|
Post by carlf on Nov 26, 2019 8:54:09 GMT -5
Grey with white spots, sounds like Atlantic sharpnose. They don't get very big (no size limit/1 per day or 2 per vessel) and are actually good to eat.
|
|
|
Post by seabird on Nov 26, 2019 16:59:40 GMT -5
VICTORY!! 27" Gag in the box. He ate a pinfish and ran into a rock, but I banjo'd him out. Caught a short red (18") and a short gag (21") back to back drops before him. That was all the grouper action we had (maybe another that was a breakoff) but it was enough. What a fantastic and exciting fish. Should make a nice dinner, Happy Thanksgiving!
|
|
|
Post by skywaypa on Nov 26, 2019 18:12:29 GMT -5
Grey with white spots, sounds like Atlantic sharpnose. They don't get very big (no size limit/1 per day or 2 per vessel) and are actually good to eat. Nailed it, that's the exact critter. The bay is thick with them. Spent all day getting sharked. Still a great day on the bay. Thanks for the ID!
|
|
|
Post by seabird on Nov 26, 2019 21:45:04 GMT -5
Bonnet Heads and Blacktips also good eating. Same limits.
|
|
|
Post by skywaypa on Nov 27, 2019 19:52:35 GMT -5
You know... didn't even think of eating the blacktip my wife caught today. It was chunky, would have been a decent couple of meals. Not like we caught anything else.
Rode up to the Skyway today. That's a LONG ride, especially at 10 knots in the boat we were in. But we made it. Went around the pier and dropped the hook in front of the bridge. Current was SCREAMING into the bay, needed at least 4oz to get down 20 feet or so. Which was a problem, because I didn't have proper weights for that. Managed to get 3oz down on light rigs and pulled a decent black sea bass out of the pilings. No sheep hooked sadly. Bunch of short mangoes and a few monster pinfish. That blacktip was caught around the front of the pier over one of the rockpiles. It ate a pinfish under a float.
Hilariously, as that shark came to the boat the half a pinfish he didn't get had slid up the line. And a cormorant was going insane trying to get it while the shark thrashed around. Crazy.
Beauty of a day on the bay.
|
|
|
Post by shadowxmas on Nov 28, 2019 12:16:45 GMT -5
VICTORY!! 27" Gag in the box. He ate a pinfish and ran into a rock, but I banjo'd him out. Caught a short red (18") and a short gag (21") back to back drops before him. That was all the grouper action we had (maybe another that was a breakoff) but it was enough. What a fantastic and exciting fish. Nice catch skywaypa.
|
|
|
Post by skywaypa on Dec 2, 2019 8:35:22 GMT -5
So I never finished my trip report. Friday we only had a half day to fish, due to having to pack up all the gear and get it back to Tampa for storage.
Headed to Coquina Beach inlet for some foolin' around. Turns out the whole damn area is under some kind of construction project, which really means they have "you can't go there" signs everywhere and a bunch of crap fenced onto the bulkhead (which is pretty much where you want to fish from). Had some shrimp, pinfish, and one ugly crab for bait. Got there 9:30ish with the tide coming in.
Every shrimp that hit the bottom was immediately grabbed by a BSB (sea bass) or a mangrove snapper. All of these were shorts, MAYBE could have stretched one of the mangoes to 10" and the largest BSB was probably 9" or so. Same for cut bait. But the cut bait also caught small gag groupers. At least a dozen of them, though I'm not certain the same one didn't get caught a couple times. Size range from 9-12" or so. Fun on light tackle. Saw a school of nice macks or blues swim by just before we left around 1pm and there was some small bait swimming back and forth. My buddy landed a huge puffer, the size of a football inflated. Real monster.
SO MANY ROCKS there. Along with endless snags. But we managed to bend the rods for several hours and get some light sunburn for the trip home.
Loads of idiot boaters down there that really don't understand how signs (or courtesy for that matter) work. Several boat just hammer down through the minimum wake signs like 20 yards from shore. You really hope they eat rocks some day. That inlet has some real fishy potential if you are prepared to fish hard and lose gear though. And the water there is straight out of the Caribbean.
That's it for 2019 for the PA crew. We came, we saw, we didn't conquer. But we did manage the gag of a lifetime (so far) and some great fun. Might catch you for a spring trip, but if not here's to Thanksgiving 2020.
|
|
|
Post by seabird on Dec 2, 2019 15:21:57 GMT -5
skywaypa, Enjoyed your reports. Hope you can do a spring trip as well. Have a good Christmas!
|
|
|
Post by shadowxmas on Dec 2, 2019 18:05:41 GMT -5
Skywaypa. Glad you have some pictures to show back home. Enjoyed your reports. Have a safe trip back home and a Merry Christmas.
|
|