Nice catch. how far and deep did you go?
45ft at the first hole and 62-70ft for the others. All 4 numbers we anchored on were structure but we drifted once in a hard bottom area near one number and caught 2-3 legal red grouper and 1 of the legal gags. The red grouper are moving in and they are out in good populations, especially the shorts.
Good day fishing. Boy do I miss going offshore. It's too bad I can't link up with anyone who fishes out of the Ft. Myers/Naples area, as I have 2 or 3 notebooks full of LORAN numbers to stuff that haven't been fished in 5 years, ranging from 20 miles out to 100+ miles from Ft. Myers Beach, much of it being in the 80-160 ft depth range, with a large chunk in the 40-80 ft range. One of the captains I used to work for retired after 23 years of running a charter boat and passed his numbers on to me.
Good day fishing. Boy do I miss going offshore. It's too bad I can't link up with anyone who fishes out of the Ft. Myers/Naples area, as I have 2 or 3 notebooks full of LORAN numbers to stuff that haven't been fished in 5 years, ranging from 20 miles out to 100+ miles from Ft. Myers Beach, much of it being in the 80-160 ft depth range, with a large chunk in the 40-80 ft range. One of the captains I used to work for retired after 23 years of running a charter boat and passed his numbers on to me.
Isn't there a program that convert loran coordinates to gps? I will search for it tomorrow as I also have a lot of loran numbers out of carabelle that aren't fished much(if any) in years.
The program converts it, but it's not very accurate...you're still looking at like a 1/16th-1/8th mile diameter in which to search for the marked structure.....can be pretty time consuming weather depending. Looking for a wreck or a spring is one thing, but looking for a limestone outcropping with undercuts that only read on the bottom machine if you get within 15 foot can be a bit of a challenge.
I also have some on my handheld GPS, and can prob get a few GPS coordinates from current captains that I am old friends with, as I put in a lot of hours for some of those fellas. Some more Captains that I worked for have retired since I left the docks, and I bet at least a few of them would be willing to share some numbers with me.
Really, in my opinion, to go out there and slay them (by my definition), ya need a go-fast boat or a boat that you feel comfortable spending 24-36 hours in, and that can take some moderate seas if they occur, which they will if you fish enough. I love going out for a day-trip.....but there is something about going out to that bluewater to drop down on some big blacks and gag groupers and mutton and cubera snapper and then filling up half a trash can with 3lb yellowtails. Find a shrimp boat about an hour before dawn and offer them some beer for their cull and some shrimp, catch some blackfin tunas, run into the towers and freeline some crabs for permit, then drop some baits down for muttons.....why did I go to college again?
I've heard it wasn't very accuate with the conversion. On the trip above we wasted an hour running and looking for a hole that was in the vicinity of the number marked. We never found it and it was a large rock near another ledge-sometimes finding even large structure is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Our problem with fishing the middle grounds is it's 20 extra miles out from the big bend area than anywhere else on Florida's coast.
