Catching grouper in Tampa Bay while Kingfishing

Stranger things have happened on our fishing charters. This is not the first time that I have seen big grouper show themselves while trolling for kingfish, especially along the Sand Key "hard-bottom" just off of Clearwater Beach, Florida. But this is a first for me... seeing it happen six times in one day! I always knew that Grouper would eat almost any bait you threw their way, and like I said before that this isn't the first time grouper have invaded our live baits while slow trolling for Kings, but these were huge blue runners that we were using here.

When we left Pass-a-Grille, St.Pete Beach I knew it was going to being another great fishing charter. The people were excited as heck just catching bait. I will admit, these were some very large baits filling up the livewells. When you go looking for the big King it helps to have big baits. And when you have big baits, I guess you sometimes expect big Grouper-even if you are trolling for kingfish. Well, the ride to the fishing grounds, near Clearwater Beach, was like standing in line to get on a roller coaster. As soon as we stopped a fish busted the surface 30 feet from the boat and my charter started screaming. Anyway, we deploy the spread of baits and off we go. First fish in the boat was...not a Kingfish. Oh well, we will have to settle with the Gag Grouper(pictured above). Nice start! This went on for the next 4 hours until we had 5 nice Kingfish and 3 beautiful Gag Grouper in the fish box, along with dozens of Spanish mackerel and a few released fish that will be here for us next time.

Anyway, I must get some sleep. If todays fishing charter was any indication of what to expect tomorrow, I really need some rest. Goodnight and happy fishing to ya! Capt.Dan