The fish of the weekend is pictured above- a 33″ redfish, caught by an unidentified fisherman (but, hey, I got to net it!).

Ahhh, Autumn is in the air. And, if I can feel it, you bet the fish can! Mike and I hit the Merry Pier dark and early Saturday. The original plan was to try John’s Pass, but we really needed an outgoing tide. And, the backup plan for the beach didn’t pan out- gusty winds were creating big surf. So, back to the Pier…

We managed a near limit of 12″ snapper, but the snook proved elusive. I hooked two; one spit the hook dockside (looked like a nice slot size, too); the other, a big bruiser, made a couple jumps and cut the leader with his gill plate.

Grouper were cooperative on pinfish, and I had the bittersweet pleasure of tossing back a nice 21 1/2″ gag. Oh, so close….  Pinfish were the ticket, and we caught plenty of hard pulling gags, with some big ones getting away.

Sunday, I had a plan. I arrived early, with two dozen pinfish from Gulf to Bay Bait and Tackle. The key to keeping pins alive for 12+ hours is a really good air pump, and fresh batteries. As long as the air is circulating, pinfish can survive in really nasty water.

I arrived at 5, and had my first snook of the day within 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it was both short, and solitary. Plenty of Spanish Macks around- not big, but 12-15″, and I musta caught a dozen in just a few minutes till they chewed through my leader, and swam off with my Gotcha lure. No worries, the grouper were still there, and still hungry for pinfish. I caught over a dozen from 15″-20″. Fun, but nothing for the cooler. So, we were stuck with Alaskan king crab legs for the Bucs game (thanks to Albertson’s Grocery). Go Bucs!

 

Lots of great fishing last weekend… very little, though, in the way of catching. I was joined Saturday on Merry Pier by my fiance, “V”, for some early morning snapper fishing. We got a few, saw a few snook caught, and watched an amazing sunrise. A great way to start a weekend, but no fish for the cooler.

Sunday proved to be more of the same, as Mike and I plugged away… snookless. We tried to shake things up with artificials; a bit of beach fishing; we even hit the Jetty. Nothing (‘cept a few small snapper and grouper).

So, now the planning. Should I:

-Hit John’s Pass for big snook at sunrise?

-Try the mini-parks between 76th Ave and 79th Ave?

-Keep beating the dead horse at Merry Pier?

-Camp out on the beach for cocktails, sunshine, and surf fishing?

-Do Ft. Desoto; either wading the flats, or hitting the Pier?

-Stake out a spot on the Skyway?

-Something else?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Just leave a comment in the “Comments” section. Thanks!

So, Saturday started as a typical 5 a.m to 9 a.m. Pass-A-Grille Merry Pier day. Mike and I managed a few foot long snapper, and were about to call it a day when Cap’t. Andy of the Getaway approached. Seems they’d had a last minute cancellation, and they were looking to fill a couple of seats. Mike and I had been talking about getting offshore, so the timing seemed perfect. By 10:30, we were headed west.

The first stop was for bait, and we managed a mixed bag of pinfish, squirrelfish, blue runners and lizardfish. The next stop was at the 100 foot mark, on a nice three foot ledge. I nailed a Gag that measured just over 20 inches, and we also brought in a scamp, a triggerfish and a couple of big Mangos. On to the next spot, some nearby hard bottom. Up came a nice red grouper, caught by Roland, and more Mangrove Snapper. We inadvetantly nailed a couple of remoras that were hanging around the boat. Then, I saw a flash of blue and gold in the water. Mahi Mahi! We threw out some greenbacks as chum, as well as one big one on some light spinning tackle. Wham – the fight was on.

Mahi Mahi, aka dorado, aka dolphin, put up quite a fight. We got several jumps and runs out of this one, till a well placed gaff ended the battle. The mate threw out a Gotcha, and promptly hooked another. This one escaped boatside, though. Despite the fact that the school hung around for a while, we had no more hookups.

We returned our attention to bottom fishing when Mike got slammed. His rod bent double, and he proceeded to battle an unseen monster, 100 feet below. It was like trying to lift an elephant off the botttom. I was thinking Goliath Grouper or big shark. Or maybe…. a huge rusty belly gag. Mike slowly managed to gain the upper hand, gaining line a few inches at a time. Finally, we saw color. Then a shape… a ROUND shape… and a huge loggerhead turtle surfaced, with Mike’s line wrapped aound his flipper. Major disappointment. It was released unharmed.

We decided to hit one final drop on the way in. It was another ledge, this one in about 80 feet. We got the biggest fish of the day there, a 30″ gag that wieghed in at 12 pounds. Another scamp, another mango, and a few big fish lost. Just like that, we were out of live bait and it was time to head back to port. The ride home was a bit of an adventure, as we came through a very intense storm. Lightning cracked by the boat several times – you know the kind, where the flash and the thunder are simultaneous. But, we arrived safely at 7 p.m., to conclude 14 straight hours of fishing. The final tally was 5 mangrove snapper, 2 scamp, 1 red grouper, 1 gag grouper, and 1 mahi mahi.

So, yesterday we had the gang over for the first Buc’s game of the season. Grilled cajun blast mahi, grouper alacante, and bronzed scamp and mahi were on the menu. The fish was so good, it was almost enough to make you forget about the game.

I met Mike on a crowded Merry Pier at 3ish on September 1st, anticipating some snook action. Of course, after seeing schools of slot sized snook stacked up around the pier for the last couple of months, they all mysteriously vanished when the bell went off for snook season.

And that wasn’t all…. the fishing had changed. Not sure if it was the moon, or the tides, or the weather temperature; but, the big snapper and grouper that we’d been slamming for the last month or two were GONE. I managed a few small snapper, and a couple of baby grouper, but it was a stark contrast to the easy mangrove snapper limits we’d been getting. And it got weirder. I caught, of all things, a whiting on a frozen Spanish sardine. Unheard of! Next up was my first shark of the year, a healthy & fiesty bonnethead.

Yeah, change is in the air… next week will be interesting. Anyway, I had grunt on the Shimano BaitRunner under the dock. It got slammed, presumably by a snook, but the pilings provided a quick cutoff. That left Mike to come through on the snook front- and he did! He had a medium pigfish soaking in front of the dock. A big snook slammed it and swam under the dock. Probably didn’t even know it was hooked. Mike was fishing 50 lb PowerPro, and it was a good thing. The fight was intense, with the snook jumping, running into the pilings, and generally doing the things that snook do to escape. But Mike whipped it fair and square, and soon it was on the dock- all 36″.

DOH! A little too big to keep, so back she went, but not without a picture first:

By the way, Mike- remember those mullet? A guy had one out on a big pole after you left, and jumbed a ~50 lb tarpon. Quite a sight!

Next week the Bucs play at 4. And what will be on the menu? Snapper? Grouper? Snook? Microwave burritos? Time will tell…