Grouper Fishing in Key Largo - Smoking small reels on light tackle

It's May 2nd and grouper season just opened! This is our first trip out of Key Largo to fish the patch reefs since moving here. We went through the Tavernier cut to get into the Atlantic ocean. Rode out 2 miles to the patch reefs and started chumming in 15-20 foot deep water to get the ballyhoo behind the boat. After catching some bait and snagging a couple undersized grouper we head off to deeper waters.Show more

Running out to the patch reefs outer edge we anchored in about 70ft of water. The first fish the ate our live ballyhoo took off running and popped our balloon and ended up getting off the hook. It wasn't long before we started to see more action.

The day started getting late but we were persistent and hooked into a couple large fish. I believe the first one was a grouper. The second one was 100% a red grouper because we got it in the boat and we couldn't have been happier!

It might not have been a super epic fishing day with a full cooler full of fish but being new to the area I don't think it turned out too bad. We have tons of fish for dinner and can't wait to get back on the water.

Fishing reel/rod used:
Penn Spinfisher V4500 on a Spinfisher V rod - 20# braid w/ a 20# mono leader. - caught the grouper

I decided to cook up the grouper and make grouper hush puppies and also fish dip. The fish dip consisted to the grunts, yellow tail snapper and some of the grouper. It turned out amazing and didn't last very long until we ate all of it.
The grouper hush puppies also turned out amazing and I made a jalapeno dip for them which was the perfect combination of sweet and spicy.

Video Equipment:
GoPro 4 Black Edition
Samsung Galaxy s7 edge