Saturday’s weather was brutal, with steady winds out of the south at 30 knots, gusting higher. That, coupled with the new moon high tide, made for some tough fishing conditions.

Fishing the Merry Pier, I did manage a small snook, along with a gag grouper that was haunting the pilings. That was it. As the wind and waves picked up, and the conditions deteriorated, I headed for a more sheltered spot.

I had the distinct pleasure of fishing in Belle Vista with V, my better half. She caught a nice sheepshead within sight of the Don Cesar Resort.

Sunday was a rainout. At midnight tonight, gag grouper are back in season. I may have to plot an offshore trip soon.

Friday marked the first day of Spring, and fishing in the Tampa Bay area is really starting to take off. During the last week, I saw the first small snapper of the year; the firs school of whitebait; the first few needlefish; and I caught my first 2009 snook, pictured above. At 25″, it was released quickly, but I know where there are bigger ones lurking.

Sunday was a perfect day for fishing, so Tim cruised over from Tampa and we hit the docks on Blind Pass for sheepshead. The bite was steady throughout the day on fiddlers and mud crabs, even through a couple of tide changes. Tim managed a few trout and ladyfish on corked shrimp, just to provide some variety.

We didn’t manage to land any huge fish, but we catch around 30 or so altogether, including the 9 keepers pictured above. The weather was picture perfect, the water was nice and clear, and the fish were cooperative. Can’t ask for any more than that!

Saturday a fund raiser was held at the Drunken Clam Bar in St. Pete Beach to benefit the local Fire Department. There were games,  live music, a silent auction – but the centerpiece was a ‘low country boil’, and a couple hundred pounds of live crawfish!

Cap’t. Dick headed an all star cast in the cooking tent. The low country boil consisted of fresh jumbo shrimp, corn on the cob, clams, sausage, red potatoes, crawfish and a whole lot of Cajun spices. It looked something like this:

Oh… and fishing is getting ready to bust loose! I hooked (and lost) my first snook of the year under the Merry Pier, using a jumbo shrimp. Sheepshead have invaded Pass-A-Grille. Some of the pilings on the pier had at least a dozen fish on them, but they’re still in spawning mode, so enticing them to bite is not an easy matter. Still, a few decent ones were landed.

And the Spanish Mackerel are in! At least the first couple of the season. The were hitting Gotcha’ lures and small spoons in the deeper water of the Tierra Verde Channel. I caught a few grouper hanging around the pilngs of the dock.

I ventured down to Ft. Desoto on Sunday for a picnic. I didn’t bring my tackle, but I did venture out on both piers. They were packed; there must have been a hundred lines in the water. But, other than a couple of ladyfish, I didn’t see a single fish caught. There were a lot of big whitebaits hanging out under the Gulf Pier, although the bait was absent on the Bay Pier.

With all of the warm sunny days recently, the water temperature is shooting up fast. Fishing is going to shift into high gear any day now!

The water is getting warmer. The bait will be here soon. In the meantime, the sheepshead are moving into the Bay, and make a great target on these warm sunny days.

My buddy Tim came over from Tampa, and we had our usual routine of digging mud and fiddler crabs from the Corey Landings area.  A few dozen select shrimp from Gulf to Bay Bait & Tackle, and we were good to go. We fished the pilings in Blind Pass in the northern tip of St. Pete Beach.

Sheepshead, while not thick, could still be seen cruising among the pilings, picking at barnacles. And our bait. We spent the afternoon hauling in half a dozen, up to 18″. Good fun on light tackle! We then cleaned ’em and headed to a party at a friend’s condo, where we had blackened sheepshead, and sauteed sheepshead with fennel. Very tasty, and it doesn’t get any fresher.

On another note, I saw a dozen undersized, out-of-season grouper carcasses filleted and discarded at Blind Pass. Unbelievable. When you go fishing, make sure you know the laws and follow them, please.

With both red and gag grouper closed, amberjack is now the top species to target. Big ‘reef donkeys’ are thick on structure and springs in the deeper waters off Tampa Bay.

I headed out this weekend on the Getaway Sportfishing Charter in St. Pete Beach. We hit the usual spots to gather bait, but the pinfish were scarce and small. Eventually we had a full livewell, and we headed out to a wreck in just over 100′. As we reached the structure, the bottom finder lit up- yeah, the amberjack were home. With the clear water, it was possible to see them schooling 80 feet below. We fired down some medium sized pinfish, and soon the action was on.

If you’ve never caught amberjack, you’ll be amazed by how hard the fight. You’ll definately be feeling it the next day.

The bite was not the frenzy that sometimes occurs;  we’d hook up, fight the fish for 15 or so minutes, then circle back around for another drop.  We did manage a couple of double headers, and we had a couple of breakoffs as well.

The amberjack limit is one fish per person. And, yes, we limited out on 25 to 30 pound fish. Then it was catch and release.  We did have a surprise- a 30″ redfish whacked one of our pinfish:

Amberjack is delicious grilled, smoked or (my favorite) blackened. Here’s the final result of the trip:

Key West Snapper. White Grunts. Doesn’t matter what you call ’em, they sure are tasty! I ventured out on a half day trip Sunday on the Miss Pass-A-Grille. We pulled out of the Merry Pier at 8:00 a.m., and lumbered westward.

White Grunts

 The last few times I’d been on this boat, I’d been after grouper (with mixed results). Today Grunts were the target. I had a fairly light spinning outfit, fresh 20 lb. SpiderWire, light fluorocarbon leaders, and small hooks (1’s and 2’s). It proved to be perfect for this type of fishing, and over the course of four drops, I nailed a couple dozen nice size grunts. I was hoping that there might be some triggerfish around, but there was no sign of them.

I did see a few gag grouper brought aboard, up to around 25″. With the season closed, though, they were returned safely, as was an 18″ red grouper. Other than the occassional puffer, it was all grunts for the 20 or so passengers on this trip.  Compliments to Randy and Rich, who, as always, did a great job of putting us on fish, helping out the tourists, and cleaning the catch.

At aptly named Fisherman’s Park (located at Blind Pass in St. Pete Beach, next to Woody’s Restaurant), the fish have been biting.  Not fast and furious, mind you, but quality fish. Over the last few days, I’ve seen gator trout, catch and release snook, and even a 24″ gag grouper caught from the seawall at Fisherman’s Park. Nearby Sunset Park has been much slower, possibly because of the amazingly low tides we have been experiencing. SLOWWWWLY  fishing artificials is the key with water temps in the 50’s.

Sunday was a beautiful day for a fishing tournament. I fished the 19th Annual Johnny Keller Inshore Tournament with Cap’t. Dick, Pat and his two sons. We targeted grouper and sheepshead, and caught both …  just not money fish.  But it was a great day on the water, with calm winds and warm sunny conditions. In addition to our targeted species, we caught some nice black sea bass. The surprise fish of the day was a feisty red grouper in 10 feet of water.

In case you’re curious who won the tournament, the results can be found here.

Who needs a boat? With a full moon weekend, I drove to Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach for a little grouper digging. Cut and whole sardines were the bait of choice- I tried live pinfish, with no results. Arriving early, the tide was low, and just starting to come in. A couple ounces of lead allowed me to cast to the rock piles just east of ‘the bowling alley’, the pilings left from a wrecked pier just north of the Merry Pier.

On both Saturday and Sunday, the same pattern repeated. As soon as the tide turned, there was a nice incoming current which soon gave way to barely moving water. It was during this surge that all my grouper were caught; once the tide slacked off, so did the bite.  Most of the grouper were in the 12″ to 16″ range, but there were keepers. I landed a 23″ Saturday, and a 25″ on Sunday. And I lost a few big fish, too.

 

I’m used to dropping a line down on grouper from a boat. When you hook up, the real battle is getting the fish off the bottom; once that’s accomplished, then it’s just a matter of cranking them vertically 40 to 120 feet straight up to the boat. Fishing from the pier is a bit different. When you hook up, you need to drag the grouper away from the rocks and structure, then haul it horizontally for 40 to 120 feet to the pier; all the while, the grouper is fighting along the bottom. A very different type of fishing, but a lot of fun when they’re biting.

While I was ashore, my friend Peter was in the Gulf catching big American Red Snapper. He caught and released a couple dozen- they’re thick out there if you find the right spot! Congrats.

Sunday morning, Tim and I collected mud crabs from St. Pete Beach, fiddler crabs and shrimp from Gulf to Bay Bait and Tackle, and mussels and clams from Publix. We were determined to catch some big sheepshead. Weather conditions were perfect, upper 70’s with a light breeze and an incoming tide.

We did manage one big sheepie, along with a whole bunch of little ones. Also joining the party were:

-Mangrove Snapper
-Gag Grouper
-Lane Snapper
-Whiting
-A Bonnethead Shark
-Black Sea Bass

Action remained fairly steady throughout the day, but the big sheepshead remained elusive. We left the Blind Pass Marina area late in the afternoon, and it seemed every piling was covered with 10 to 15 inch sheepshead.