Grouper Fishing in Florida by Jeff Barnhart

Posted on April 4, 2022 by kelli

This year, I brought my boat down to our place in Punta Gorda on Florida’s West coast to do some gulf fishing. Unfortunately, keeper grouper require traveling out into the gulf to get legal sized fish and we went 40 miles outside of Charlotte Harbor last week. I caught the twin 29 inch Red Grouper shown in the photos last. I didn’t weigh them as we only measure length for the Punta Gorda fishing club down here like we do at VHFC.

Red Grouper are excellent eating. My favorite is a grouper Reuben sandwich or blackened.

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.