GOOD GROUPER FISHING AT THE 22-MILE REEF

July 25, 2006, Curt Grant, Good grouper fishing at the 22-mile reef off Puerto Peñasco, Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico:

We pulled into Rocky Point early Friday morning not quite liking the way the steady wind was pushing the sand across the road in front of us.

I held off on launching the boat until after lunch to see if the wind and water would settle down a bit, then headed out to fish at the 22 mile reef around 2:00 p.m.

My buddy Mike and I pulled up to the reef and had the scampi rigs over the side for about 10 minutes when we had a double hookup. I was able to get mine in the boat, a beautiful bruiser tipping the scale at 51 pounds. Mike's got off just a few feet shy of the boat. We stuffed the big guy in the fish box and headed back up to the point. This time Mike had the luck and landed a nice 28 pound gulf grouper. The third drop yielded another grouper weighing 14 pounds, with the bite turning cold by 4:30 p.m.

We tried fishing for another hour or so and then headed back in to Rocky Point.

On Saturday morning the wind was up again and the water was worse than the previous day. We headed back out to the 22 mile reef, and we had to slow troll back and forth to keep from getting the brunt of the waves. We made the reef around 12:00 noon and started dropping the scampi's again. We had to up-size to 24 ounces to get them to stay near the bottom. We kept trying for a couple of hours with no luck and then it happened. I hooked up with a bigger fish than the previous day. I started bringing it up, but about 50 feet out it took off on a big run. I brought it back to about the same distance and it ran again. Then we noticed a pair of Lobos, sea lions, were grabbing the fish and taking it away from the boat. After a 45 minute tug of war, I brought the fish in the boat, gutted and skinned by the sea lions. Arturo estimated that the fish would have been in the 65 pound range if I hadn't had the help from the Lobos. What a great weekend. It is so true that 4-to-6 foot seas beats the hell out of a 9-to-5 work day.

I call my boat "Bonus Time." She's a 24 foot walk around by Proline.

The fishing water temperature off Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) was 85.6 degrees in the morning and 88.6 degrees in the afternoon.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Rocky Point and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Rocky Point may be found at Mexfish.com's main Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) page.