We had 3 days of perfect weather. I fished Friday to Sunday with old and new friends over the Thanksgiving weekend. We caught 2 Black Sea Bass to 80 lbs, 10 Pinto Bass to 40 lbs, 3 Halibut to 25 lbs, a 25 lb White Sea Bass, a 25 lb Gulf Grouper, 12 small Dorado, a 10 lb Sheepshead, 4 Red Snapper to 12 lbs, 2 Leopard Grouper to 20 lbs, limits of Goldspot Bass, and a mixed bag of Whitefish, Triggerfish, and Scorpionfish. We caught hundreds of Mackerel, Bonefish, and Sardines for bait and saw dolphins, sea lions, Pilot Whales and a dead turtle. Saturday was patchy fog all day long, very surreal and a bit spooky too. My 27' Cobia "Yellowtail Chaser" ran great at 45 to 50 mph across the glassy Sea of Cortez. It was a stellar trip and I can't wait to do it again!
Nice fish. I get depressed as those bring back the days when I was in southwest Florida. I didnt see the sheepshead? We caught sheepshead in Florida but they rarely got above 2lbs. Is this a different fish out in the gulf?
how many miles do you have to go out to get into the grouper/snapper?
Here is a picture of a sheepshead from 2006. They are black and pink with huge teeth, not the same as in Florida. We normally fish from 25 to 50 miles out this time of year, closer in the summer.
Plenty of smaller Leopard Groupers and Broomtail Groupers can be caught on the troll less than one hundred feet from shore along La Cholla. They are mostly in the five to ten pound range but I regularly snatch a twenty pound Leopard Grouper in that area. The area around Isla San Jorge is loaded with Leopard Groupers if you can make the twenty five mile run out there.
I have been using the deep diver Rapalas with nice success the last two times out but snapped a 25lb test line last week and lost a brand new one on the second fish I hooked. I'm going to go heavier I think. Whatever was on there was a monster but didn't get to see it.
