EYEDROP WINS THE DAY!

Well, what started off as a failed trip to Venice, Louisiana turned into a solid day of fishing out of Jupiter, Florida.

The original plan was to head to Venice and fish three days for a mix of bottom species and any pelagics we ran into, but Mother Nature had other ideas. The Gulf of Mexico was completely blown out for the week, and fishing was looking less and less likely. That was until Jorge hit me up about a solid grouper bite they had going on and suggested I come down to fish during the week. Not only was the grouper action heating up, but the east coast also gave me a shot at a quality golden tilefish. I was already supposed to be on vacation for the Venice trip, so I decided to make the drive from Gainesville down to Jupiter for a day of Slow Pitch Jigging with the boys: Jorge, Rob, and Ricky.

We left the dock around 6 a.m. and headed to the tilefish grounds to try and get a quick limit before shifting to grouper. First spot, first drift, and not even 30 seconds in, Jorge was tight on his first drop with a 700g EYEDROP. Solid fight and just like that, first tile of the day on deck. Ricky followed it up soon after with another Eyedrop and landed his first golden tilefish, which was awesome to see.

 

 

Rob and I stuck to standard jigs, but it just wasn’t happening for us. We each had a small fish come off after the hook-up, but that was about it. Meanwhile Ricky picked up another golden  tilefish on the Eyedrop before we decided to move in a bit shallower.

 

 

 

In the next area we had a good show of bait on the screen, but we just didn’t get the quick bite like we did at the first spot. I kept jigging, hoping something would fire, and maybe after about 10 minutes I came tight with a solid fish. Right away I was excited because I had a good feeling it was going to be a quality tile. Once it got closer and showed itself, that assumption was spot on. Up came a very solid golden tilefish that weighed in at 18 lbs, which is the best one I’ve landed so far. That fish alone made the day for me. Mission accomplished.

 

 

From there, we headed off to chase grouper, but along the way we spotted an abandoned homemade raft. We pulled up and it was loaded with life—Mahi, Tripletail, Jacks, Runners. Jorge threw on the new JYG PRO RYP and hooked into a Mahi right away. He got it to the boat and just kept hooking up cast after cast. We managed one Tripletail, but the jacks made it tough to get bait down to the bigger ones.

 

 

I dropped a jig to about 300 feet, got bit, and it shredded the Kevlar, so we knew it was a Wahoo. Ricky dropped his jig and hooked up instantly, landing a smaller Wahoo. He unhooked it, dropped again, and stuck another one. Two for two on Wahoo with no wire, all on the jig. Not bad at all. After playing around there a bit, it was time to refocus on the grouper.

 

We pull over the spot and it’s lit up, which is always great to see. The screen looked really good, so we set up for a drift. As soon as we started, Rob was hooked up immediately on the new WYLD. After a solid fight, up came a beautiful snowy grouper that was all lit up and glowing, exactly what we were hoping for.

 

 

 

The bite on the jig slowed down after that. The fish seemed sluggish, so Jorge switched back to the EYEDROP and connected with another clean snowy grouper.

Meanwhile, I still couldn’t get a grouper bite, but I did manage to put a Tuna in the boat, which is always a welcome bycatch. As the day was winding down, we made one more short move for another drift.

 

Jorge tied on a lighter EYEDROP and not long after, he was hooked up to a stud. We cleared the lines and gave him space to work the fish. It was a steady, heavy dig, back and forth for a solid 25 minutes. But Jorge came out on top, and up came a 28-pound Yellowedge Grouper!!.

 

 

 

To make it even more impressive, he landed it on 8 lb braid. And the day before, he had already landed a 32 lb Yellowedge on the same setup, but using a Pink Glow DEEP 300g. Just a ridiculous couple of days of fishing for him. Couldn’t be happier to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, what started off as a canceled trip turned into a great day with some quality, tasty fish in the box. Definitely a win.

Enjoy the read 👍