Fly Rods

Fly Rods How-Tos

How To Catch Grouper And Snapper On A Fly Rod (Video)

Here is a video with Captain, Frank Piku demonstrating how to catch Snapper and Grouper with only a fly rod.

Video Transcript

Hello from sunny Key West. This is your captain, Frank PQ, on the Golden Streaker. My new 35-foot Jaguar Catamaran with twin 250 horsepower Evinrude motors. I'm here in paradise to take you on a fishing tour and show you a new technique that I've developed over the last few years.

Maybe you've seen my previous video on how to catch grouper and snapper with Captain Frank Secrets. This is totally different. This is with a fly rod. Yes - catching grouper and snapper with a fly rod.

So why in the world would you use a fly rod to catch grouper and snapper "“ because you'll end up catching more fish than anyone else on the boat. And you'll have more fun doing it. Besides, working with fly rod is a lot more exciting than waiting for a bite on a spinning rod.

And, after several hours of fishing, a light fly rod is a lot easier on your back than a heavy spinning rod and wheel.

But before we get any further into this new technique, let's find out how it was discovered.

Let me get on to the reason that we're here today is to learn this new technique developed by me and discovered a few year ago while fishing with a friend of mine, Frank, from up here in Sugarloaf Key. He's an exclusive fly rod fisherman. And he went fishing with me but where we stopped wasn't a fly rod opportunity to fly fish.

So we're catching fish on a spinning pole and as a joke, I got my fly rod out, rigged it up and used it. All of a sudden, I'm catching gray snappers. No one else on the boat is doing it. After six or seven fish, they finally succumb to the illusion that I was doing something different.

He said, "Give me one of those jigs." He put it on a spinning rod. He, too, could not catch any gray snappers. I continued to catch until we had our limit.

That proved that there was something to the fly rod. A few weeks later, fishing in another area out on the gulf with others, I thought, "Maybe I'll try it again if there was something to this." So I pulled out the fly rod, rigged it up in the same fashion. And again, I'm catching gray snappers. No one in the boat is doing it.

When the tide let up, my lure went down to the bottom and next thing, I had on a big grouper and I kept catching grouper doing the same thing. As long as the lure got to the bottom, I caught grouper. As long as the lure was the mid-range of the water, I would catch snapper. And occasionally, I would even catch a Gobia this way.

Let me now show you exactly how and why this rig works. This again is fly rod fishing.

Just this last Saturday, an angler caught a 70-pound cobia on the fly rod. Took him 20 minutes or more to fight the fish but we landed him and it did not lose him. The children have a good time using this because even a small fish feels like a giant to them.

This is the technique that will have you out-fish your buddies, friends that are using live bait.

The method is put it over the side, into the water. Strip the lines out. They see it coming when it gets to the bottom. You just let it sit there for a moment. Let those claws kind of work themselves to look lively. And then, give it a couple of little jerks, make it look like it really is live and jumping up and down. If there are any fish down, they'll get it.

And then, take it away from them. And lower it down slowly. Let it sit there for a few moments. Jig it up a little bit. Make it wiggle around. And then you got a fish on.

What I do is I just sink it down until it hits the bottom and then raise the rod up high. They see it coming back down. Next time, they'll hit it because they don't want it to get away. Every time you reel in a grouper on a fly rod, you think it's the biggest fish you've ever caught.

In fact, many of my anglers say this is like cheating.

Physically, with a fly rod like this, you won't get hurt. It won't pull your shoulders out. You can fight a fish for a long time.