# O C bulkhead report 10/9/07



## UnknownFish (Sep 12, 2007)

fished all day with a buddy of mine he caught his first tog but it was short and he caught a few more but they were all short too, i caught a bunch of short tog and 1 keeper at 16 inches, we caught what appeared to be juvenile black drum at nite monday nite, we each got a rockfish off the bulkhead on sand fleas but they were short like 22 inches or so, i caught some other weird fish, i forgot the camera so im trying to figure out how to get the pictures off my phone, the fish looked like a leopard or omething, it had some serious teeth the fish was at most 8 inches, another guy that was there also caught one of these and he had no clue what it was, will try to get a picture off my phone so maybe you guys can help me figure out what it is.

total fish caught:
2 rockfish 22 - 24 inches
who knows how many sea bass
about 15 tog, only 1 keeper
3 juvenile black drum?
1 toadfish
1 weird leopard looking fish?


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## mdram (Jul 18, 2005)

to get pics off your phone, just text them to your email


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## chump (Jul 18, 2005)

Hey UKF,

Sounds like a good trip. Full of action. 1 keeper tog is usually 1 more than what I usually get.

Thanks for reporting,
Chump


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

If you have a photobucket account, they give you an email address so that you can just email the pic and it will be posted for you in your account. All of it is free. Plus, you now have a url to post the pic in a thread.


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## UnknownFish (Sep 12, 2007)

these are the pics of the weird fish, i forgot i had a memory card in my phone and a thing to hook it into usb drive.




















this is a pic of what i guess is juvenile black drum?


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## SeaSalt (Apr 29, 2002)

your first picture looks like a grouper...


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## UnknownFish (Sep 12, 2007)

yes i was thinking grouper but wasnt sure and i didnt think grouper were up this far north?


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## GhostCrab (Sep 5, 2006)

Thx for posting those pics... yeah, a grouper would be nice at the Bulkhead 

I saw this last time at the bulkhead (someone else pulled it up):









And the last grouper I saw was at Ft Desoto in FL , this one:


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## GhostCrab (Sep 5, 2006)

I looked here but can't ID it... 

http://www.theoutdoorlodge.com/fishing/species/groupers.html


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## UnknownFish (Sep 12, 2007)

grouper are great eating, we get them in the store already cleaned and frozen, so ive never seen one intact


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## GhostCrab (Sep 5, 2006)

UnknownFish said:


> grouper are great eating, we get them in the store already cleaned and frozen, so ive never seen one intact


I bet they are expen$ive too .

Again, thx for posting the pics UnknownFish. Hope to see you out there again soon. For now, the next trip looks good for a trip south


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## UnknownFish (Sep 12, 2007)

np GC will post pics whenever i can, i hope your next fishing trip is good, im sure i will see ya somewhere sooner or later, i almost went back down to OC last nite, i only came back cause my friend that was with me had to come home for work, i decided to just go to work myself and save up for hopefully next week going back to OC monday nite and dig for a 5 gallon bucket of sand fleas for all day tuesday, whatever i dont use ill freeze, i bought frozen ones from the inlet fishing tackle shop and they worked just as well as the fresh ones, i got me a sand flea rake now so hopefully i can get a load of them quick, just have to figure out how to use this thing productivly.


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## lipyanker (May 31, 2006)

I think what you have there is a juvenile black grouper


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## UnknownFish (Sep 12, 2007)

thx lipyanker, that is a pretty good match you came up with, i appreciate everyone helping me figure out what it was. thx again everyone.


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## emanuel (Apr 2, 2002)

Didn't know they were that far north either but that is a juvenile black or gag grouper. I've definitely caught my share of small ones down here in Florida. I've never heard of grouper inshore north of Florida except for sometimes I'll hear about them in the NC kayak reports.


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## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

Second one looks like a scup or porgy.


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## UnknownFish (Sep 12, 2007)

yeah emanuel i have never seen or heard of grouper up this far north, we have had one heck of a dry summer and the temps have been killer latley so i guess anything is possible, guess those grouper came up the gulf stream and chased sum bait fish into maryland waters, weird but im not gonna complain, im starting to love fishing OC, MD.
everytime i go down i have caught something ive never caught b4. ive been fishing for over 20 years and did a lot of fresh water fishing and i cant stand it anymore. within the last 8 years i guess i have got into surf/pier fishing. i have fell in love with it, the only time i fresh water fish anymore is my private ponds at my grandmothers, tons of LM bass and biggggggggggg bluegill, i caught a few bluegill outta the ponds that go like 15- 17 inches, and i threw them back in. well now im just ramblin, think ill go get sum food.


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## UnknownFish (Sep 12, 2007)

okimavich said:


> Second one looks like a scup or porgy.


i work at a seafood market and sell and clean porgy all day long and it wasnt porgy i caught i would know those, im pretty sure that was a juvenile black drum, porgy dont have blotches of color like that. but i appreciate your input hope i dont offend anyone.


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## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

*If I recall correctly,*










Juvenile Black Drum have solid vertical bars and not the broken/splotchy ones in the pics that both you and GhostCrab have posted.

Additionally, please take a look at the mouths of your fish. They do not have the underslung jaws that you would expect from a Black/Red Drum or Croaker.










Sheepshead is out. They have similar solid black vertical bars as do the juvenile black drum.

Yours show the high sloped forehead with a lowset pinched mouth facing forward that is usually common in species of porgies.

I think you may be familiar with what is commonly known as "Red Porgy" which do not have the blotches. Their pigmentation is more even. But there are other species of porgy that do show the blotched pigmentation. Littleheads and joltheads being a couple.


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## Baited Breath (Sep 3, 2006)

The second one could be a pin fish?
http://myfwc.com/marine/fish/pinfish.jpg
a knob porgy?
http://myfwc.com/marine/fish/knobporgy.jpg

But the other fish I believe to be in the grouper family much like this pic of the Dusky Grouper.
http://www.thejump.net/id/dusky-grouper.htm
Dusky Grouper
Pictured above is a small dusky grouper. Dusky grouper live in the Mediterranean Sea and on the Atlantic coast from Portugal to South Africa. 

Throughout much of its range the dusky grouper is protected. Thanks to a decade of protection the dusky grouper population has been increasing but has not yet attained population levels high enough to warrent lifting of the moratorium.


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## Otter (Jun 18, 2004)

Definitely a juvey gag or black grouper:



















They're found all the way up through new england.


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## lipyanker (May 31, 2006)

Otter,

your right the black grouper can be found as far north as massachusetts wikipedia:The black grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci) is one of the best known of the large group of Perciform fish called groupers.

The black grouper is a large marine fish, growing up to 150 centimetres in length and 100 kilograms in weight. It has an olive or gray body, with black blotches and brassy spots. The preopercle is gently rounded. It is associated with rocky or coral reefs but is not dependent on them; it is found in the Western Atlantic Ocean, from Massachusetts, USA, in the north to southern Brazil, but is particularly associated with the southern Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Keys, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Adults are not found at the northern extremes of its range. It lives mostly near the surface, at depths ranging from 6 to 33 meters.

The black grouper is quite tasty and an important food fish, is fished for sale but also for sea-angling. While not currently considered endangered, it is vulnerable to increases in exploitation because it is a relatively slow breeder.

The black grouper is a solitary fish. Adults feed mainly on other fish and squid, though the younger fish feed on crustaceans especially shrimps.

The fish spawns between May and August. It is a protogynous hermaphrodite, i.e. the young are predominantly female but transform into males as they grow larger.

There are other fish that are sometimes called "black groupers". These include the similar gag grouper, Mycteroperca microlepis, the misty grouper Epinephelus mystacinus, and the critically endangered Warsaw grouper Epinephelus nigritus


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## dckhd247 (Sep 9, 2003)

Your second one there definitely isn't a drum... I've caught quite a few of them in the past month or so on wrecks... I believe it's some kinda grunt...


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## lipyanker (May 31, 2006)

try this for the second photo a sheeps head porgy


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## bluefish1928 (Jun 9, 2007)

that would be a gag grouper and the grouper from florida looks like a mini goliath grouper to me


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