aeb870 Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Went to Palm Beach for the second time with a work mate that always targets Groper and this time was a success. First time I only managed an undersized one, but this time it was a 39cm fish. Not the largest but still a decent attempt. My mate also managed a 50cm fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sootopia Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 good work mate they are awesome fish that go way harder than their size! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paikea Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 They are a great eating fish but I still prefer to let them go. Very pretty underwater and an awesome sight when a big blue comes up to look at you. Cheers Paikea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeb870 Posted February 1, 2014 Author Share Posted February 1, 2014 Definitely fight way harder than their size, and very dirty fighters. I think moving forward they will probably be released, I just had to try my first and see what it was all about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toboggi Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Hey mate, good catch. Mind if i ask what bait and type of rig you were using? Never caught a groper or attempted to yet but would be great to learn more about them. Cheers, Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flickn Mad Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Good one. As a spearo I have a soft spot for the big blues and think the ban on spearing grouper was brought in way too late. They are one fish that I think should have a 70 cm max limit and 30 cm min. An awesome fighter, good on the table and the big ones absolutely awesome seen up close when diving. I rarely see a real big blue these days but the smaller ones are prolific in some areas. If you take one of the browns for the table on the odd occasion good luck to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeb870 Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) Hey mate, good catch. Mind if i ask what bait and type of rig you were using? Never caught a groper or attempted to yet but would be great to learn more about them. Cheers, Ken Sorry for the late response tobaggi. I was using crabs that I caught from the rocks on the day (they are hard to catch as they are very fast). Basically cut the crab in half, rip off all the legs and put the hook through one of the holes where the legs were and back out again through the shell of the crab. After that I put the legs on the hook just to top up the hook....hope that I made sense trying to explain it. I also found that it's mainly groper that will eat the crab legs, so when the legs disappear it's usually a sign that groper are around (or so I have been told by my mate that taught me) As for the rig, just a simple running sinker all the way to a size 1 or 1/0 hook. Sinker should be small (size 1 or 2), just enough to make it to the bottom but not too heavy that it snags. Speaking of snags, as you get a feel for things you will snag less however snagging is inevitable and frustrating. One last advise is use heavy line, you will not believe how much these fish pull and how they run into cracks scraping your line on the rocks. Hope that helps, it's basically all I know so far and good luck Edited February 11, 2014 by aeb870 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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