At aptly named Fisherman’s Park (located at Blind Pass in St. Pete Beach, next to Woody’s Restaurant), the fish have been biting.  Not fast and furious, mind you, but quality fish. Over the last few days, I’ve seen gator trout, catch and release snook, and even a 24″ gag grouper caught from the seawall at Fisherman’s Park. Nearby Sunset Park has been much slower, possibly because of the amazingly low tides we have been experiencing. SLOWWWWLY  fishing artificials is the key with water temps in the 50’s.

Sunday was a beautiful day for a fishing tournament. I fished the 19th Annual Johnny Keller Inshore Tournament with Cap’t. Dick, Pat and his two sons. We targeted grouper and sheepshead, and caught both …  just not money fish.  But it was a great day on the water, with calm winds and warm sunny conditions. In addition to our targeted species, we caught some nice black sea bass. The surprise fish of the day was a feisty red grouper in 10 feet of water.

In case you’re curious who won the tournament, the results can be found here.

Who needs a boat? With a full moon weekend, I drove to Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach for a little grouper digging. Cut and whole sardines were the bait of choice- I tried live pinfish, with no results. Arriving early, the tide was low, and just starting to come in. A couple ounces of lead allowed me to cast to the rock piles just east of ‘the bowling alley’, the pilings left from a wrecked pier just north of the Merry Pier.

On both Saturday and Sunday, the same pattern repeated. As soon as the tide turned, there was a nice incoming current which soon gave way to barely moving water. It was during this surge that all my grouper were caught; once the tide slacked off, so did the bite.  Most of the grouper were in the 12″ to 16″ range, but there were keepers. I landed a 23″ Saturday, and a 25″ on Sunday. And I lost a few big fish, too.

 

I’m used to dropping a line down on grouper from a boat. When you hook up, the real battle is getting the fish off the bottom; once that’s accomplished, then it’s just a matter of cranking them vertically 40 to 120 feet straight up to the boat. Fishing from the pier is a bit different. When you hook up, you need to drag the grouper away from the rocks and structure, then haul it horizontally for 40 to 120 feet to the pier; all the while, the grouper is fighting along the bottom. A very different type of fishing, but a lot of fun when they’re biting.

While I was ashore, my friend Peter was in the Gulf catching big American Red Snapper. He caught and released a couple dozen- they’re thick out there if you find the right spot! Congrats.

Sunday morning, Tim and I collected mud crabs from St. Pete Beach, fiddler crabs and shrimp from Gulf to Bay Bait and Tackle, and mussels and clams from Publix. We were determined to catch some big sheepshead. Weather conditions were perfect, upper 70’s with a light breeze and an incoming tide.

We did manage one big sheepie, along with a whole bunch of little ones. Also joining the party were:

-Mangrove Snapper
-Gag Grouper
-Lane Snapper
-Whiting
-A Bonnethead Shark
-Black Sea Bass

Action remained fairly steady throughout the day, but the big sheepshead remained elusive. We left the Blind Pass Marina area late in the afternoon, and it seemed every piling was covered with 10 to 15 inch sheepshead.