with the fish these reals I use you know they 23 24 lbs Max so you got braid and on on it none of that stuff should break this reel should turn off before that and another thing with the Snappers you know this is that’s about where I’ll have my drag got to have it tight now if you’re fishing like I see a lot of people give me their rods and it’s like this you ain’t going to catch me any of the big snapper because the first thing he does when pull that he gets in a rock I’m sure a lot of you know so you got to fish tight drags when your bottom fishing and you know you pay attention if you see fgic fish like Kobe and stuff like that when they come up to the surface you’ll see them start to stretch way before they get to the top and that’s when you got it only time really got to loosen those drags but bottom fishing you got to fish tight drag real tight drag Ian just to get them off the bottom all that a lot of times with these spin rods and fishing light this is more of a finy setup you know when things are tough and things I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on I hand these out usually start with especially if I see I’m only using having to use 5 oz on that if I’m using 5 o on my bait Rod I start handing these out just to see what’s down there because everything eats smaller bait that’s where you see a lot of the smaller mangr the two Pounders the three Pounders the five Pounders and I play with the baits I use a sardine I give one guy a grunt plug and one the bait guys got them little Pils them little Pils some days they absolutely hate them and some days they commit suicide that’s probably the easiest thing to catch snapper on is when they want eat it but they don’t always eat it very rarely you know you go out there 3 days and they want to eat the filters so the grunt the grunt plugs are some of the best baits for cyber fishing because it can sit down there and take the beating there the little grunts the Vermilion everything that ate that chicken rig is down there now sucking on that piece of bait you put down there that’s what I mean you got to use big profile bait like that whole grunt plug I cut off you know that grunt start with is probably that long and when I cut him down each plug that long you put down a little plug like that you’re going to end up catch another drunk or Lane snap or beine or something little so you got to stick some of them bigger baits and another thing I notic on my Charters once I give them these rods and stuff even with you try to let someone hold that big Rod which we get to next that doesn’t know anything about it it’s pretty pretty tough day but the biggest thing with SN fishing and people go out there people have numbers and they fish like man I can’t catch the mang and stuff because when I go fishing with I give them that Rod as soon as it hits the bottom the first thing they start doing is I’m getting bites but they won’t get on first CLE hook you don’t s you’re just going to Reeve down you got to keep that pressure on it our fish here most of our fish we got they don’t get big be dumb you know they’re smart especially a mangr snapper a mangr snapper he’s probably wanted mutton too he ain’t far from being that but when a mutton gets a little more onto it he eats it a mango he’ll play with a big one them 10 12 Pounders I’ve sit there with a rod and pretty much had to almost take the handle off the guy’s Rod that let him eat it because he kept kept getting jump he played with 15 minutes you run out a little bit of line just drop it what he’s doing is grabbing the back of that bait and moving a little bit moving a little bit what really gets some is when we get in the spawn and they get multiple fish down there is when they’ll get a little more Dum when they they got to fight for it you know but when coming into the end of the season like in October when you start to see some of the real big mangr are in the beginning now when they’re starting to get together they play with it a lot you know they’re really careful really careful what they’re doing um got to sited there and I to tell everyone you got let’s sit you got let sit because what’s happening is the grunts and all that start bumping on it and that’s what you’re feeling that’s all you’re feeling is that I mean you can let that happen your the bait looks the same maybe a couple scales missing because it’s such a big profile bait now a sardine you put it down there a minute later all that little nibble went around you ain’t got the big tug got to bring it up it’s time to rebate and drop another one down there cuz they do not stay on the hook very long but the grunt plug you can fish that bait for a good while you know and usually it’s going to tell you if the right ones down there you just get away even when he starts getting on there Thump Thump I tell everyone just let him Thump Thump you’re going to feel the difference in the right bite once everyone catches their first one from there on it’s on cuz you know what you’re looking for but you got to let them eat it it’s like everyone jumping up and I look at them go hey if you’re eating a cheeseburger and I walked over and slapped your damn elbow every time you went and take a bite you going throw cheeseburger in the water and say hell the same thing that Snapper saying to youself he ain’t going you ain’t going to eat it eat it but yeah why is that and the conditions are right I ain’t got a lot of Tide you know and I can get this this holds into you know a good knot 3 o cuz the 30 lb braid once you get down to the tide good way to see what’s going on down there it catches the I mean I’ve caught 18 lb button on this same rig it’s it pulls on it so you can catch big ones on it too it’s just a way to keep filling the box but you know depending on the people in the crowd on the boat this is the big dog on the roof now that head that I had that I had left over from the plugs that’s my favorite bait if I go fishing by myself that’s on the reef s for fishing stuff that’s what’s pretty much out there and once again you know you get out there depending on the tides you know this is pretty much basic weight out of four Piers maybe 4 o you know 4 o is 6 o it’s basically a lot of four Piers now here this year we’ve been having a lot of time last last couple weeks have been some eights and twelves is out there in 80 ft and um prob in the deep water I mean we depending on what we’re doing I’ll anchor in the deep water out there I’ll anchor all the way up to about 11 ft and um that’s a whole different ball game there but you know out there some days we were using seven lbs to hold the bottom on a bent Buck anchored up so everything’s different I’m sing fan I want to replace that but typically four Pi 46 o is when you’re mangar fishing and stuff like that and when the mangr is in for Pierce you know especially when you get more North you start stretching long leaders like you hear a lot of guys say for mut and stuff you’re going to lose a lot of fish cuz they’re going to get in the bottom so let’s stick with the mangr for a minute you know this prob when I flip it out there I put the grunt head on there this is probably got a little bit longer lader like I said last couple days has a little tied this is actually typically I fish a little bit shorter up in bethl and stuff like that all depends on tide of what you’re doing now you know this is probably about as long as you would I would see with 6 o you know probably about a half a knot to three4 or not you don’t want a sinker when you’re throwing it out there and it’s stuck to the bottom you want to be able to pull up on that Rod tip and fill that Sinker kind of lift and just fall back down you don’t want to go CU When the fish goes and grabs and pulling on it you know he’s lifting on it a little bit so when he’s getting that bite especially from that finicky manger he the more pressure he feels the less he’s going to get in it you know you’ll see a lot of guys Freel lining and stuff trying to open spool on the fish and stuff but you don’t have to do that cuz on my Charters trying to explain that to somebody ends up terribly I have the biggest bird nest sometimes and you know I just learned through the years to just try to keep the rod tip down hold it up here like rolling Martin keep it down point it out of the water these feeling start pulling just try to walk to the back of the boat let him have all you can you know you’re waiting for that pressure and you these bigger leaders and longer stuffs with the grunt plugs and stuff I ain’t trying to you let him eat it you’re really letting him eat it you know I ain’t trying to get this hook back I wanted to be in his when I you go to my cleaning table you look up on the little woodboard you’ll see these seven o mustad hooks right here and I swear by this hook even when it’s this Rusty I really like it when it’s Rusty it Blends in down there this where I grew up this is the one Hook from my dad’s boat and now we got all these fancy circle hooks and stuff I’m a Believer in circle hooks too like with the spinning rods you know when you’re fishing the sardines and stuff and that bait sitting down there and they’re puffing at it the circle hook helps you know get them and stuff because you just LIF it helps you hook them this stuff here they’re already hooked pretty much when you go to rein it’s already in them and um I use J Hooks pretty much as much as I can for stuff like that until you get all grouper in the deeper water I’ll use because with the red snappers I’ll use the circle hooks speak up a little bit Brian let me get your microphone back but then going back to lead choices here now also we’ll switch to the mutton snapper for a minute which is one of my favorite Snapper to catch now like I was saying you get down at stew you get more ties coming up this way here in the last few years it seems like the mutton fishery has been getting pretty a lot better A lot more seen a lot more a lot more bigger fish um coming up now with the mutton here one with the longer the longer leader which is a true thing even with the bangr the bigger ones I usually call only the longer piece of string an oldtime always told me that the longer the string the bigger the thing which in my whole life is proven to be very true very very true but you know um fishing all depends on weight and what you’re throwing out there if it’s a lot of tide and the current’s moving that’s the days that you get to do that and when there is lot of TI and a lot of people get intimidated by it cuz you know there is days on the roof for 32 ounces to hold the bottom and 80 ft but those are the days that those big muttons are moving around all the big fish that’s when you’ll see the groupers on the roof that will catch and stuff in the shallow orders because that gets that stuff out and moving and um down in Stuart and some of the big tournaments with fish down there in the tcba the last not last year the year before I think we were using almost two pounds the old bottom it was moving that day I would tell you how long it’s 85 ft my Sinker would hit the bottom and I would see my bait just start to sh me off the surface go down so we were running almost 90 foot to 100 foot liters and that’s what gets big bites and you know I’ve had the leader in my hand the fish would be in the Rocks underneath the boat and me sitting there just playing with it to get him out but that’s you only on Big Fish cuz most the time when you’re in high tide like that and you start reeling that up that fish starts gliding up he usually comes up back here in shark territory or you just watchings come after which is you got to get the bite first to get the fish in the boat so you got to do what you got to do and then when I get in the tides and stuff like that you’ll see me switch up my rig a little bit I use these eight SN these egg sinkers up here in Fort Pierce a lot because you know of the bigger rocks in the structure this stuff rolls off the bottom a little especially when a’t no tide and when it’s just sitting there when the tide starts to pick up a little bit and I started using Bank sinkers the little tear dock sinkers from pretty much eight and up I started using my whole boat’s loaded with big tear drops and then all I do is I’ll cut right here on my main pull this Sinker off is a piece of 50 lb tied on there with a loop with swivel and that just goes on there and placees the Sinker for it slce up down that line so now easily I can have my little jar there with my eights 10 12 12 16 24s whatever you know you might need that day I kind of break it up in four different things and little ammo plastic ammo toades they make now which work pretty good for all those different leads if you’re going to bottom fish you better have a lot of lead so that’s one big point I can tell you when I get in that tide I switch up to more of a slider slider Sinker style like this even with my group of rods I don’t use three-way sinkers or nothing like that I’m using Straight tear droppers and then big leads depending on whatever way we’re fishing that day if I’m anchoring power [Music] drifting any questions when you’re fishing your heads do you step on them at all or uh I do I start off you know I’ll throw one out there A lot of times I’ll take the top of the the grun and cut off probably the knock you know the rounded part and cut it off apart it’s where the brain is when you step on you see that black stuff come out of there whatever that black stuff is yeah it’s like crack so I see that’s for being a party boat captain well I left that out too guys down as Stuart there and uh lady Stewart I ran that boat for six years as a main captain and on that boat I learned so much for this area and stuff he watch some of the old guys that get on there and what they do for us stepping on the ground and cutting it that’s where I learn a lot of my secrets but um any other questions what’s up buddy when you’re Mangrove fishing what’s your average a good average length of leader 8 foot 10 foot six foot on the tide you know with the ties on the big rod with the four with the six say on this one little Shor is about 10 foot 10 to 12 foot 10 to 12 foot now when you start shorting laders like that it kind of you’re getting into the mangr and stuff you know that now I say that you do we still do catch muttons it all depends on your location too you know um now here in for Pierce I always tend to try to have one longer one shorter to see what happens you know and then we got a all conditions you know we get out there typically the Tide’s going to the to the north your anchor heading if I go out there and anchor heading is 180 degrees or I like South what’s the say say was it what in their mouth South is the best or something like that anywhere where I’m anchored at 180 degrees 240 any in that area is usually a good thing now when we start going out there and the tide tide naturally running to the north normally you know that’s when we getting the Pretty Water the South Winds and the southeast winds or the Southwest winds you get all that pretty conditions that have come up and that’s what you want for the bottom fishing out there you go out there days like I said every day can be different go out there we were angered at 180 had a halfen out of Tide using 6 ounces called 40 mangr go out the next day Tide’s going the other way water turned green no current just terrible drop the singer to the bottom the ground rod when that ground rod when that thing hits the bottom and it ain’t going at every spot I go to it gets tough we get these things called up dwellings I’m sure you guys heard of the cold water coming in the bottom they last two or three days you don’t know what’s you don’t know it until you get out there it happens usually in June and July your sink it you feel it get I mean water temperature on the machine is going to say what maybe 8 79 something like there on that you’ll see a little funny little thing going through the middle of the screen usually about 40t from the bottom that’s usually a sign of it sometimes it don’t Mark A lot of times when it’s bad it will Mark now the fish sometimes bite in it some days we bite you see some of these fancy guys got these little meters out there the bottom can get it’s 58 I’ve seen 58 degrees on the bottom out there and um when that happens the only thing good for that day is usually if you’re a diver and yeah if you’re a diver they’re pretty they’re open their condos their blankets or whatever they got to stay warm because I wasn’t 58 degrees it would be bad I don’t do well in her 70s so only imagine what it’s like down there we get a thermal clim but the thing you got to know guys when that’s happening also what else is happening that time of year turtles or hatching babies are coming off the beach so no one get discouraged that’s the time when you run up to you know we got some of the best there is really ver Cove up there and all those areas up there with all the muts they start come and eat them Turtles I mean there’s other options but that’s about the worst thing that happens when when you get out there or during the summer with up dwellings and stuff the every changing environment pretty much and you get out there and that’s going on some days you know the bottom of be soll the TI and go other way and I’ve had awesome days with that but that usually with those things where you see the dirty bottoms or something jera in a little bit tougher condition any questions how do you target those um big fire trucks because I’m friend who keeps on bragging about it and I just can’t show him up because I’ve never caught a r well you can’t say they like deeper water I’ve seen a lot here um actually guys you got Chris sitting up here he’s with Southern Fortune he’s a really good fisherman he watched his stuff follow him on Facebook he’s caught a few big ones here later I we were talking usually they’re a little deeper right now the bigger ones are yeah you try to Target them in like 180 to 260 and they’re more of a dead Bait fish definitely butterfly grunt um butterfly blue Runners they uh they’re definitely not more of a live bait fish more like they’re just like scamps dead bait basically deep you’ll see them coming up on them gr plugs and now here last couple years we our reath has been full of them I mean there tons of them a lot of short ones but the more further shallower water or two we they do get in Shallow order especially getting in June and July we we catch them not these big giant 20 Pounders that you see some that we go out there and try to catch but Keepers um you only got to be 20 Ines and I see 24 26 Ines ol 75 I’ve see him in 50 foot I there in front of that cfic Center stuff all those wrecks I’ve seen ke red groupers come off those multiple red groupers so they will come in um this the best way to go there on the reef and fish and there’s a good chance you’re going to catch a red grouper out there right now the slow pitch jig is really good too just the slow not the fast motion it’s just just slow what colors you recommend so golden red that I see is one of like a copper color is good for the Reds and the scam and then like on the gag side it’s more like green whites and greens orange but white and green for gag and more copper for the Reds and scam all you have a question Alex yeah just a general question that I think might help everybody how long do you sit in a spot before you say this is not the spot to be end can I go your g a little bit I mean you stop at a spot and you sit there 10 minutes and call I would say time go I’m moving I don’t use troll M I pull aner so I make sure I get all I can pull you’re working I mean grouper usually bite like sort of right away and mangr sometimes maybe take a minute I mean it’s really like it’s definitely on the group when you especially like anger and stuff in the deepo and stuff when you put the bait down there that’s usually the first thing coming up Mr gag muff gag is usually the first one to come get it so if you stop in a spot and you’re catching grunts you’re gonna stay there a while I’m going to sit there for a minute you know well on the first spot you know I get everything set the first spot I’m always there you know good 20 minutes at least 20 minutes period you know you do all that work to get anchored up you at least got to sit here 20 minutes you know have a drink hang out give it a second like these rods here when you throw them out there with these mug long leiters you don’t have the best way to fish these rods when you got that is throw this thing out there get it stretched out throw your bait out let this current pull it out like again guys and very important you can’t just go out there throwing 30 and 40 foot lader out of the back of the boat without the right conditions you know if you ain’t got the tide you’re going to have a mess you’re just going to have it doesn’t work right so you if you’re using three o letter or so start off 10 foot see if you get bites the shorter the leader less chances him getting your rocks stuff too so if you can get them to eat a short leader start with it so throw 10 foot out there if you’re using 4 o 10 12 foot I use pink Andy pretty much for everything now on tough days I ain’t get a bun to bite I do carry full carbon in theat I will throw 12 and 15 I ain’t trying to stretch out no 50 foot 35 foot floor carb and leader I did that one time in a tournament hit the bottom lifted it Sinker got stuck lost the whole thing like a whole spool of that Andy out there on the TCB like four years ago I looked at my Bo said never again am I throwing $58 out the back of the book so I mean does it help out there when you’re doing that there I don’t know really not now like grouper fishing I like flu carbon even in that deep water for some reason I’ll use the pink candy I use 100 when I group her fish and um I think it makes a difference hey Brian do you do any much chumming not up this way up this way it feels like now down in the keys when we living in the keys my dad used to put us in the water and sit there in the machine you had to cuz you know you’re in a lot of cleaner stuff now up this way you start throwing a bunch of stuff in the order you get the wrong creatures swimming around the boat we have a hell of a shark population and um you start putting that now dur in the summer in June and July when with a Snapper in full spawn you go out there and there ain’t no tide the days where you pretty much could use one ounce to hit the bottom there’s the days you just take no Chum bags nothing like that did your box of sardines that I bring or a couple boxes when this starts happening you want a couple boxes on both you know you cut one or two three up while you’re sitting there hanging out but first get tight throw it in the water the mangr here just like the keys they come up they’ll come up in the column you’ll see them start doing little skidgies through your you’ll see something weird going on a bunch of struggles coming up that’s usually the mangr coming off the bottom I mean you just you don’t have to throw a bunch there’s a couple spots that I got out there before before the boat even gets tight when they’re doing it I don’t even got to throw bait I go back there look behind my motor like oh boys they’re here now when up here when the mangr do that we get big ones that’s when you’ll see some of the biggest mangr in your life on the surface I mean when especially when they’re real hungry and you throw a couple pieces in water it’ll come almost all the way up the back of that motor and that’s when you’re really going to get to see how smart these damn fish are you’re going to sit there and watch them eat every piece you threw in the water walk up bam eat it and then you go and you get your spinning rod you’ll cut all this off there see that sighted as hell I’m going to smash cut this off and you know I the beginning of the season when you first see this they you do catch them you got know what you’re doing I start with 40 PB fluorocarbon I put this off right to the pink gy and put about three 3 4T little leiter like snook leader you know that circle hook on it this the same size chunk that I’m throwing off the boat back of the boat that’s falling you want that bait to look just like those baits that are falling if you’re trying to hold it and you’re getting it caught in that reel as it’s falling and it’s stopping and falling and it’s not falling with that b you can watch that fish stay away from it he knows that I’m ain’t right with that thing now the days and as the season goes and more people are getting them up and doing it they fish you know they’re smart they’re figuring this out too they’re just hungry just really hungry so they want it now you get down there that 40 you can watch them Snappers swim right up to that leader see the eyeball twitch at swim away from it they see that clear as day clear as day 20 lb usually the number to get them to go but you set that drag them 8 NB Snapper can hit 75 ft quicker than you can you and your deer yeah they put it down there boy so you got to be fishing tight drags everything’s got to work out but you can get them that you start off a little bit heavier when you start seeing that you can’t get them to eat usually you get down to 20 you get them to eat just once you break one off or so you know they they get T to it and usually stay down and they don’t come back but one thing you do know that’s a pretty good spot those fish are up there and you go there and show up in the day when they’re biting on the bottom then you know it’s a good spot too so you see them but that happens a lot here in Fort Pierce they come up quite a bit there pretty much to the Northeast grounds and about those shs I’ve been on a spot there and look like those ocean turn red when they come up usually don’t last too long there because when first shark swims by back down the go all right what else am I missing here any questions or anything what about night night fishing full moon does that make a difference I don’t fish on the moons okay uh some reason it’s the terriblest Night Trips ever out of my life night of the moons I like full moons I don’t fish the night of the full moon usually leading up to four to five days before we were just talking about The Snug B the last couple of days we were just talking about these moons but um three or four days before before and after of it you know um that’s usually some of the best mango fish you’re going to see because when the Sun goes down all the grunts and all that stuff kind of lays low and gets down so you can fish sardines all night a sard couple boxes them 5B sardine boxes you go out there and just cut the tails off for they spin up on this is pretty much on my Night Trips this is the only rig I’m hanging out making this work right here and this catches the all of them because at night you know you get on it and as I swing around and stuff and we’re going up and down those stings this fish follow the boat around once we get you know couple 40 50 ft Fe off they’re not trying to get up into the Rocks like they do there in the day pretty much very rarely are you breaking them off and stuff it’s up until about last year it wasn’t really that many sharks eating them at night but here last two trips I got to run this year it’s been pretty balls the wall you got to real just like you do during the day get them up as soon as they get in that light off your boat I think they see them and they’re grabbing them so usually at night time it’s balls the wall when it’s either a lot of tide or the water’s dirty Curr going the wrong way we catch 12 or 14 of them or those are when you see your limits I had 48 48 limits last year of mangr Snappers and probably 30 or more at night time so can you talk a little bit about setting your boat up with anchor you say you’re using a hard anchor or a rope oh yeah I I anchor I’m not a big I like TR Motors in the river and stuff but you know with me being a charter Captain I got to make sure my works every day I can’t go out there and run 14 or you know my group of trips I run some other times I run 44 45 miles on my big boat to go some of these grouper spots or through the day is where I end up and everything’s got to work and see a lot of problem trolling just through the years I’ve learned how to Anchor I’m pretty quick with it so it all depends on what you’re doing you know on the reef I run a different system than I run if I throw it out there in 150 ft um you go out there and start throwing in 150 180 ft you better be ready it’s a whole different ball game you need a little practice in the reef and stuff no I throw on a reef typically it’s the captain book with seven 72 seven times whatever the depth is um you can cheat it a little bit you know an 80 foot you really don’t have to throw it it but when you get out into tide when you start playing with three four knots of tide and throwing an anchor you better probably add a little bit more than even tell you because shit’s moving when that boat catches out there that tide it like pling and off still but on the reef you know you can get away I run about 250t past my spots and throw throw out the Rope so I got about 300 foot of rope out and 80 ft when I’m fishing so you do a couple drifts to see where I got you now when you pull first thing I do when I go to the spot I put my way point in you got your bearing bearing going towards the spot then you got your cors ground that’s two very important things you need to have on your garment or your samrat or whatever you run you need those that you need your distance to destination those three things are going to tell you how to Anchor the boat that’s what I use now you go to your bearing which is the bearing to the spot and you pull up to it the first thing I do is when I get to the spot I zero out pull up to it stop completely stop the boat as close as I can 10 12 feet get right on top of it pull it back in neutral let it sit let that boat drift that’s when you get the Sinker out for that Rod put some squid on it get sh ready get the anchor laid out on the deck get everything kind of ready you’re watching that and you know some days it’s faster than others days when there’s Tides you can look at it and you drifted already 80 to 100 feet or you already drifted 350 ft depending on the tie that day you look at that bearing I’m barely going to tell you on your compass where you got to run back now since you made that long drift that’s pretty much how you’re going to lay on that so once you stop in a spot you L your bar it’s 180 degrees back to your spot so you know that’s where the anchor got to sit that’s 180 on your compass when you drop that hook so what you do you turn around you got your course of ground to showing where you’re running on your boat you want to run right back to that spot pretty much zero out on it and hit that bearing you might ended up here a little bit but as soon as you get as close as you can you want to hit on your compass 180 right there on top of that spot and that’s when I run 250 to 300 ft up throw the anchor right off the side don’t want to haul ass back let that anchor fall down down Pull on a couple times let the anchor chain get straightened up let it touch the bottom Let It Go the rest of that line just fall out of there for it all natural laying out the tide you get about 75 80 ft you want to kind of start tying it off and give it a little couple bumps let the slowly work in there and get in the sand excuse me on the anchor we call them referers they’re big claw anchors um that’s what I use a lot on the reef big claw now when I get out there and start throwing it out there in the deeper water I used the biggest nastiest thing I could find Dan forth I try the CL anchor biggest thing with bottom fishing you know and you find where you need to be you need to stop you got to be on top you know especially like mango especially when you groupers out there you know I do a lot I anchor a lot of times and if you can get the boat on top of that stuff it’s some of the craziest fish I ever seen in my life you know CU big fish like that you know they don’t really want to chase baits especially when you’re moving to nots and you’re dragging that bouncing on the sand keep letting line out you go a right path unless you hit him right in his head you know they fast he’ll reach there and grab it but you just like fishing in the shaller or an 80 foot you know you get two big rods off the back of that boat get anchored up you start dropping baits down there you get the AJ’s pissed off you get the red snappers you catch one or two of them while you’re doing that there’s one thing down there that’s got yellow eyes that’s getting real pissed off usually and when just making motion that’s what gets him to come out you know if you can get stopped on that deep stuff out there usually that’s the ticket even a power drifting you know you catch them like that is just you got to have a boat driver and someone El all to work ride it’s the biggest thing I don’t have being a Char C because a lot of times I’m by myself you know and just trying to do it all alone don’t work CU When You’re power drifting you can’t have a whole bunch of scope out of the back when you’re real proficient you pretty got to be me up and down on that thing you know with that Sinker when you’re you’re sitting there just like if you anchored up you can see that Rod tip that Sinker bounce you know then everything’s working right so you got to be able to know what you’re doing or and know what you’re doing just you got to have two people someone driving the boat and then someone back there keeping the Sinker right there on the bottom so when you get out there doing that kind of stuff it’s experience time practice a lot of that starting on the reef and playing with The Reef there kind of work your way up to it any questions do you lose anchors very often um no I don’t I don’t throw mine in the Rocks I watched that screen big thing when I ran the party boat down there that captain now should talk about he lost three or four a year and I always wonder what are you doing he just sit there you know he would run up look at oh he’s looking at his distance and he was like let it go we sitting there guess that Ang good you now you got to F you got to be watching you know you see marking and fish still marking don’t throw your anchor there wait keep riding I keep on my little boat that I anchor on the reef and stuff there’s uh two rolls of 600 foot from West Marine on there a half inch so there’s 1200t on that boat cuz I did start when I before I got the big boat I did a little bit of grouper on it and had it kind of set up now on the big boat 34ot I’m throwing a 30 lb anchor I had four rolls of 600 on it some mostly start about 750 to 800 feet I throw out to start with but I also stop the boat 250 ft in front of the spot especially out there I want to try to lure them to me to start with especially the big ones you know I fish heavy gear fish a lot of bent butt rods 80 lb braid all 100 from there um and you know and I’ll slowly let the boat fall back to it and try to get into his condo the closer you get to it even with the biggest and nastiest this Fisher the there some of the meanest Fisher the groupers you just got to be on it when they hit it be ready it’s um your boat how many people can you take out and can you talk about split trips because I see you advertising split trips a lot on Facebook and I know a lot of people in here may not know what that is yeah yeah well on we run a Anglers on our Facebook page we run a split group it’s on the 25 foot boat um where you can get someone if you’re only one person you know you can call on schedule a lot of times now these days you know I have a lot of private trips booking up and stuff and a lot of my cancellations to where that comes from you know we use utilize that on that you’ll see if you go to our Facebook page it’s a separate link on the top there it’s a single writers page so you put your name in there and you get notifications anytime one does pop up like during the summer you know most of the time it’s going to be last minute stuff like that so if you’re a local around and stuff like that it’s a good thing to utilize if you’re by yourself just looking to get out what was your other one how many people on the there three different boats I go ahead and start with the Southern Cross that’s the first boat I got it’s 25 foot it’s kind of a custom boat was built for drifting and bottom fishing it’s a like one of the older Parkers like a Gold Line it’s a little flat it’s a single power boat got two 250 isuki on it it takes you know do 14 miles it’s a slow boat slow and steady win the race about 20 M hour 21 M hour to get out so it’s about 45 minutes to get to The Reef line out there on that boat you know it’s very simple built to kill got two big coolers in it and um actually I built most of that buil myself I bought the hall so it’s kind of special to me that one we Haul four people in um we do two different trips we have a 5 hour trip and a 7h hour trip and then we have a 22 foot Sportsman which pretty much I start that in November when the pompo start to show up do a lot of inore stuff when it starts to get rough out Shore I’m not the kind of cabin going to take your money out there I’m very honest very straightforward um if it sucks I’m going to tell you it sucks I you know I fish a lot I’m fortun enough where I get to G every day during the summer so they biting I’m going tell you but if you want to go I’m willing to keep trying and you know when it gets rough I don’t want to get the beat out of me no more than you do so you know I tell you straight up hey this is how it’s going to be this is what it going to be if you want to go I’m going to go but you know I’m going tell I’m I’m not just there to take your money like lot like some people do um that’s worked best for me being honest so I’d be as honest as I can about everything with that I just want to say I pished with you a couple years ago and you run a very good trip hey thank you I appreciate it you look familiar did we do any good yeah yeah that’s good to hear I’ll second that thank you uh you mentioned earlier um muttons on the beach Turtles in the summer um when when do that go into full swing and can you I mean I’ve caught muts off the beach in other months other than that I mean but is it like just that much more enhanced or July I think right when you start seeing all the pretty pictures of everyone posting on Facebook that’s Mike you Facebook’s the best thing in the world I say I got it mean you don’t like to say nothing I don’t like this this is the most talking I’ve done a long time in front of people you know I don’t say nothing on Facebook or nothing like that I use that to look when people want to tell me free information I W take it especially during the winter time all these PPO sites now I call six on the beach all right I’m GNA be there tomorrow and catch a 100 I mean that’s good stuff so you paying attention you know I get all these different things freter Coast fishing Hub and for Pierce you mean they’re great they advertise for us you can see it’s a good way to know what’s going on I mean you got some idea of going on you kind of can see what they’re catching to know what’s going on and um I forgot also the CV it’s a 34t boat it’s got all the on it we know we finally went out and got a boat that it has the speed I can do just what does these grouper trips you know I can get out there to get out in the grouper it’s another 6 and a half miles from you know the normal Reef line that we’re fishing they get into most of that because they do come up on the reef but you know they shut it down in the winter times when most of our gags and stuff come in that’s when they spawn so they come in and shaller in the summertime they because the water temperature get out there in the deeper stuff probably from 120 on you’re getting into red snapper gag grou or scamps a little bit deeper something like the red so they get in a little bit deeper water but the CB you know other plants we had which they messed up Golden tile you know I had big plans for that that got I got feed on me too but you know but it’s the boat where you got the bathroom and all that kind of fancy stuff and I can run to Stewart when the mut start biting all other options and you’re going to see as time go I do like doing a lot of Sword fishing so that’s going to be one thing you’ll see popping up there too so that boat I can haul up to six people on it so it’s more of the family boat or the real hardore Bo so any other questions all right it’s here for bu thanks for having me I appreciate it than you great f
