Tampa & Pass-A-Grille Fishing Guide

Another glorious Fall weekend of fishing in South St. Pete Beach. The Merry Pier in Pass-A-Grill drew the usual collection of dedicated fisherman, including Cap’t. Dick, Tim from Tampa, JoeMama, Mike from Michigan, Dave & other regulars. The fishing was slow but steady, with tides peaking before sunrise, and a strong outgoing tide all morning. Keeping weeds off our lines was a problem Saturday.

The fish were fairly cooperative, though.  Mike landed a keeper flounder and a slot snook. There were macks, legal snapper, short red and gag grouper, etc.  But the highlight of the weekend was when Leon caught a hog snapper- yes, a real, 100% hogfish, caught inshore at the Merry Pier. Hogfish are an offshore species, and difficult to catch on hook and line. They are a favored target for spearfisherman. I have never seen nor heard of one caught inshore, but Leon’s was DEFINATLY a hog snapper. Just goes to show… you never know what you might catch in the waters of Tampa Bay!

Tim recently made a spearfishing trip to the middle grounds, home to big grouper. Here’s evidence:

Fall fishing is in full swing. The water temps are starting top drop, days are getting shorter, and the fish are active and on the move.

I managed to spend a few hours both Saturday and Sunday fishing in St. Pete Beach. There were some huge greenbacks schooling around the Merry Pier. Using frozen sardines, I finally nailed a nice grouper at sunrise Saturday, just at the start of the incoming tide. 26″, and tasty! There were cobia, sharks, macks, mangos and flounder caught, although overall the fishing was pretty slow. Sunday Tim ventured down from Tampa. The highlight was a 15 pound stingray that created a few minutes worth of excitement.