Report: SSP Sat Oct 2, 2010

[goindeep]

Hey Monty....funny you should ask....

So I was supposed to go offshore Sunday, but the trip got canceled due to a windy forecast....So I made a spur of the moment trip to the SSP Saturday afternoon. I hadnt been there in months. I Didnt have high expectations, I just needed to get out and fish. Tide was scheduled to be incoming the whole time, but I decided to go anyway.

Got there about 6pm. Bait was easy to sabiki (threadfins, no greenbacks). Set up shop in the alley, and started fishing the rockpiles. 3rd cast of cut bait, I was reeling in to check my bait and got hit by a nice Spanish Mack, 22 inches (my biggest Mack at the pier), so into the cooler he went.



Not long after that I had 2 HUGE hits on cut bait...the first pulled drag from my Penn 760 before snapping the 50lb leader...Got hit again a minute later, but it came unhooked just after I *thought* I set the hook...Then it was hit and miss the rest of the night. Ended up fishing till about 1am, but the last 2 hours were pretty dead. Up til then, I caught a total of 2 Red Grouper (maybe 12 inches), 2 short Gags (15 and 20 inches), a small spinner shark (maybe 15 inches), a crappy Sail Cat (Ive never caught a cat there til tonight), and the last fish up was a bit of a surprise...my first ever Flounder, a respectable 16 inches.



So overall it was a decent night, I was surprised I didnt see ANY snapper coming over the rails. I was able to castnet some greenbacks after dark, not many per cast but enough to keep me in bait til I left. Nobody around me was catching much else...I saw a few small grunts, a mack here and there, a manta ray (broke off of course) and a Guitar Fish, which I had never seen before. Fished next to a nice family from Hudson - a mom, dad and their 16 year old son...I gave the kid the forum URL so hopefully he will sign up and post.

Havetofish, I didnt notice a new Tide post....I trust youre working on that?? lol...good to see you posting, I myself have been wondering where everyone has been...

Take care yall, lets start seeing some more reports and pics!!
... Skyjay that means you...get that report up or send me the pics!!!

Soon-to-be Sunday dinner:

[bill jacques]

Way to go steve

[havetofish]

Nice Flounder Steve.
Oops the tides, comin right up.

[tylerdurden]

yeah alot of big flounder lately and just as many of them came unhooked maybe thats what you had. They have a distinct fight to them and rarely run when they hit. Usually just a bump that feels like a pinner or the bait, and until you go to reel it in it just sits there.

[arrantzale]

nice pics. good luck filleting that flounder, I still havent mastered that

[goindeep]

I happened to see a demonstration of Flounder filleting at the Tampa boat/fishing show last weekend...I didn't have any problems...4 nice fillets.

[eaglesfanguy]

Youtube how to fillet flounder.
Its one of the easiest fish to fillet.

Nice job on the feeshin

[hbn1234]

hi everyone...
really havent posted much on the forum, but browse on a regular basis.
Just mean to jump the thread, but this is my report from this past thursday. We fished from 7am til bout 12. Managed on keeper grouper and several smaller, all of which were gags. They where caught on whole big threadfins fished on the bottom. We also got 4 mangos, up to 13 inches on the rock piles with a bunch of grunts as well. I also got a 14" flounder fishing the rockpiles, which was a nice and surprising catch. The macks were there for a very short time...tried to chum them up with cut threads, but only one very brief showing. Near the end of the trip though, we starting tossin out the whole threadfins, all of which were 6 to 7" baits...they were caught with a 12' bait net...not fun when you get 150lbs a bait in one throw with only 2 ppl to get it over the rail. Anywayz, we tossed them over for a good 30-45 minutes and noticed a huge fish cut through them...it was way too big to be a spanish mack and it wasn't a tarpon. I best guess was a cuda, or possibly a smoker king...hopefully it was the latter of the two.
More reports to come with the cooling of the weather...and for the mullet guys out there...they're starting to show up in decent numbers already...some up to 4lbs without roe!

[albatross]

Hey HBN, where around the Skyway can you cast-net mullet?

[goindeep]

Pretty basic dinner, I was too lazy for anything too complicated:

Mackeral bites breaded in crushed Cheez-Its, baked flounder topped with crabmeat/parmesan/bread crumbs, tater tots, and a side of home-made dill-tarter sauce. Tasty as hell...

[bigmike]

GD,
I carry an extra plate and fork in my truck!

[montylfl]

hmmmm flounder....... Not that is what I am talking about.

try some circle hooks on those cut baits for Flounder. when they hit just need to keep reeling.


Great pics

[hbn1234]

you can find the mullet at the small bridge before you enter the south pier. You usually have to castnet them right up agains the rocks, so you have to be right on with your throws, otherwise you'll snag the rocks. It's easier with a lower tide, since they can't swim right above the rocks on there way out/in.
But I do most of my mullet fishing up north though...upper tampa bay area. I went out for a little bit today...the cool weather seem to have gotten the mullet active again

[bodysnatcher]

I don't know if you still can or not but years ago I would load them up at the old Green Bridge.

[BigDawg71]

thanks for the reports!

[SkyJay]

Wtg stevo blind hog find a acorn ever now and then. Lol.

Yeah let's just say my intenet capabilitities have been severly hampered by the present admininistration

It took me thirty
minutes just to type this. Lol


Gags on fire last tues at ssp

Chad and I culled a pair
Of ten pounders for what turned out to be our best day at the pier in years


Lost count on shorts

Landed seven keepers
Ate two em put the rest back uninjured thanks to our owner circle hooks complments of capt jessie and extraordinary fishng skills lmao


Bait of the day was x lg pigfish we caught for an offshore trip that cancelled last minute


Too busy fishin for any qualiy pics but ill send what we got.


Get of your asses and go fishin folks it'll do yer heart good


Its the most wonderful time of the year


See ya on the pier. Sj

[havetofish]

My God...he's alive!
Thought we must have lost ya.

Seven keepers..you still got the touch Jay Skywalker.

[SkyJay]

Sup+john!++Yeah+it+was+a+heck+of+a+good+time+for+sure!+Take+care+hope+to+see+ya+soon.+Been+a+tough+year+but+we're+holdin+our+own.+++