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Mix It Up, Because Variety Is Key

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By RANDY ROCHELLE

Published: February 2, 2009

The cold winds of winter just keep blowing, dropping already-low Gulf water temperatures. With offshore water temperatures hovering around 60 degrees, you can just about bet the bite inside of 70 feet will be slow at best.

Now that gag grouper are off limits red grouper will become the target of choice for many anglers. Throw in a limit of jacks, a few mangrove snapper and maybe a scamp or two and pretty soon you'll have a nice mix bag of fish.

Looking for a good red grouper bite, then make a run say 250 degrees out of Pass-a-Grille Pass to around the 100-foot mark and start looking. The bite has been steady and on some of the areas of cheese bottom you will find a few mangrove and lane snapper mixed in.

After you bag a limit of red grouper head out to 120-plus feet of water and fish one of numerous wrecks or springs. You will find mangrove snapper, vermilion snapper, maybe a couple of scamp grouper and a bunch of reef donkeys (amberjack).

It may also sever you well to try some spots on the Pipe. Many spots hold a wide variety of bottom dwellers such as scamp, grouper, snapper, grunts, porgies and at times a few pelagic species. Remember when the water gets this cold you really need to slow it down.

Captain Randy Rochelle runs the "Gotta Go" out of St. Petersburg and can be reached at (727) 365-3218 or go to www.islandercharters.net.

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