Aptravelnews- May 11th, -Warm waters of the Florida Keys-When Brian told me about him and his friends going “Grouper Dogging”  (these guys make great grouper sandwiches) I asked him to tell me all about this variation on fishing “the rocks” we did for 34-years when we lived and fished in the Keys, at least 4-times a week. Well, the idea as Brian explained it is, you get a sacrificial rod and reel, a reel with a real good drag, you hook a DOA to 50-pound test, add a piece of ballyhoo for scent, swim down to where there are rocks, drop the DOA into a rock opening, the grouper whacks it, you pull like heck, the drag whines audibly even underwater, your dive buddy puts the net under or into the fishes face or backend and voila, no holes in the fish, you can catch and release, or if your doing super Craig’s Restaurant fish sandwiches, you hold onto this very fresh grouper. If you can’t find a grouper hole, scare a grunt, watch which hole he goes to hide in and then drop your bait there-the grunt gave away the groupers hidey hole!

OK! I did this in the Keys looking for Florida crawfish (lobster to the uninitiated) where I was dragged behind a boat (trolled) on a dive board and when I spotted the crawlers or their hangout, I’d let go of the board, slide under and bag one or two for dinner. Same deal, (see picture) when the guys see a likely bunch of rocks, they go underwater spin- fishing there, as explained above!  A new twist on spin fishing, you bet it is!