My friend and I were chasing one of our bucket list and that is the hogfish. We both have not tried it and have never caught them. The targeted species is the hogfish!
Looking at the forecast, it seems like we only have half a day to do it as well. Armed with 5 dozen shrimps, we headed out of ft de soto boat ramp to 15 miles offshore, due to the weather.
In the end, we were able to pull it off. Landed 4 hogfishs and 3 keepers! All of them were caught by my friend. I even dropped down to half an oz and 10# to 20# leader and was not able to hook into a hogfish. I guess it wasn't my day for hogfish but were able to land many good mangos. Also landed a 22" gag grouper. It's truly crazy what we can land with such light tackle.
Here's the blood mess.
3/26/2016 West Central 15miles report
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- KING MACKEREL
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- GOLIATH GROUPER
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Re: 3/26/2016 West Central 15miles report
Nice haul...dont feel bad,ive NEVER caught one either...but youll get yours...nice report
- Green Tide
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Re: 3/26/2016 West Central 15miles report
That is a pile of fish, with a big swing in flavor. I would keep those precious grovers to the side and package the meat by type.
Please tell me the hogs ate old stinking squid.
Please tell me the hogs ate old stinking squid.
- fishnfool73
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Re: 3/26/2016 West Central 15miles report
Nice catch . I know of one local headboat that is using rock shrimp to catch hogs on half day trips. Also might want to try some small blue crabs to weed out the shrimp eaters.
Dreaming the dream that one day I can be as good as some of the boatless pros and catch some 12 inch mangrove snapper.
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- Seasoned Fisher
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Re: 3/26/2016 West Central 15miles report
Nice haul! Mangrove and hogfish are two of my favorites.
Which boat? Is it in S. Fla.? I didn't know headboats ever did anything more creative than chicken rig with squid chunks.fishnfool73 wrote:Nice catch . I know of one local headboat that is using rock shrimp to catch hogs on half day trips. Also might want to try some small blue crabs to weed out the shrimp eaters.
- HJared
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Re: 3/26/2016 West Central 15miles report
Are u the mr enigma from gotham?
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- KING MACKEREL
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Re: 3/26/2016 West Central 15miles report
I am Asian, I do not fillet my fish. :-p Just kidding. Yeah, the grunts are for my friend.Green Tide wrote:That is a pile of fish, with a big swing in flavor. I would keep those precious grovers to the side and package the meat by type.
Please tell me the hogs ate old stinking squid.
The hogfish ate shrimps. We went through 5 dozen shrimps to get 3 hogfish.
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- Seasoned Fisher
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Re: 3/26/2016 West Central 15miles report
Nope just an old screen name I used 15+ years ago and stuck to for convenience. Besides, his name is Nygma.HJared wrote:Are u the mr enigma from gotham?