Despite the windy weekend, the fish are still active and feeding in the Tampa Bay area. The recent fronts have scattered the inshore bait a bit, but flounder, grouper, redfish and sheepshead continue to cooperate. Here’s an oversized red landed at Merry Pier on Sunday:

And one of several snook Mike (from Michagan) landed on Saturday in Pass-A-Grille:

And, just for good measure, here’s a mess of Mangos and a nice amberjack that Rich and the gang nailed in the Middle Grounds:

And, while pelicans and seagulls are a year round presence at Merry Pier, an occasional Osprey shows up:

Despite the wind and rain this weekend, I managed to fish both Blind Pass and the Merry Pier. I was pleased to see the best show of bait so far in 2011- nice frisky greenbacks were EVERYWHERE! And, with the bait, come the predators. This weekend, it was Jack Cravelle. Hundreds. Thousands. OK, maybe millions of ’em. They ranged from hand sized to a couple pounds. Hook one, and hundreds of others would follow it right to the surface. They were hitting anything in the water, including bare hooks.

But it wasn’t all jacks. I managed Spanish Mackerel, ladyfish, small mangrove snapper, and even a small sea bass. The next six weeks or so should be a lot of fun.