St. Pete Beach fishing has entered the typical summer patterns. Bait has shown up, and although plentiful, it mostly remains small. Flounder, redfish and black drum have virtually disappeared, while cobia have yet to show up. Snapper and Key West grunts are now the staple at Merry Pier, with mangrove snapper ranging from 7-14″, with an average length of 9.99999 inches.

Grouper have been spotty, and small. I have yet to see a legal size gag caught. Seems to me like a lot of the structure inshore that used to hold big grouper may have been gradually covered with drifting sand, so what was once a couple feet of relief is now mere inches. Or, maybe it’s something else – the water temp, the bait, who knows? I’ll keep trying, though. Some highlights from the last month:

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2015 at 9:59 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.