Fishing on the Miss Pass-A-Grille
Key West Snapper. White Grunts. Doesn’t matter what you call ‘em, they sure are tasty! I ventured out on a half day trip Sunday on the Miss Pass-A-Grille. We pulled out of the Merry Pier at 8:00 a.m., and lumbered westward.
White Grunts
The last few times I’d been on this boat, I’d been after grouper (with mixed results). Today Grunts were the target. I had a fairly light spinning outfit, fresh 20 lb. SpiderWire, light fluorocarbon leaders, and small hooks (1’s and 2’s). It proved to be perfect for this type of fishing, and over the course of four drops, I nailed a couple dozen nice size grunts. I was hoping that there might be some triggerfish around, but there was no sign of them.
I did see a few gag grouper brought aboard, up to around 25″. With the season closed, though, they were returned safely, as was an 18″ red grouper. Other than the occassional puffer, it was all grunts for the 20 or so passengers on this trip. Compliments to Randy and Rich, who, as always, did a great job of putting us on fish, helping out the tourists, and cleaning the catch.
February 14th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I was on that trip and stood next to the author. We were three ‘guys’ from Delaware and the longest stringer of fish on the board was ours. I want to comment about the Captain and Mates on the boat. I have been on a ‘whole lot’ of head boats, (party boats) in my life and this was probably one of the best I’ve had to pleasure to fish on. Many times the Captain sits in his chair and doesn’t seem to really care about his clients but on this trip the Captain and Mates were husteling around the boat taking off our chatches and making rig repairs quickly and courtesously. The Captain seemed to really care about everyone catching some type of fish and his excitement during our catches was catching itself. Yes, he is a business-man and ultimately needs to profit, but his desire to please appears to surpasses his business needs. I recommend this boat for everyone, especially if you have children with you, they were very good to the kids. You just need to show up with some food and drink, they do the rest, even fillet your catch! Also, the boat was quite clean and the Mates keep it that way. Thanks guys…
March 30th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Last year at this time I posted some comments about fishing on the Miss Pass-A-Grille. I gave the Captain and crew cudos. I just recently had the opportunity to board the boat again with my son for two half-day trips. Wondering if I still feel the same about Miss Pass-A-Grille fishing, if so, read on.
If you don’t already know, this has been a terrible winter in Florida. Temperatures often reached in the low 20’s resulting in a horrible fish kill estimated in the millions. As a result some temporary restrictions were placed on some species. The tampa bay and Gulf water temperatures were in the low 50’s and the fishing basically came to a stand still. The strawberries in Plant City were almost devistated but water management saved the day. Unfortunatly, the road ways suffered with over 60 sink holes from excessive use of water from the acquifers. But back to fishing. We wrote off January and February and finally had the chance to go back out with Captain Randy and the crew on the Miss Pass-A-Grille about a week ago.
The fishing was not quite as active as it was last year at this time. We did catch grouper and of course they had to be released. The catch of the day was gray snapper. At the end of the day we only had about 9, just enough for one meal, with lots of sides. Having caught some grouper and grunts along with the snapper made for a good day however. As for the crew, still outstanding! On one of the trips there were a number of families with young children. Capt Randy and the crew went out of their ways to make the trip extra special by giving the kids ample attention and advice on how to ‘catch em’. No drunks, no obnoxious and loud fisherman and no cursing, truly a great place to have your children. The boat is still clean, and the crew quickly removed some of the ‘chum’ a few patrons provided.
Once again I must commend the Miss Pass-A-Grille for making fishing in the Gulf a very enjoyable experience. As an after-thought: if you are coming from a long distance, give Capt Randy a call and ask how the fishing is, he will give you an honest answer and may save you a long ride and some money until the fishing improves. Another on of his virtues, telling the truth.
May 7th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I utterly liked reading about Fishing on the Miss Pass-A-Grille and think it was well worth the read. The only other site I found on AOL wasnt as good as this one, thanks.
May 20th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Fishing is a nice sport and it is a good past time too. I enjoy fishing specially during weekends.”-~