Cape Fear grouper are there for the taking — at least for now.
There was no doubt Barry Bobbitt had just had a strike. The tip of his rod bounced hard, but the pressure was gone before he could react. His was tense, anticipating that there was enough bait left on the jighead 100 feet below the surface to temp a hungry fish to return.The remaining morsel was obviously tempting enough, and Bobbitt was ready when the next fish tried to abscond with it.
The rod bowed deeply when Bobbitt drove the hook home, and the grouper on the other end frantically realized it had just changed from being the hunter to the hunted. The tip pulsed rapidly and swung from side to side as the fish fought to stay down, searching for a hole in the rock bottom to dart into and try to escape the tugging on its jaw.
“What you got there Barry?” Capt. Tim Barefoot asked. “It looks like you need to get a little line in before it wraps you around something and lives to tell its friends stories about its great escape.”
After the friendly ribbing from Barefoot, Bobbitt found a little more strength and rocked back on his feet to lift the rod tip a couple of feet. He got in a couple of turns on the rod handle as he allowed the tip to drop. Repeating this maneuver several times, Bobbitt got the fish off the bottom, and the fight became a little easier. Several minutes later, a nice red grouper became visible in the clear depths, and it was slowly but surely led to the surface, where Bobbitt lifted it into the 25-foot center console catamaran and broke into a broad smile.
“Now that’s what we rode all the way out here for,” he said. “That’s not the one I’m looking for, but it’s a nice keeper and will make a nice start. Let me get it off and in the cooler, and I’ll see if its Mama or Grandma is home.”
There are enough “Mama and Grandma” grouper in the waters off Cape Fear to make for a great year-round bottom fishery, the kind Bobbitt and Barefoot enjoy regularly — but especially in the fall.
They had opened their day by jigging near several artificial reefs off Wrightsville Beach to get a mixture of live baits: cigar minnows, sardines, bar jacks, grass grunts and more — to go with boxes of frozen cigar minnows and frozen squid.
The plan was to catch bait, and then head offshore and catch grouper and the many other bottom species in the area. — light winds and slight seas — made them forget about a couple of postponements.
A former charter fishermen who enjoys designing and testing specialty fishing tackle, Barefoot made the Decoy Jigs that he and Bobbitt were using, plus several weighted hooks designed for easily trolling ballyhoo and ribbonfish, plus other specialty items.
A few fish later, when the action slowed, Barefoot pulled the anchor and moved to a second spot, where he explained how important it is to anchor directly over the fish.
“We were just a little off on that last spot, but I believe I’ve got the current and wind figured out now,” he said. “They aren’t lining up quite like it looks. The current is slightly stronger than this light wind, but we’re setting up at a few degrees off straight with the current. I should get us right on top of this spot, and the bite should be better.”
After the boat swung tight on the anchor and Barefoot took a quick look at the fishfinder to verify they were positioned over the fish, Barefoot impaled a bar jack through the nose on the Decoy Jig hook and inserted the stinger hook from side to side just behind the bait’s anal fin. Once in the water, it took several seconds for the bait to reach the bottom, a little more than 100 feet below.
As soon as he put the reel back into gear, the rod tip began bouncing. Reeling down quickly to put the rod tip near the water, Barefoot jerked upward to set the hook and struck paydirt. Prying the fish up a foot at a time, Barefoot freed it from the bottom, and after a few pumps, the battle slowed and he began gaining line at a good pace. In a few minutes, a fat — but not quite legal — scamp grouper appeared in the depths.
The scamp’s swim bladder had inverted during the fight, and to insure its survival, it needed to be “vented.” After removing the hook, Barefoot laid the fish flat on a gunwale and inserted the venting tool just behind the pectoral fin. The swim bladder receded, and he lifted the fish back over the side. As soon as it touched the water, it started struggling, and once released, it quickly disappeared into the depths.
That’s pretty much the way it went all day, moving from spot to spot, jigging up a good catch of several species of grouper, beeliners, grunts, triggerfish, porgies and even a red snapper. The light-lined cigar minnows that Barefoot drifts in the current at each stop — looking for a stray king mackerel or dolphin — produced only sharks, but the bottom-fishing was good enough to keep them busy all day.
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