This would lead me to believe that our grouper fishery is truly in trouble. A reduced bag limit may help to avoid total closures of this fishery in the future like the one the commercial fisherman experienced earlier this year. Action out on the Gulf this week was excellent. Kingfish are still here, so if you want to experience catching these exciting fish, there's still time to get in on the spring run. Most of the action starts at seven miles on out.
Birds working bait schools on the surface can be a dead giveaway to fish feeding from below.
Trolling hardware such as big spoons or action-type lures in these areas are a good way to locate these ferocious feeders. Be prepared to hook into some big fish. Not only are some of these kings well over 20 pounds, but these same areas are drawing other large predator fish such as sharks, little tunny and barracuda. Speaking of sharks, there have been a lot of them around this year. I can't count the times I've had a big king chomped on just a few feet from the boat.