The Merry Pier in southern Pinellas County was busy this weekend. Grouper, snook, snapper & macks were caught, although the sluggish tides made for some slow fishing.

The surprise this weekend was the return of the redfish. There were two caught, and both were over the slot, around 30″. Several big fish were broken off, either more big reds or perhaps big grouper.

The weather has kept me inshore for a while- hopefully the 4th of July weekend will be better.

Big mangrove snapper have invaded the piers, docks and structure of Boca Ciega Bay. While smaller fish are the norm inshore in June, this year some quality fish are showing up. Here’s a nice 18″ mango that was caught by a gentleman at Merry Pier on Saturday:

Fishing this weekend with Tim, who made the trip over to the beaches from Tampa, we nailed a nice limit of big mangos, to 17″. They weren’t too picky, hitting everything from frozen sardine tails to small greenbacks to freelined tomtates to live shrimp.

Overall, the fishing was pretty good. We caught 15 or 20 grouper (to 20″), along with dozens of big macks. A 23″ keeper gag grouper was pulled out from under the pier, and there were plenty of snook around once the current started running.

So, here’s blackened snapper and fried snapper…. the BEFORE shot….: