Im going to the gulf and i was wonder if i should use braid or mono and what kind.?

Question

ive tried spider wire it impossible to break so nooo spider wire!

Answer 1

There are basically three approaches used when fishing for grouper – straight bottom fishing, freelining live bait, and slow trolling. Anglers in the Gulf of Mexico are quite successful trolling for grouper.

Let’s talk about the bottom fishing method first. A good rod and reel, with fifty pound test monofilament line can handle almost all the grouper you may encounter. Line much larger than that is overkill that is cumbersome, and, some believe, visible to the fish.

The terminal tackle consists of a sinker, leader, and hook arranged one of two ways. The first way is called a fish finder rig by most anglers. It is tied with a pyramid or bank sinker on the very end of the leader. Up about eighteen inches from the sinker is a loop tied in the leader. The loop is about twelve inches long and it is to this loop that the hook is tied. A variation of this rig has a longer leader with two loops and hooks.

The fish finder rig is the favorite bottom rig of almost all the bottom fishing charter boats. It is excellent for fishing straight down under the boat. Even when the rig is dropped right into the bottom structure, it seldom hangs up, something charter captains love.

The normal bait used on a fish finder is cut bait, either squid or small fish, and occasionally a small live bait. This rig will catch a variety of species, including grouper.

More serious grouper anglers will opt for the second approach, called a live bait rig. This one had a sliding egg sinker on the line above the leader. The leader is long, sometimes five or six feet long. The hook of choice on this rig is a circle hook, normally about 8/0 or 9/0 in size (an 8/0 circle hook is about the same size as a 5/0 regular hook).

Both of these bottom rigs use monofilament leaders. The choice of leader material for most anglers is fluorocarbon. Advertised as virtually invisible to fish, it does seem to draw more strikes that regular monofilament.

The long leader allows a live bait to swim more freely and naturally than a short leader. The sliding egg sinker allows a fish to take the bait and swim off without feeling the weight of the sinker.

All of the preparation so far is pretty standard fare for almost any bottom fish. The difference in and secret to grouper fishing comes in how you handle the strike.

Grouper run out, grab a bait, and head back for cover. This habit will cause many lost fish and hung lines. Serious grouper anglers will crank the drag down on their reel as hard as they can, often using a pair of pliers to lock it down. The idea is to stop the grouper from taking line and returning to his structure home.

When a grouper strikes, anglers will lay their rod on the rail and start winding as hard as they can. The circle hook will handle hooking itself. The battle now is one of brute strength between angler and fish. More often than not the fish wins!

When a grouper makes it into a rock or reef, many anglers will simply break off the line and try again. The savvy angler will give the fish a loose line for as long as thirty minutes to allow the fish to relax and possibly swim out from under the structure. It has worked for many anglers on more than one occasion.

Answer 2

50 Lb Power Pro Braid

It also depends on what you are targeting.

Answer 3

I like power pro braid for gulf grouper fishing.   This time of the year, the water temp is up so the grouper are deep.  I am going grouper fishing tommorrow out of Panama City Beach (I do this about 2 or 3 times a month, year round unless the season is closed).  You have to use a nonoffset circle hook now in the GOM if bait fishing, either live or dead, so you need those, a venting tool and a hook remover, all the law now.  I like 80lb power pro with a 80lb or 100lb flourocarbon leader, with the power pro you won't need as much lead.  Briddle you bait to insure a proper hook set with the circle hook.  If you are worried about your line not breaking, go lighter on the leader or use a 3-way rig and use 10 or 20 lb mono for the weight section, that way if it is your weight that gets lodged somewhere, you just loose your weight. Jigging is good now too, use any number of jigs, for grouper, a 6 oz hammered diamond jig works great, just change out the trebble hook, replace it either with an owner stinger hook fished out of top eye or same off the bottom eye (I like top eye, wont hook bottom, rocks or wreck as often).  Trolling works great in the GOM for grouper, but that is normally a spring time or fall time endevor when the fish are shallower and more aggresive, right now, it is simply too hot and the fish, at least keepers, are in 100 + foot deep water (except in the big bend area, but they are in the deepest water there you can find with structure).  If bait fishing, use live bait, the structure is covered with short red snapper (some keepers too), trigger fish and many other bait stealers, a big ol' b-linner, hard tail or pinfish will pull those big grouper out of the structure and the small snapper, triggers and others won't mess with them, however, the big red snappers will, and I know you won't complain if you catch a couple of those.  Good luck.