OK, so fishing was a little slow last weekend. And my report is a little late. Tim and I caught a couple snapper, a grouper or two, a single flounder and a lonely mac. Forget all that. The real story is the Tampa Bay Rays! I’ve got a ticket for Saturday night’s game Ray’s game RIGHT behind home plate. I’m talking 3 rows from the action. Wide leather seats, full free buffet & beer, private entrance… the works! Yup, I got lucky in the ALCS lottery, and I guess I hit TicketMaster at just the right time. GO, RAYS!!!

 

Another weekend, and more fish stories. Tim returned to the Merry Pier on Saturday, but the cobia were elusive. We bagged plenty of medium size grouper, a few snapper, and some very healthy Spanish Mackerel. We saw an 18″ flounder caught, probably the best fish of the day. We had plenty of action early, but once the tide went slack, the bite died off.

Sunday, I figured to get in a little fishing before the Tampa Bay Buc’s game. I was nailing small grouper and snapper using netted silver Jenny’s and whitebait. As I pulled a small snapper out from the pilings, a huge snook nailed it. The fight was on! At first, she went away from the Pier, peeling off drag. Then she turned and rushed back underneath, wrapping around a piling. Fortunately, I was using 20 lb. test SpiderWire, so I was able to work the big fish out from the pilings and onto the dock. It measured around 35″, too big to keep. A couple of friends on the dock tried (unsuccessfully) to work my camera phone, so I have no pictures. But, the snook was released safely back into Boca Ciega Bay.

Other highlights of the weekend included a small 20″ cobia caught by Mike; a BIG cobia that broke Thao’s line; and plenty of rolling tarpon. Yes, it’s a good time of the year. Now, if I can just catch a SMALLER snook….

So, Saturday I headed down to Merry Pier bright and early to meet with Nick and get in a little snapper and grouper fishing. Nick’s a great guy, and he was hauling in keeper mangos in no time. But, I had a little change of plans. Seems Joe, the owner of the Getaway, a Tampa Offshore Fishing Charter Boat, had an open seat. I didn’t hesitate. Soon, Joe, along with Cap’t Joe, Cap’t Dick and I were headed out offshore.

First priority was bait, which proved to be a little scarce. We wrangled in some pinfish, snapper sized sardines, blue runners and assorted others. On one of the cans in the Egmont Shipping Channel, we saw a pair of curious cobia, but they were reluctant to bite. So we headed out to a snapper spot. The first catch was a little…. weird. An octopus!

 We headed to deeper water, and in about 80″, we came upon a huge weedline. It was loaded with small bait, so we dropped a planer wih a squid spoon. We caught a couple jacks, then struck gold- Mahi Mahi! We set up next to the weedline, and started chumming. Sure enough, a huge school of dolphin (aka dorado, aka mahi-mahi) soon showed up, and the frenzy was on. Using a variety of live and frozen bait, as well as artificials, we were hauling in tasty schoolies one after another. They weren’t real big, but boy were they fun to catch on light tackle- great runs, and spectacular jumps.  We threw back the smallest, and still managed 28 keepers:

 The surprise of the trip came after the mahi mahi bite tapered off. We anchored over some bottom, and proceeded to haul up red grouper, gag grouper, scamps and even a nice lane snapper. But Joe had a big hit on a live sardine, and proceeded to pull in a doormat flounder:

 It was  a great day on the water, with plenty of action, and lots of tasty fillets. If you’re looking for a fantastic fishing adventure, call Joe at the Getaway (727) 367-9693. Tell him you found him through TampaFishing.Net.

 

 

 

Fishing was a little slow after the full moon, and the weekend storms didn’t help. So, I figured I’d check the statistics for Tampa Fishing. Do you realize that over the last year, this website has:

• Over 60,000 Visitors
• Over 125,000 Page Views

The average visitor spends 3 minutes, 27 seconds on the site. And, tampafishing.net ranks for, and receives search engine traffic, for over 3,500 different search terms.

So, my question is…. who’s there?  It’s free to register. You can leave comments by simply clicking the “Comments” link following each post. So, make your presence known. Ask a question. Leave a fishing report. Share a seafood recipe. Point out a spelling error. Whatever.  Just stop lurking and join TampaFishing.Net!