Tampa & Pass-A-Grille Fishing Guide » General

Winter 2012 Fishing

Steve — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:57:56 +0000

OK, time to catch up on my fishing blog. Went out in early January with Dick, Tim, and Joe. The target species was amberjack, so we headed to the surefire spot in 105 feet. First drop, first fish. Second drop, second fish. And so it went. The amberjack were big, hungry and plentiful. We tried a little bottom fishing nearby, but those pesky amberjack wouldn’t leave us alone. Joe dropped a finger size tomtate down on a size 2 hook and light spinning gear, hoping for snapper. Nope, he hooked into and landed a 30+ pound amberjack, after an epic fight.

We decided to give our backs a break, and headed for a ledge looking for grouper. As it turns out, the ledge was loaded. We nailed a bunch of 19″ red grouper, along with plenty of big gags up to about 20 pounds. See for yourself:

So, Saturday was gorgeous, upper 70’s and no wind, so I figured I’d join Miss Pass-A-Grille for the 1/2 day fishing trip. Good call! I ended up with 8 really nice grunts, which translated into a bag full of fillets. I saw tons of grunts caught, along with red grouper, gag grouper, triggerfish and porgies. If you haven’t been out on Miss Pass-A-Grille, I highly recommended it! Call ‘em at (727) 367-9833 for reservations and information.

A few side notes – great company on Miss Pass-A-Grille. There is still decent whitebait to be netted at Merry Pier. Flounder have moved offshore, and sheepshead are JUST strating to show. Still a few Macks around.

Miss Pass-A-Grille Half Day Trip

Steve — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:26:40 +0000

So, I found myself at Merry Pier a couple Saturdays ago, and Cap’t Randy invited me out for the 1/2 day on The Miss Pass-A-Grille deep sea fishing boat. The weather was perfect – sunny and warm with calm winds. Off we went. There were about 20 others aboard, including several families – the boat is a perfect place for kids to learn how to fish. We hit several spots, and there were plenty of tasty Key West grunts in my bucket. I saw several legal red grouper caught, along with flounder and big gag grouper (which are, unfortunately, out of season). Here’s the end result of a great 4 hour trip:

2011 Winter Fishing in Tampa

Steve — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:58:32 +0000

The flounder run has wound down. While the fish were plentiful and hungry over Thanksgiving, they appear to have made the big push offshore to spawn. So, now we have that slow time between when the flounder leave and the sheepshead show up. There have been a few sheepies around, but they are few and far between. A few stray redfish have been caught recently, and there’s still bait at Merry Pier and the bridge at Blind Pass.

Here’s my only worthwhile catch from last weekend – an 18″ flounder that hit a whitebait:

A Great Fall Flounder Run

Steve — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:09:41 +0000

While snook, snapper and other fish have been spotty this year, the flounder have taken center stage. With a long Thanksgiving weekend, I spent several mornings at The Merry Pier in Pass-A-Grille fishing for these tasty bottom dwellers. Flounder are ambush predators, lying on the sandy bottom waiting for prey to venture too close. They’ll take shrimp, whitebait, greenbacks, small pinfish and slow moving jigs. Saturday was a banner day, with 8 keepers, the smallest at 15″ and the largest around 22″. A few pictures:

And, of course, my brother Allen got the biggest one:

My buddy Tim nailed a 30″ oversized redfish:

Offshore? No. Flounder? Yes!

Steve — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:09:31 +0000

With grouper season winding down, Kevin, Dick and I had planned an offshore trip for Saturday. We were going to hit wrecks and ledges for amberjack and grouper, but… Saturday morning, winds were steady from the North at 15 knots, so we decided not to chance it in a 22′ boat. We ended up fishing the islands just North of Sand Key Pass, catching trout and flounder (although the redfish remained elusive). The afternoon turned out perfect, with high 70’s and sunshine – all in all, a great day on the water.

Sunday, I hit the Merry Pier for flounder. They were cooperative! I ended up with 4 nice keepers in a couple hours using big live shrimp. They were also hitting greenbacks and root beer jigs. Between all the fisherman, I saw at least a couple dozen legal fish landed. Miss Pass-A-Grille arrived with a boatload of big grouper and Key West grunts- and that was just a half day trip!

So, the end result – 4 flounder and a pound of stone crab claws, compliments of Cap’t Dick:

Tampa Bay Fishing

Steve — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:14:54 +0000

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:

Fall Fishing Fires Up!

Steve — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:45:49 +0000

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.

Grouper Season Opens

Steve — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:01:25 +0000

Saturday marked the opening of the fall gag grouper season. So, I loaded up on sardines and headed to the Merry Pier in Pass-A-Grille. There was a strong morning outgoing tide, which somewhat limited the grouper options. But, I did manage to pull 5 of ‘em out from under the dock. The biggest was just over 20″. Big, but not big enough. There are keepers lurking there, and it’s just a matter of time now…

On Sunday, I switched gears and focused on flounder. They were present in the slips, and readily took live greenbacks (if the pinfish didn’t kill them first). But, once again, they ran small. There was a report of a big cobia hooked and lost dockside at sunrise. Catch of the day honors go to Robert, for landing a nice out-of-season snook on light tackle.

September Already?

Steve — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:52:18 +0000

Wow, the summer is FLYING by… and fishing has been in the doldrums. Don’t get me wrong, there ARE fish around – just few and far between. Merry Pier, Blind Pass and other St. Pete Beach fishing spots have been yielding flounder, mangrove snapper, mackerel, gags (and a few red) grouper, snook and trout. Just not very big, and not very many. No sign of sharks, pompano, cobia, redfish….

Anyway, the plan is to head offshore for an overnighter on September 16th, once gags are back in season. Amberjack, grouper and snapper will be on the menu. Weather permitting… Stay tuned!

Summer Fishing Patterns

Steve — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:20:59 +0000

OK, yeah, I’ve been slacking a little keeping this site updated. But, hey, fishing has been less than spectacular recently. The Pompano have all moved outside the passes, snook remain elusive since the big freeze of 2009, grouper and amberjack are out of season and the snapper have been spotty. But, for the first time this year, I was able to net some decent size greenbacks at Merry Pier, and there are a few big macks around.

My friend Jim came over from Orlando for the July 4th weekend with his 9 year old daughter Jordan. We fished yesterday at the pier, and she bagged a nice keeper flounder, as well as a short, which was released unharmed. There were a few other flounder caught, but, oddly, not one snapper. Strange year. But, we were able to enjoy good company, stuffed flounder, and fireworks, so all-in-all a great weekend!