By RANDY ROCHELLE

I said last week that as Gulf water temperatures cooled, the bite would heat up.

Well, it did.

The mangrove snapper and gag grouper bite went off this past weekend. Anglers fishing as far north as Tarpon Springs and south to Sarasota report good catches of mangrove snapper to 8 pounds. They also said the gag grouper are starting to chew.

Mix in these two fish with some nice red grouper, cobia and amberjack and you’ve got the making of a hot Gulf bite. The bite has been spread out from 70 feet of water and out.

Captain Travis Palladeno of Live Wire Charters made a long run to the west in hopes of bagging some post-storm gag grouper. They made some drops on a couple of spots in 250 to 275 feet of water using live and cut bait. At day’s end, they had a cooler full of gags from 15 to more than 60 pounds.

Captain Larry “FishHawk” Malinoski teamed up with Glen “Up On Top” Taylor along with a couple of other anglers in Taylor’s boat. Around sunrise they loaded up and pointed the boat to the west in hopes of bagging tuna.

After blanking on a couple of spots, they finally hit pay dirt on a wreck in 160 feet of water. Tuna to 30 pounds, kingfish to near 40 pounds and some quality amberjack kept them busy.

Yes, cooler waters equal a hot bite.

Captain Randy Rochelle runs the “Gotta Go” out of St. Petersburg and can be reached at (727) 365-3218 or www.islandercharters.net.