Hello fellow anglers April in S.W. Florida things are starting to heat up. The water and the fishing are headed toward summer time tactics. Yea you will have to run further offshore to find some good grouper fishing. It seams as if we need to run out to 75 or 80 feet to find some good catches of red grouper. In S.W. Florida that usually is a 20 or 25 mile run. Depending on the weather / wind as how to target the reds. If you have a good fish finder with side scan it makes it much easier than the old traditional down scan. I can remember when we would use a paper bottom machine , when you could smell the paper burning you knew that it was working good. Today we have access to full color and side and forward scan bottom machines. So technology has made it lots easier to find structure and fish. So you can find hard bottom areas that have some soft corals and plants that will hold small fish and it will attract larger fish. One technique to target red grouper is to drift over these types of areas with some version of a chicken rig. The hard bottom can have areas of stones and rocks so the chicken rig allows your weight to slide along the bottom and keeps you bait very close to the bottom but usually not on the bottom. If there is current you need to have extra weight to keep it down, and if the wind is a little stiff you may need more weight. Bank sinkers are good to use I have seen them as heavy as 24 oz.  Some anglers have a way to use the egg sinkers as well with some extra knots. There are swivels made especially for this type of rig. Some like to use a lighter pound test on your weight so if  it get snagged it can be broken off and save the hook. So there are some variables that you can figure out what will work best for you. Back in the day we would carry a yellow Prestone jug with a weight and about 10 foot longer line than the depth we were fishing. And when 2 of us would get  bit we threw the marker reeled in the fish and go and anchor up on that spot. Now we all have a GPS that we can mark the spot and go back and deploy your trolling motor and do the anchor lock, and look at the side scan and see if there a some better spot close by. By doing this you can build a good set of numbers for yourself. And find those spots that hold snapper Lanes, or Mangroves. And if you find there are some triggers on some of these spots that is usually good hard bottom so look closely in that area for the small ledges that are out there. There are a few guys that have been doing well on the fast and slow speed jigs. A good rule of thumb is a gram of weight per foot of depth, so 60 depth 60 gram jig. I am not sure how well they work drifting. But if you are anchored up they work well. So if you are fishing closer to the beach there may be some flounder around the edges of some of the nearshore artificial reefs. Switching to some inshore fishing. There should be some pompano around the passes looking for a jig tipped with a small piece of shrimp cast and bounced back to you as you retrieve the jig. There are several to choose from , some were designed just for pompano. Cobia could be targeted traveling along the East or West sides of the Harbor riding along the outside of the sand bar spotting stingrays. Yes the cobia follow them and manatees . as they go along the bottom they spook little fish that they harvest for there food. And if you venture up on the flats you can find some sea trout. Try using a cork and shrimp to target them. So if you would like to come along an learn some of these techniques on my boat call Capt. Bart Marx at 941-979-6517 or e-mail me at captbart@alphaomegacharters.com Or if you would like me to come on your boat for a training session we can do that too. So always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{