Wow! Got to fish 5 consecutive days over the Thanksgiving weekend. I kicked things off on Thanksgiving day at the Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach. Fishing started a little slow, but soon changed- a school of Bonita came through. Havoc! Everybody up and down the Pier was hooking up- and each hookup was followed by the sound of screaming drags as these hefty, powerful fish peeled off a hundred yards of line (or 200…). People were running madly up and down the Pier, trying to keep from getting spooled. The result:

Now, a lot of peple will tell you that bonita are inedible, and only good for shark bait. They’ll say the meat is too bloody and oily, and that you shouldn’t even try to consume Bonita. Well, I beg to differ. When properly prepared, Bonita can be quite delicious. It takes some time, some imagination, and a great recipe, but a well prepared Bonita can become an excellent meal. Here’s how it turns out when properly prepared:

So, Friday I made the mistake of going out on Miss Pass-A-Grille. The predicted 1-2 foot waves were more like 4-5 feet, and a cold north wind was up at 20+ knots the entire time. Not exactly ideal conditions. I managed 3 short gag grouper, along with a small grey snapper, and, of all things, another Bonita. The entire boat, around 25 people, ended up with a single keeper grouper. Certainly not the fault of the Captain or crew- sometimes Nature conspires against fisherman. It was just one of those days.

The next couple of days were devoted to morning/ early afternoon fishing on Merry Pier, aptly named now that it’s decked out in Christmas lights. I had the distinct pleasure of fishing with Daniel from Denver on Monday afternoon- he landed a very nice Spanish Mackeral, his first:

So, for the long weekend the tally included:

• Bonita (four of ’em!)
• Spanish Mackeral
• Grouper
• Grey Snapper
• Flounder
• Bluefish
• Lane Snapper
• Pinfish
• Grunts
• Pufferfish
• Lizardfish
• Squirrelfish
• Filefish

A quick note- the baitshop at the Merry Pier has live shrimp, frozen baits, tackle, lures, sandwiches, smokes, cold beer, soft drinks, hats, candy, t-shirts, ice cream, gifts, and a whole lot more. Check it out!

Well, one thing about fishing at the Merry Pier in Pass-A-Grill, Florida- you can count on variety. Once more, the seasons are changing, and so is the fishing. After a great run of summer and fall snapper, all of the mango’s that had been hanging out at the pier disappeared overnight. 100% gone. Oh, well, they’ll be back come Spring.

Meanwhile, a newcomer has appeared. Big flounder just started showing up in the last couple of days. This is a really good sign, as they’ve been VERY scarce over the last couple of years, due to the big red tide hits we took. On Saturday, I saw about a dozen caught, up to 21″ (see photo above). I managed to bring in about a dozen decent mackeral, along with some undersized grouper, too.

The key to catching flounder is to slowly move a live bait along the shallow sandy bottom in about 4-8 feet. You see, the flounder is an ambush predator, and they’ll just sit there in the sand until something tasty comes within range- then, bam! Whitebait and shrimp work, although they really seem partial to mud minnows.

4 a.m. Saturday came mighty early. Harris, Egla, and I were joined by two of Harris’ employees for a day of fishing in

Charlotte Harbor. We left Punta Gorda Isles on the good ship Running With Scissors and headed west. The north wind made for a chilly run as we exited Boca Grande Pass. A quick stop at one of the channel markers left us with a full livewell. The original plan called for a run out to 105′ to the wreck of the Bayronto, but conditions and nature conspired against us, so we stayed inside.

A stop at Caya Costa yielded a 23″ snook- lots more around, but they weren’t inclined to bite. A throw of the cast net brought up a surprise – an old, barnacle encrusted reel. We threw it on the floor of the boat, and low and behold- a tiny baby octopus came crawling out! Pretty cool. He was returned safely to the sea.

Next stop was the old Phosphate Docks, always a reliable spot. We caught lots of gag grouper, up to 17″, along with tasty Key West Grunts and magrove snapper. We were chumming with glass minnows, and a big curious cobia came up the chumline. He hit a cigar minnow that we had out, but we didn’t hook up. Tarpon were rolling, a boat was teasing the Goliath Grouper with a 10 lb. bonita- all in all, a beautiful day, lots of fun.

We spotted some diving birds, and decided to troll for a bit. Using small squid spoons, we picked up a decent Spanish Mackeral, then one of the rods started screaming drag. The fish almost spooled us, till Harris hit reverse and we regained some line. It was a great fight for about 10 minutes, till we pulled up a healthy 15 pound bonita. Next, a 7 pound Mac joined the party- it looked like a small kingfish… but it was, indeed, a Spanish Mackeral. All in all, it was a great day on the water!

I headed down to the Mary Pier at 6 on Saturday morning, hoping for a little snook action. The snook were there, alright, and I lost a nice slot size fish trying to net it one-handed. It hit a Gotcha’ lure, of all things. Man, those are some great lures! Anyway, I switched to frozen sardines at sunrise, hoping for some grouper. I wasn’t disappointed, as there were plenty of 10-20″ grouper hitting, along with foot long mangos. I was ready to call it a day around 11……

Then, my friend Al pulls up in his boat and asks if I’m up for an hour or two of fishing off the beach. The kingfish are in, so I figgured… sure, why not? Off we went, first trolling, then anchoring by some structure (no, I’m not giving a specific location- but we were within sight of the Don Cesar the entire time).

Live whitebait and big greenbacks, coupled with a good chumline, proved to be a winning combination. We caught bluefish, Spanish Mackeral- and then, got a couple of schoolie kings:

 

Suddenly, three curious cobia cruised by the boat. A big whitebait proved irresistable, and we had a nice 15 pound cobe in the cooler. But, there was a bigger one there, so I tossed a big frisky greenback out. Sure enough, in a couple minute my Penn 3340 was singing, as the big bruiser stripped line. After a fun game of tug-of-war, Al gaffed the 25 pound cobia, and it joined a rapidly filling cooler.

About that time, Al’s reel started singing. I kid you not- this fish screamed off 300 yards of line without ever slowing down. Had to be a big smoker kingfish, we both thought. We pulled anchor and gave chase. After about 20 minutes, we got the fish to the boat. Oops. It was a tail wrapped 15 pound bonita. Ahhh….

All in all, it was a pretty good day, with 2 nice cobia, 2 kingfish, a bunch of big Spanish Mackeral, plus bluefish, grouper, snapper, jacks, ladyfish, etc.

After partying till 4 am in Ybor City, we had some friends over for the Buc’s victory, followed by the Indy-NE game. Lots of grilled cobia and kingfish steaks for everybody! A big win for the Buccaneers, too. Yeah, Fall weekends are great. And next Satuday, looks like I’m headed to Punta Gorda for some offshore fishing with my friend Harris. Good times!