Pass-A-Grill Fishing Report
Date: 9/29/07
Time: 4:30 a.m. till around 10
Tides: Strong outgoing (2 a.m. high tide)
Conditions: Water clarity poor, partly sunny, light east wind
The Catch: Bluefish, grouper, mangrove snapper, lane snapper, ladyfish, catfish, pinfish
It was a pretty slow weekend for fishing, despite high expectations. Mike ( a work at home dad) and I hit Merry Pier at 4:30, but the bad news was that the (brand new) batteries on my air pump had died, and 3 dozen pinfish I had picked up at Gulf to Bay Bait and Tackle perished. A real setback. Luckily, Mike netted some frisky finger mullet, and I brought 5 pounds of frozen sardines.
I lost a snook under the dock on one of the mullet, and I managed a decent mangrove snapper with sardine. I also caught a small ladyfish just before sun-up, which I promptly threw back… as bait. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes it got nailed, but I was cut off in the rocks.
Next up was a 16″ bluefish. It ate a frozen sardine- no, I’m not kidding. Jumped twice, too. Not much else was happening. he dock was packed with people, and nobody caught anything, with the exception of small dock snapper and grouper.
Sunday, I hit Blind Pass midmorning, and threw a ‘Gotcha lure. Man, the bluefish and spanish macs love those things! I upsized to a RattleTrap after getting bit off. I thought there might be some snook lurking in the incoming tide, but, no hits. So, I thawed some Mahi, grilled it up, and had a great time with the gang watching the Buc’s win.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Steve,
Thanks for having us down to watch the game yesterday. It was nice to get out of the house, and the food (specifically the Mahi Mahi) was awesome! If only we could have figured out a way to fill up the cooler this weekend.
Oh, and I’m digging the link. 😉
Mike
October 1st, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Mike,
Awww… shucks. Maybe next weekend we’ll manage to catch something Digg-worthy! Looks like they were hitting the Pompano from a boat off the Jetty:
http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=664801
Steve
October 9th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Hello, We are coming to Pass-a-Grille Oct. 10. My husband and I use to live on the beach and had much success wade fishing off the beach. It was amazing what we pulled in. Its been 10 years and we are wondering if we could be so lucky to catch anything around this time from the beach?
Thanks for the great site!
Joe and Crystal
October 9th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Joe & Crystal,
Greetings! I’ll be headed to Kentucky on Oct. 11; otherwise, I’d join you on the beach. How long are you in town for?
Yes, the variety of fish in this area is quite amazing. Now that the water temp has dropped to about 80 degrees, the beaches are starting to slow down, as the bait thins out. You still have an excellent shat at Spanish macks, bluefish (which have really seen an increase in numbers recently), and, maybe, snook, trout, or pompano.
What you catch will largely be determined by the fishing method employed. For Macks and blues, a small Gotcha’ lure, in a bright color (preferably silver), retrieved in a FAST, jerky motion should do the trick. Cast out far.
For snook, a live pinfish (or, better still, a big grunt or ladyfish) weighted on the bottom in the first surf trough will work, though it may require a little patience.
‘Course, you can always just throw out a live shrimp- you’re bound to catch something, but it may just be a pinfish. Good luck- let me know how you do!
Steve
September 11th, 2010 at 9:37 am
hey, nice blog…really like it and added to bookmarks. keep up with good work