Moonlight Snapper Fishing in Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay Fishing

Another August weekend, another nice snapper haul from the Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach. I arrived promptly at 5:00 a.m., and Mike joined me just minutes later. Armed with cut frozen Spanish Sardines, we went to work on the rokpiles at te north end of the pier. The snapper were aggressive and big. We were throwing back pretty much anything less than a foot – there were plenty of 13″ to 16″ fish.

My goal was to finally nail a legal gag grouper- and, once more, I was unsuccessful, although I did manage to haul in about 17 of them, up to 21 inches. Yeah, that’s right- 21″ inches… and, yes, I was pinching the tail.

Once the sun was up and the sardines were dwindling, Mike started throwing the net. He hanldes a 10″ cast net greta, and soon we had some big lively greenbacks. We freelined a few, resulting in some stron Spanish Mackeral hookups (and cutoffs). I soaked a few on the bottom, and was rewarded with more big grouper and snapper. All in all, a pretty fun day… and I was still home by noon for weekend chores…

2 Responses to “Moonlight Snapper Fishing in Tampa Bay”

  1. Mike Says:

    Steve,

    It was a blast. I made the snapper using the stuff you gave me last month, and did the teriyaki on the macks. As usual the snapper rocked, but I didn’t care much for the Mackerel. Think you could sneak out one morning for a couple hours? I’ve got the itch to go mid-week.

    Mike

  2. Steve Says:

    Mike,

    Kinda iffy… I’ve got wall-to-wall appointments this week. My birthday’s Thursday, and normally I’d take it off. Not this year. But… depending on how the week goes, I may bust loose a little early Friday, and fish through the Midnight opening of snook season…