Skyway bust

Made it out to the Sunshine Skyway last Saturday for one last shot at a pier grouper with my brother before he moves to Virginia. He had his friend Josh come along for the ride.

We hit the pier around 6:00pm. The tide had just changed over from high and was beginning to flow out, so we had to fish the reef side. Ordinarily, I would be excited about fishing the reef side, but we've had more luck fishing the bridge side lately. Regardless, we deployed four grouper rods with pinfish that Reilly had caught for us in Coffee Pot--two live, two cut.

While we waited for a big bite, we used our light tackle poles to fish for more bait. Steve wasted no time in bringing up a couple of big grunts, and I used the sabiki baited with shrimp to pull up a half-dozen pinfish. Josh couldn't catch a cold. As Steve said, it is hard to fish the pier in a full current with twenty yards of line out. By the time you feel the bite, your bait is gone. It takes either a practiced fisherman or a lucky fisherman to catch fish off the pier under those conditions.

After awhile, Steve and Josh walked off to the bait shop and left me to tend the poles. When they got back, they said there was a several hundred pound Goliath grouper that had been caught off the end of the pier. Steve said it was bigger than him. I was troubled to hear that the guy who had caught it was keeping it hooked up and letting it wallow on the surface. Not only is that illegal, it's a good way to kill a fish that you couldn't eat anyway. By keeping it tied up to the pier, he was just being a show off. I don't like show offs.

The grouper poles were silent for a couple of hours, and things were looking bleak until Josh started using the sabiki to pull up scaled sardines. He was psyched to finally be catching fish, and I was psyched to get some good bait. I pulled all the grouper rods in and started re-baiting with the scaled sardines. The rods started going off right away. Steve had a good fight on and pulled in a ... catfish. Bah.

A bit later he had another nice fish on, which turned out to be a big bluefish. I had 30 pound test on that grouper rod, but the bluefish bit right through it right when Steve got it to the surface. All the other rods had wire leader on, so it was just bad luck for Steve. He was disappointed and I was disappointed, but what can you do? That's fishing.

After about an hour of good bites but no more catches, the crabs started getting to the bait, which meant the tide was going slack. Soon the lines were still, so we packed up and headed home around 11:00pm. Not a bad night on the pier, but a tough night for Steve, who was really hoping for a grouper on his last chance outing at the pier.

Catching up on catching

I haven't reported on my fishing excursions lately because I haven't been fishing lately. With the weather in Florida alternating between searingly hot and extraordinarily rainy, it has been difficult to get on the water.

With that said, I have had a few good trips since my last post in May, so let's get on with the show:

Skyway Pier North, Part I

I made it out to the pier one night with my dad, step-mom and half-sister. The tide was slack when we arrived, which made for great baitfishing. We were reeling up pinfish and grunts on nearly every cast. Over time, the tide picked up significantly and we had to switch to the other side of the pier to keep our bait from being pulled under the bridge.

We had out four grouper reels on my dad's hand-crafted pvc rod holders, and each one of us was fishing for bait and whatever else might come along with light-tackle gear. The grouper reels had a variety of dead, live, and wounded live pinfish as bait. For the light tackle, we were using frozen shrimp.

I think it was sometime near 10pm when our first grouper rod went off, and by went off, I mean it screamed. I ran to grab the rod, but before I could even tighten the drag, the line went limp. When I finally got all the line back on the spool and inspected the break, I could see that the monofilament line was cleanly cut. I'm going to predict a shark on that one.

About twenty minutes later, another grouper rod went off, this time pulling drag a bit more slowly. I was able to grab the pole and feel the weight of a big fish on the line, but the fish was too strong and broke the line off by brushing up against a piling. I am going to predict a grouper or tarpon on that one.

The last grouper rod went off close to midnight, and I had control of this log of a fish for a good thirty seconds before the hook slipped and the bait came up to the surface, still alive. This one felt like a grouper all the way, and of the three fish, it was the only one that disappointed me, in that I actually had a shot to land it.

We packed up a short time later and headed home, still without catching the elusive Skyway grouper.

Father's day fishing trip

On Father's Day this year, I went out with my father-in-law Craig and my brother-in-law Danny for what was supposed to be a half-day of slaying spanish mackerel. Unfortunately, the nearshore water conditions were terrible, and though we faithfully deployed several spoons, we gave up after a few passes. I was about to chum the water with my breakfast.

We turned back inshore, castnetted some bait, and tried our hand at fishing the grass flats. I was able to pick up a 13" seatrout and lizard fish on our first pass fishing a Yozuri with a black top and silver sides. As we motored over to get in position to drift the flat again, I changed over to a 1/4 red jig head and rootbeer shrimp tail, and promptly caught what I had hoped would be a redfish, but turned out to be sail cat. Bah.

On the next drift I put out a live pinfish hooked through the nose on my grouper rod and then worked my jig over the grass beds. It wasn't long before I picked up another 13" sea trout on the jig, and Danny followed-up with a nice trout of about the same size on a DOA shrimp. We drifted past two islands, and then the bite slowed down as the water got deeper and we approached the channel.

Just as we came over the ledge of the channel, the grouper rod with the live pinfish bent over and I ran to grab it. I started reeling right away and was pumped to feel some weight on the other end. A few reels later I pulled up my first grouper of my fishing career. It was only a 15" gag grouper, but I was psyched! It's not every day you can find a grouper inshore in the summer!

Skyway Pier North, Part II

Last Friday, my brother Steve and I drove out to the Skyway for another shot at landing a Skyway grouper.

The tide was flowing in, or toward the Skyway, so we fished the same side I had fished in Skyway Pier North, Part I. Normally I pick up my bait and other gear at a tackle shop off the east side of the Gandy Bridge, but I hadn't made it over in time for our trip, so we had to walk down to the shop on the Skyway. The shop is great--everything you need for pier fishing and nothing you don't--but it is double the price you'll pay on the mainland. Nevertheless, I picked up some frozen shrimp, a few weights and on a whim, a sabiki kit.

Back out our fishing spot, we set up my grouper rod in a pvc holder and each of us fished a light tackle outfit. Steve caught a grunt on his first cast, and we put him on the grouper pole live. Steve caught another grunt on his second cast, so I tossed him in a bait bucked it and dropped it down to the water.

The first hit we got on the grouper rod was a monster, and Steve grabbed the pole and set the hook. The reel on my grouper pole has two drag settings, and unfortunately, I hadn't instructed Steve on how to flick it off. I ran over and was able to turn it off as he was reeling, but the delay gave the fish just enough leeway to shake the hook. As the line went slack, we looked down and saw a keeper-size red grouper self-release at the surface and then lazily swim out of sight.

That one was a heart breaker.

I pulled up the baitbucket, put a piece of cut pinfish on the hook, and tossed it back over to wait for the next bite. Steve sat down for a minute, still in a bit of shock. It was then that I saw my baitbucket drifting away from the pier. I had forgot to tie it to the bridge.

I cast out a laser on my light tackle pole and it arched perfectly over the line of the bucket. However, when I reeled to hook up the line, I missed, and the bucket drifted out to sea. This would be a problem, as a short time later, we lost out bait on the grouper pole to a nice bite, and found ourselves out of live bait.

For the next 45 minutes, we couldn't catch a grunt or pinfish to save our lives. In a moment of desperation, I put the sabiki kit on my rod, baited the tiny hooks with equally tiny pieces of shrimp, and then cast out. BAM! A pinfish. Next cast: BAM! two pinfish. We rebaited the grouper rod and put a piece of cut bait on Steve's lightweight rod too.

Soon after, I sabiki-ed up a scaled sardine, and we put that on my grouper rod. Moments later we had a nice fish on the line, which turned out to be the largest sculpin I've ever seen. It must have been 12-13". It was too bad to waste a sardine on a sculpin, but it felt great to catch something other than a grunt or pinfish.

We had small hits on the live bait rods all night, but couldn't connect with another grouper. We gave up at 1:00am, promising to try again this week. (We're going on Saturday. Stay tuned.)

I've got two more fishing stories for you, both freshwater:

Michigan lake fishing

My family went to visit an old college friend and his family at their house on a small lake in Michigan. I brought along a Yozuri Pin's Minnow in the larger size, thinking I'd have a shot at making a few casts. Unfortunately, a few casts was all I got, as the weather was very poor for boating, but we did get out once. First, we had to make sure our girls got into the action:

After they caught a couple of bluegill, they got bored and we gave them some candy so that we could get a few casts in. I tossed out the Pin's Minnow and worked it exactly like I do the saltwater Yozuri's, and caught a nice bluegill on my first cast. I followed that up a few casts later with a big crappie, the first I've ever caught.

The weather turned at that point and we went back in, but I made a couple casts off the dock and caught a little 9" bass off the same lure. Notably, that was the first bass I've ever caught off an artificial hardbait. That Pin's Minnow earned its keep in catching three species in a little under an hour, and the Yozuri brand proves itself once again!

Crescent Lake

When we lived in New York, we never ate in our own neighborhood. When friends visited, they would ask how we liked the restaurants on our street, and they were always puzzled when we said that we hadn't tried them. With so many restaurants just a short walk away, why eat at the one right off one's doorstep?

The same is true for where I live now in Florida. There is a lake right down the street where I see a healthy population of tilapia, blue gill, and lately, bass. We've lived by this lake for two plus years, and I've never fished it. Motivated by my recent success freshwater fishing in Michigan, I took my rod and reel out of the garage, tied on a Pin's Minnow and walked down to the lake. I started casting from the bank.

I didn't get any bites right away, but on about my 2oth cast I ran the minnow underneath the shade of an oak tree and watched as a bass absolutely clobbered it. To my surprise, my drag sang off my pole, and I hurried to tighten it down before the bass shook the lure. A few exciting moments later, my rod bent double as I hoisted my bass from the water--a fat, 14" prize of a bass--the biggest I've ever caught by far.

I unhooked the fish, took a good look at it and cursed myself for not bringing my camera, then tossed it back in the lake.

Next, I called my dad and told him the good news.

Back to the Skyway

I cut out of work early on Friday and after running a quick errand with Shawn and pressure washing my deck, I met up with my brother and we headed out to the Skyway for a couple hours of fishing.

Steve caught a pinfish right off the bat, and I hooked him through the dorsal fin and put him out on the grouper rod. Even with 3oz of weight, it was hard to keep the bait in place. The tide was outgoing and was pushing pretty hard on account of the full moon.

The tide also made it difficult to fish for bait with our lighter poles, but we managed to catch more than we needed and to occupy our time while we waited for the grouper rod to go off.

A guy down the way pulled in two gag grouper in 10 minutes, so we knew they were out there, but after an hour of our live bait swimming around happily, I reeled him and in and cut him up in to 1 inch by 1 inch cubes. The cubes went on our lighter poles, and I cut a nice steak out of the middle and laced it back on the hook to the grouper pole. We sent all the lines back in and waited.

About ten minutes later, my light tackle pole went off, and I pulled up and set the hook hard. My drag started screaming off the reel, and in the excitement of the moment, I actually loosened the drag when I meant to tighten it. By the time I corrected this rookie mistake, the line had gone limp.

I reeled it in to find that the 30lb test monofilament leader had been cleanly bitten off. Might have been a shark or a mackerel, but either way, I'll never know.

I caught a consolation mangrove snapper a while later, but he was undersized.

It's tough to miss out on the big fish I waited all day for, but hey, it was a great day of fishing with my little brother. Beats the crap out of sitting in the office!

My way or the Skyway

Headed out to the Skyway North fishing pier on Friday night with my brother and a few of his friends.

The tide was incoming for the first hour or so, then went briefly slack before becoming a strong outgoing tide. It was gorgeous out, with a quarter moon.

Our set up consisted of four heavy poles with 2oz weights and 3/0 hooks placed in PVC rod holders and lashed to the pier railing. My dad had made these after seeing a similar set up used by another pier fisherman. Each one of us also held a light rod and reel combo, which brought our total lines in the water to eight.

Our bait was frozen and live shrimp on the light rods, and cut bait on the big rods.

It didn't take us long to start pulling in some nice sized grunts on our light rods. I put a smallish one on one of the big rods, hooked through the back. The next one I cut up into small chunks and put on the three other big rods.

We must have caught over two dozen grunts of various sizes that night, as well as a couple of pinfish. It wasn't the grouper or snapper that we were hoping for, but those little grunts put up a great fight. We did have two significant breakoffs and a big hit on one of the big poles, but without a hookup.

In addition to all the grunts, I also caught a silver trout and a 20" ladyfish that was the largest fish of the night and put up a pretty good fight. My brother also picked up a sculpin on one of the big rods.

There was a lot of baitfish in the water and a few crabs drifted by as well. A cast net might have netted us some better bait, and I'll have to consider bringing one out the next time we hit the pier. I saw a big kingfish working the bait at one point, and just wished that one of our big rods would go off, but it wasn't to be.

We got there at 8:00pm and left at 2:00am, and we might have stayed out all night if responsibilities hadn't sent us packing. Good fishing and good catching--the only thing I forgot was a cigar!