GROUPER

Grouper season in South Florida runs from May 1^st– December 31^st . The main grouper species that we target in Miami are black, gag, and red – and there are a few different ways to go about catching them. One of the most productive methods and our of my favorites is to troll deep diving plugs over the tops of the reef in 15-50ft of water. Any big lipped deep diving lure will work. You can also fish a rigged ballyhoo behind a planer to get your bait down in the grouper’s strike zone. Best trolling speeds are 3-5 knots using medium to heavy tackle and a tight drag. When a grouper does bite try to keep the boat moving to try to keep the fish out of the reef. Drifting over good reef structure, wrecks, and ledges in 80-250ft of water is also a great way to target grouper using live baits such as: pin fish, blue runners, grunts and speedos.  You can also drop a butterfly or deep jig on the same structure. The basic rig for live bait is a long 80-100lb mono leader and a 8-0 to 10-0 circle hook with enough lead to hold bottom. Anchoring over this same bottom structure is also a great way to catch grouper using the same long leader with a live or cut bait and letting the bait sit still on the bottom. Most of the grouper that come out of the deep water are in the 15-20lb range and on the reef they are mixed sizes from sub legal on up.