It was another glorious weekend, with bright skies, clear water, good tides and plenty of fish. Tampa Fishing is in full swing! A few highlights included:

Pompano
Grouper
Mangrove Snapper
Bonnethead Sharks
Spanish Mackerel
Filefish (ugh)
Red Grouper

The Pier at 8thAve in Pass-A-Grille was packed with the usual suspects, including Joe, Cap’t Dick, Lolita, Dan,  Larry, Mike and his brother from Michigan and more. Here’s Mike’s Saturday catch:

Mangrove snapper are biting, but… it’s odd. The last few years, it was like flipping a light switch. One day- no snapper. Then, overnight, thousands of little snaps. This year, though, there have only been a few snapper so far, and almost all have been in the 12-13″ range. And the love little spottail pinfish:

Saturday was all about the grouper.  Between Cap’t Dick and I, we musta caught a couple dozen in the 15″ to 20″ range. But, under the Northeast corner of the dock, something BIG was lurking. We were railed nine (count ’em- 9!) times by something huge while using whole frozen sardines.  Might have been big snook. Might have been monster gags. My money is on a big Goliath grouper. They have been known to frequent the dock, and to wreck spinning tackle. I returned Sunday with a heavy grouper outfit (big Penn reel and an Ugly Stick like a pool cue). No dice, though. Whatever had been there Saturday had cleared out. Oh, well. Next weekend is forecast inthe upper 80’s, with light winds, a full moon, and a decent incoming tide from 6 a.m. till noon. You know where to find me…

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