# Carabelle tips



## rdnckrbby (Aug 6, 2014)

Going out in the gulf for the first time doing some grouper/bottom fishing and leaving out of carabelle. Very experienced on the atlantic side but none out of the gulf. Are vertical jigs effective? What in your experience is the best live bait for grouper?

Thanks


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## Stonewall 2 (Aug 6, 2014)

Live bait worked best for us a couple of weeks ago. With pinfish or grouper candy being the best. Good luck!


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## destincabo (Aug 6, 2014)

rdnckrbby said:


> Going out in the gulf for the first time doing some grouper/bottom fishing and leaving out of carabelle. Very experienced on the atlantic side but none out of the gulf. Are vertical jigs effective? What in your experience is the best live bait for grouper?
> 
> Thanks



Grew up fishing that area. Catch live bait (pinfish) that is the best bait for grouper. You can catch them easily on Dog Island Reef. You can probably also catch thread fin herring on sabikis around the channel markers off of Dog Island.  Once you get on the gulf side of Dog Island most of those channel markers will hold thread fins.

good luck. that is some of the best grouper bottom in the state IMO.


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## d-a (Aug 6, 2014)

For bait fishing this is what I normally use. 

Sand perch, Aka squirrel fish. Stop a few miles short of your destination and drop a knocker rig down with a 2/0 circle hook and squid on it. Bring them up slowly and they will last longer. 

Back up is look for pin fish. I get them offshore too, generally 60-80ft. Catch them on sabiki tipped with squid. 

I mostly jig fish and have had some good success on jigs. I'm headed to a semi-private  jig fishing tournament in PCB this weekend actually. 

Here is some jigged up groupers/bottom fish from south to south west of Carrebelle. 






RedneckBillcolletor on here 





















d-a


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## grouper throat (Aug 8, 2014)

Pinfish, pinfish, pinfish and we catch ours in 5-6ft of water over the grass flats. Squirrelfish are second and grunts third. I like to use the biggest shiners available (using the small ones will attract as many ARS). 

Carabelle is one of the best (if not the BEST) overall bottom in the panhandle and probably the west coast of Fl.. good luck. It was tougher last Friday than normal for us.


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## hmaadd (Aug 8, 2014)

My tip to you.  Make sure your safety equipment and boat is good.  Cause you will get checked if you run out the river.

I'm not complaining they are doing their job.  good folks imo


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## redneck_billcollector (Aug 11, 2014)

Grouper hit knife jigs really good.  Unfortunately for the tournament this past weekend, we had a super moon, which they won't even hit live bait readily....though there was a goodly number caught, our boat could not get away from scamp...who apparently love jigs even during a super moon.


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## redneck_billcollector (Aug 12, 2014)

Here are a couple of more jig caught grouper. Doug, does that reel with the red grouper look familiar?


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## redneck_billcollector (Aug 12, 2014)

And another really good red on a jig.


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## redneck_billcollector (Aug 12, 2014)

Here are a couple of pictures from a vertical jig tournament in PCB this past weekend. Scamp hit vertical jigs very agressively.


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## rdnckrbby (Aug 13, 2014)

Thanks for the tips....Just found out we will now be going out of Mexico Beach instead of Carabelle. When using these jigs what is the best technique for grouper? I know speeding things up will fire up the AJ's/Kings....But i have not been very successful with any grouper off the east coast keeping the jig near the bottom and getting strikes. Do you slow sweep the jig or rip it up and let it fall?


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## redneck_billcollector (Aug 13, 2014)

rdnckrbby said:


> Thanks for the tips....Just found out we will now be going out of Mexico Beach instead of Carabelle. When using these jigs what is the best technique for grouper? I know speeding things up will fire up the AJ's/Kings....But i have not been very successful with any grouper off the east coast keeping the jig near the bottom and getting strikes. Do you slow sweep the jig or rip it up and let it fall?



A little of both, depends on the fishs' mood.  We obviously have a good bit less current than the east coast, I was able to hold bottom at 600-700 ft a few weeks ago with little or no scope with a 400g Jigging Master Alien Jig, caught a couple of snowy grouper and a yellow edge grouper with it.  I will fast jig up maybe 30 or so feet (depending on where we are marking fish) let it fall, yo-yo jig for a little while, rip it back up then repeat.  You normally will get bit as soon as your jig falls back down.  It is more of a reaction strike than a hunger strike, and you get rocked a good bit less with jigs, I can count on my fingers the number of times I have been rocked, and most of them have been with d-a lol.  A lot of the time you see fish 60 or so feet off the bottom on a ledge, they are snapper as opposed to AJ, if you want to catch them, fish just like you are for AJ.  They will hit a speed jig really well.  Hope this helps, there are a couple of forums out there that are about jig fishing, I will warn you though, the tackle can get a little bit expensive.....but it is adictive.  We always have charter captains and crews fascinated with our gear and we spend a good bit of time teaching our style of fishing to the captains and crews......


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## rdnckrbby (Aug 13, 2014)

redneck_billcollector said:


> A little of both, depends on the fishs' mood.  We obviously have a good bit less current than the east coast, I was able to hold bottom at 600-700 ft a few weeks ago with little or no scope with a 400g Jigging Master Alien Jig, caught a couple of snowy grouper and a yellow edge grouper with it.  I will fast jig up maybe 30 or so feet (depending on where we are marking fish) let it fall, yo-yo jig for a little while, rip it back up then repeat.  You normally will get bit as soon as your jig falls back down.  It is more of a reaction strike than a hunger strike, and you get rocked a good bit less with jigs, I can count on my fingers the number of times I have been rocked, and most of them have been with d-a lol.  A lot of the time you see fish 60 or so feet off the bottom on a ledge, they are snapper as opposed to AJ, if you want to catch them, fish just like you are for AJ.  They will hit a speed jig really well.  Hope this helps, there are a couple of forums out there that are about jig fishing, I will warn you though, the tackle can get a little bit expensive.....but it is adictive.  We always have charter captains and crews fascinated with our gear and we spend a good bit of time teaching our style of fishing to the captains and crews......




Thanks for the tips....I've been jigging of the east coast for 5-6 years now and use a penn battle 6000 lined up with 65lb braid on a ugly stick tiger jigging rod....not the prettiest set up but it does the job for me. It is a very addictive method of fishing for sure!


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