Will be doing my 39 hour Hubbard's Middle Grounds reports, with plenty of pictures, very soon. I will be fishing the Grounds, on the Florida Fisherman, August 5, 12, & 26. In between, On August 9'th, I will be headed to Tiger Island Outfitters for a few days of chasing hogs. Wow! talk about meals fit for a king, how about fresh pork & fish? It just doesn't get any better than that. The 26'th will be a deep water trip. Sure hope we can get away from the American reds, and gags. Don't know too much about the deep water trip; this will be my first. As far as August 5 & 12, we can still target vermilion snapper, red grouper, AJ's, and mangrove snapper. A two day catch of Middle Ground size mangos, 20, is one heck of a catch. Even vermilion snapper (B Liners) have been running big and numerous this year. On every trip to the Grounds some very nice red grouper have been landed. And, don't forget, we can now catch, and keep, AJ's. The Middle Grounds are literally covered with absolutely huge amber jacks. In all probability, we will limit out (2 day limit) on AJ's every trip. What a fight!
Then next month, September, the really big one, gag grouper opens for two solid months. Weather permitting, we should do extremely well on gags. The Grounds are covered with extremely impressive gag grouper. I have seen many caught even on cut bait this year.
Another thing that makes Middle Grounds fishing so interesting is the fact that you never know what is on the other end of your line. How about four foot long cudas & big yellow mouth grouper. And yes, we can keep yellow mouth grouper. Bob H.
