OK, so it was a slow weekend for fishing- the weather was amazing, mid 80’s with plenty of sunshine, so it was great just to get out. On Saturday, I rounded up the usual suspects at the Merry Pier, including small grouper, feisty Spanish mackeral, small snapper and flounder, and an assortment of various trash fish. I had a big pinfish out on the heavy rod for a couple hours, in hopes tha a big cobia might chance by, but no dice. From the rumor department, word was that a 23″ grouper had been caught a couple days before.

When Sunday started out the same, I figured I’d head round to the Pass-A-Grille Jetty just for a change of pace. The jetty was packed, and all of the prime spots were taken. Quite a contrast to Merry Pier, where there’s almost always plenty of elbow room. Anyway, fishing was slow. I caught a couple Mac’s, and I saw some small flounder and one big sheepshead pulled in.

By the way, here’s a tip if you’re going to be fishing in Pass-A-Grill in 2008. Stop by the St Pete Beach Police Department during busines hours and pick up a “B” parking permit.

http://www.stpetebeach.org/police/Permits.asp

“B” permits are valid at all meters within the city.  Both residents and non-residents are eligible to purchase these permits.  They are valid for the calendar year in which they were purchased and are valid at all metered spaces with the EXCEPTION OF THE COUNTY PARK located at 4700 Gulf Blvd.  These decals must be permanently affixed to the vehicles back bumper or rear window.

Ah, another weekend, another plethora of fish. Arriving once again at The Merry Pier on Saturday morning, I found plenty of bait, and plenty of predators. Grouper, snapper, mackeral, flounder and bonita joined the party. But the fish of the day was cobia, with two landed. They were 32″ and 31″, JUST shy of the 33″ minimum. Cobia are hard fighting fish, lots of fun to catch, and great on the grill. Hopefully next weekend there will be some keepers cruising around the pier.

Wow! Got to fish 5 consecutive days over the Thanksgiving weekend. I kicked things off on Thanksgiving day at the Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach. Fishing started a little slow, but soon changed- a school of Bonita came through. Havoc! Everybody up and down the Pier was hooking up- and each hookup was followed by the sound of screaming drags as these hefty, powerful fish peeled off a hundred yards of line (or 200…). People were running madly up and down the Pier, trying to keep from getting spooled. The result:

Now, a lot of peple will tell you that bonita are inedible, and only good for shark bait. They’ll say the meat is too bloody and oily, and that you shouldn’t even try to consume Bonita. Well, I beg to differ. When properly prepared, Bonita can be quite delicious. It takes some time, some imagination, and a great recipe, but a well prepared Bonita can become an excellent meal. Here’s how it turns out when properly prepared:

So, Friday I made the mistake of going out on Miss Pass-A-Grille. The predicted 1-2 foot waves were more like 4-5 feet, and a cold north wind was up at 20+ knots the entire time. Not exactly ideal conditions. I managed 3 short gag grouper, along with a small grey snapper, and, of all things, another Bonita. The entire boat, around 25 people, ended up with a single keeper grouper. Certainly not the fault of the Captain or crew- sometimes Nature conspires against fisherman. It was just one of those days.

The next couple of days were devoted to morning/ early afternoon fishing on Merry Pier, aptly named now that it’s decked out in Christmas lights. I had the distinct pleasure of fishing with Daniel from Denver on Monday afternoon- he landed a very nice Spanish Mackeral, his first:

So, for the long weekend the tally included:

• Bonita (four of ’em!)
• Spanish Mackeral
• Grouper
• Grey Snapper
• Flounder
• Bluefish
• Lane Snapper
• Pinfish
• Grunts
• Pufferfish
• Lizardfish
• Squirrelfish
• Filefish

A quick note- the baitshop at the Merry Pier has live shrimp, frozen baits, tackle, lures, sandwiches, smokes, cold beer, soft drinks, hats, candy, t-shirts, ice cream, gifts, and a whole lot more. Check it out!

Well, one thing about fishing at the Merry Pier in Pass-A-Grill, Florida- you can count on variety. Once more, the seasons are changing, and so is the fishing. After a great run of summer and fall snapper, all of the mango’s that had been hanging out at the pier disappeared overnight. 100% gone. Oh, well, they’ll be back come Spring.

Meanwhile, a newcomer has appeared. Big flounder just started showing up in the last couple of days. This is a really good sign, as they’ve been VERY scarce over the last couple of years, due to the big red tide hits we took. On Saturday, I saw about a dozen caught, up to 21″ (see photo above). I managed to bring in about a dozen decent mackeral, along with some undersized grouper, too.

The key to catching flounder is to slowly move a live bait along the shallow sandy bottom in about 4-8 feet. You see, the flounder is an ambush predator, and they’ll just sit there in the sand until something tasty comes within range- then, bam! Whitebait and shrimp work, although they really seem partial to mud minnows.

4 a.m. Saturday came mighty early. Harris, Egla, and I were joined by two of Harris’ employees for a day of fishing in

Charlotte Harbor. We left Punta Gorda Isles on the good ship Running With Scissors and headed west. The north wind made for a chilly run as we exited Boca Grande Pass. A quick stop at one of the channel markers left us with a full livewell. The original plan called for a run out to 105′ to the wreck of the Bayronto, but conditions and nature conspired against us, so we stayed inside.

A stop at Caya Costa yielded a 23″ snook- lots more around, but they weren’t inclined to bite. A throw of the cast net brought up a surprise – an old, barnacle encrusted reel. We threw it on the floor of the boat, and low and behold- a tiny baby octopus came crawling out! Pretty cool. He was returned safely to the sea.

Next stop was the old Phosphate Docks, always a reliable spot. We caught lots of gag grouper, up to 17″, along with tasty Key West Grunts and magrove snapper. We were chumming with glass minnows, and a big curious cobia came up the chumline. He hit a cigar minnow that we had out, but we didn’t hook up. Tarpon were rolling, a boat was teasing the Goliath Grouper with a 10 lb. bonita- all in all, a beautiful day, lots of fun.

We spotted some diving birds, and decided to troll for a bit. Using small squid spoons, we picked up a decent Spanish Mackeral, then one of the rods started screaming drag. The fish almost spooled us, till Harris hit reverse and we regained some line. It was a great fight for about 10 minutes, till we pulled up a healthy 15 pound bonita. Next, a 7 pound Mac joined the party- it looked like a small kingfish… but it was, indeed, a Spanish Mackeral. All in all, it was a great day on the water!

I headed down to the Mary Pier at 6 on Saturday morning, hoping for a little snook action. The snook were there, alright, and I lost a nice slot size fish trying to net it one-handed. It hit a Gotcha’ lure, of all things. Man, those are some great lures! Anyway, I switched to frozen sardines at sunrise, hoping for some grouper. I wasn’t disappointed, as there were plenty of 10-20″ grouper hitting, along with foot long mangos. I was ready to call it a day around 11……

Then, my friend Al pulls up in his boat and asks if I’m up for an hour or two of fishing off the beach. The kingfish are in, so I figgured… sure, why not? Off we went, first trolling, then anchoring by some structure (no, I’m not giving a specific location- but we were within sight of the Don Cesar the entire time).

Live whitebait and big greenbacks, coupled with a good chumline, proved to be a winning combination. We caught bluefish, Spanish Mackeral- and then, got a couple of schoolie kings:

 

Suddenly, three curious cobia cruised by the boat. A big whitebait proved irresistable, and we had a nice 15 pound cobe in the cooler. But, there was a bigger one there, so I tossed a big frisky greenback out. Sure enough, in a couple minute my Penn 3340 was singing, as the big bruiser stripped line. After a fun game of tug-of-war, Al gaffed the 25 pound cobia, and it joined a rapidly filling cooler.

About that time, Al’s reel started singing. I kid you not- this fish screamed off 300 yards of line without ever slowing down. Had to be a big smoker kingfish, we both thought. We pulled anchor and gave chase. After about 20 minutes, we got the fish to the boat. Oops. It was a tail wrapped 15 pound bonita. Ahhh….

All in all, it was a pretty good day, with 2 nice cobia, 2 kingfish, a bunch of big Spanish Mackeral, plus bluefish, grouper, snapper, jacks, ladyfish, etc.

After partying till 4 am in Ybor City, we had some friends over for the Buc’s victory, followed by the Indy-NE game. Lots of grilled cobia and kingfish steaks for everybody! A big win for the Buccaneers, too. Yeah, Fall weekends are great. And next Satuday, looks like I’m headed to Punta Gorda for some offshore fishing with my friend Harris. Good times!

I hit Merry Pier at sunrise on Saturday, scored a few jumbo shrimp from the bait shop, and had some fun with the local snook population. I landed three undersized snook (to 24″), and lost a BIG one – probable over slot size. The current was outgoing, low and strong, and the fish were hanging in the spot where the Egmont Key boat usually sits. But, after an hour, the showers moved in, then the rain began in earnest, so I packed up and headed home.

Sunday was more of the same, without the rain. The fishing was a bit slower, though, and the snapper showed up, which put an end to using shrimp. And the snook didn’t display any interest in pinfish, so, after an hour or so, off I went.

Sunday night, we joined Tim for a little tailgating and the Buc’s game. The food and the company were great… alas, the game wasn’t, as the Bucs dropped to 4-4 when they couldn’t muster the offense to score a simple lousy field goal with 2 minutes remaining. Then, I watched the Rockies self destruct. Pretty rough weekend for sports, altogether (Florida, USF, The Lightning, the Dolphins – even my Murray State Racers all lost). Oh well- next time!

 

 

A good day’s work- red snapper, mangrove snapper, yellowtail snapper, vermillion snapper, red grouper, scamp, gag grouper, triggerfish and more. Another successful day aboard the Getaway, based at the Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Yes, it was quite a haul:

Only problem is that these fish were caught over a year ago- 9/9/06, to be precise. Tim, a professional photographer who was on the trip, came by yesterday for some fishing, followed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, and dropped the photos off.

So… how ’bout this weekend? Well, it was a wee bit slow. This slow:

There were still a few grouper hanging around. The bigger ones bit live pinfish just as the sun peeked over the horizon, highlighted by a 20 1/2″ (still ot quite legal). After a couple hours, it was little gag grouper- millions of ’em. They were everywhere, biting pinfish, sardines, shrimp- you name it.

We managed 3 keeper snapper, 1 18″ mack, and roughly one thousand smaller fish. Miss Pass-A-Grill, the local headboat, brought in a load of key west grunts around noon. They also had one big flounder, which seemed a little out of place among all of those grunts. I heard they nailed 6 keeper grouper the day before. As the water cools, the bigger grouper move near shore- I may have to take a little boat ride here soon…

Date: 9/29/07
Time: 4:30 a.m. till around 10
Tides: Strong outgoing (2 a.m. high tide)
Conditions: Water clarity poor, partly sunny, light east wind
The Catch: Bluefish, grouper, mangrove snapper, lane snapper, ladyfish, catfish, pinfish

It was a pretty slow weekend for fishing, despite high expectations. Mike ( a work at home dad) and I hit Merry Pier at 4:30, but the bad news was that the (brand new) batteries on my air pump had died, and 3 dozen pinfish I had picked up at Gulf to Bay Bait and Tackle perished. A real setback. Luckily, Mike netted some frisky finger mullet, and I brought 5 pounds of frozen sardines.

I lost a snook under the dock on one of the mullet, and I managed a decent mangrove snapper with sardine. I also caught a small ladyfish just before sun-up, which I promptly threw back… as bait. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes it got nailed, but I was cut off in the rocks.

Next up was a 16″ bluefish. It ate a frozen sardine- no, I’m not kidding. Jumped twice, too. Not much else was happening. he dock was packed with people, and nobody caught anything, with the exception of small dock snapper and grouper.

Sunday, I hit Blind Pass midmorning, and threw a ‘Gotcha lure. Man, the bluefish and spanish macs love those things! I upsized to a RattleTrap after getting bit off. I thought there might be some snook lurking in the incoming tide, but, no hits. So, I thawed some Mahi, grilled it up, and had a great time with the gang watching the Buc’s win.

 

The fish of the weekend is pictured above- a 33″ redfish, caught by an unidentified fisherman (but, hey, I got to net it!).

Ahhh, Autumn is in the air. And, if I can feel it, you bet the fish can! Mike and I hit the Merry Pier dark and early Saturday. The original plan was to try John’s Pass, but we really needed an outgoing tide. And, the backup plan for the beach didn’t pan out- gusty winds were creating big surf. So, back to the Pier…

We managed a near limit of 12″ snapper, but the snook proved elusive. I hooked two; one spit the hook dockside (looked like a nice slot size, too); the other, a big bruiser, made a couple jumps and cut the leader with his gill plate.

Grouper were cooperative on pinfish, and I had the bittersweet pleasure of tossing back a nice 21 1/2″ gag. Oh, so close….  Pinfish were the ticket, and we caught plenty of hard pulling gags, with some big ones getting away.

Sunday, I had a plan. I arrived early, with two dozen pinfish from Gulf to Bay Bait and Tackle. The key to keeping pins alive for 12+ hours is a really good air pump, and fresh batteries. As long as the air is circulating, pinfish can survive in really nasty water.

I arrived at 5, and had my first snook of the day within 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it was both short, and solitary. Plenty of Spanish Macks around- not big, but 12-15″, and I musta caught a dozen in just a few minutes till they chewed through my leader, and swam off with my Gotcha lure. No worries, the grouper were still there, and still hungry for pinfish. I caught over a dozen from 15″-20″. Fun, but nothing for the cooler. So, we were stuck with Alaskan king crab legs for the Bucs game (thanks to Albertson’s Grocery). Go Bucs!