Pictured above is a nice 24″ grouper my friend Mike pulled in yesterday from the Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach. It hit a live shrimp with a couple split shot about 20″ off the dock. I caught a few smaller grouper, but no keepers.

The snapper bite is red hot right now. The fish are running a little small, with most in the 9-11″ range. There are a few 12″ to 14″ fish mixed in, if you have the patience to weed through the smaller ones. They are hitting just about everything, with live shrimp and small whitebait being the top choices. I probably caught over 50 this weekend, and although I didn’t keep any, I would have had no trouble putting together a quick limit.

There are still snook hanging around the Pier, and now that the season has closed, they seem to be a lot easier to catch. Sunrise, and after dark are the best times to hook a bruiser linesider. The snook have also been active in Blind Pass. I saw one today that would have gone at least 40″.

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Fishing was a little slow after the full moon, and the weekend storms didn’t help. So, I figured I’d check the statistics for Tampa Fishing. Do you realize that over the last year, this website has:

• Over 60,000 Visitors
• Over 125,000 Page Views

The average visitor spends 3 minutes, 27 seconds on the site. And, tampafishing.net ranks for, and receives search engine traffic, for over 3,500 different search terms.

So, my question is…. who’s there?  It’s free to register. You can leave comments by simply clicking the “Comments” link following each post. So, make your presence known. Ask a question. Leave a fishing report. Share a seafood recipe. Point out a spelling error. Whatever.  Just stop lurking and join TampaFishing.Net!

Cap’t Dick’s 25′ Grady White just got back from the shop, so it was time for a little shakedown cruise. Sunday morning, Joe, Pat, and I gathered at Dick’s, geared up and headed west. The Gulf was perfect – just enough breeze to keep the heat down, but not enough to kick up waves. It stayed flat the entire day- and what an AWESOME day it was!

We hit the usual bait spots, loading up on pinfish, cigar minnows and  Spanish sardines. We set out for some structure in the 100′ range that usually holds amberjack. When we arrived around noon, another boat was anchored right on the spot, hauling up fish. We motored around until the bottom finder lit up, then dropped pinfish. The amberjack were there, and they were hungry. We quickly boated our limit of these hard-fighting fish.

Next on the agenda were grouper and snapper. We headed for a nearby ledge, dropped a marker, and made a quick drift. We were quickly hammered by some big gags, so we set the anchor and proceeded to haul in red grouper, gags, and mangrove snapper. The action was steady until the tide slacked. We picked up a few more stragglers, then headed to a break in 80′ for the final stop of the day.

With two days till the full moon, the snapper were thick and hungry. We bagged some nice, tasty mangos, and added a couple more grouper to the box. The bottom was thick with fish. We threw back some big Key West grunts, triggerfish and even a yellowtail snapper, although the American red snapper remained elusive.

We arrived back at Dick’s shortly after sunset and started filleting. The final tally was:

4 Amberjack
3 Gag Grouper
1 Scamp Grouper
2 Red Grouper
11 Mangrove Snapper

Not bad for a shakedown cruise! Thanks again to Dick, Pat and Joe for an incredible fishing trip.

Lots of fish this weekend, but nothing to brag about. The summer fishing patterns are taking shape, with cooler mornings, blazing hot afternoons, and evening thunderstorms, with no fronts in sight. The haul this weekend included bluefish, blue runners, mangrove snapper, gag and red grouper, TONS of lane snapper, key west grunts (yes, they’re right off the pier!), spanish macs, and a few others that escape my recollection. Pictured above is a nice snook that slammed a frozen sardine a few feet in front of the Merry Pier. Everybody got excited during the battle, expecting a huge grouper- kinda’ funny when a snook like this is actually a bit of a disappointment!

Conventional wisdom says you need a boat for grouper fishing. And, yes, the bite is strong now in 70′ to 140′. But, it’s also good standing on the Merry Pier on 8th Avenue in St. Pete Beach. Of course, there were plently of snapper and mackerel around, even a few sheepshead. But the highlight this weekend was grouper:

There were big greenbacks- and I mean BIG, like 6″-7″- that were popping on the surface soon after sunrise. Although they were scattered, it was possible to get a few with a sabiki. And they were just the ticket for big grouper, like the 23″ and 24″ pair pictured above.

Sunday’s fish fry brought over a dozen guests, who dined on blackened grouper fillets, panko crusted deep fried grouper fingers, and a grouper-peppers-onion-sausage creation, along with salad, veggies and pasta. Yum- gotta love fresh grouper!