After four straight days of meetings, I was exhausted. The fish were calling to me and I skipped the last day of seminars. Kazu and I checked out early at 5am and made the 2 hours drive to Clearwater. It was a tough drive with a tired body…but the fishing excitement kept my mind fully awake
We arrived at 8am and had an hour to make bait. This time, the pinfish were on the chew and I had 10 pinfish in the livewell ready as grouper bait. While making bait, a large ladyfish hit one of my sabiki hook and I had it on the line for two jumps before the fish broke the 8lb line. I have never caught a ladyfish so I was a little disappointed a new species was lost…but it was a fun little fight though.
The party boats fish 20-30 miles offshore at Clearwater for grunts, triggerfish and groupers. It was another 2 hours boat ride which I trolled the entire time with a tuna feather. I was still 0 for 2 on the troll
Finally we were out on the live bottom. I set up Kazu with the UglyStik and Jigmaster with 30lb mainline, 150lb swivel, 2’ of 60lb Big Game mono and a 5/0 hook. I was using a Diawa Saltist 40H and the TFO teaser rod. On the first drop, Kazu and I both brought in a 1lb white grunt. This was a species I think I’ve caught in the past as a kid in the Caribbean. I could finally confirm this catch
They are good eats so I put mine on the stringer while Kazu released his fish.
1lb white grunt (Haemulon plumierii)
The next fish Kazu reeled up was a red grouper. I was a little jealous since it would have been a new species for me…but I made Kazu jealous by landing a 2lb gag grouper on the next drop
2lb gag grouper (Mycteroperca microlepis)
A few more grunts later, I finally caught my target species!
2lb red grouper (Epinephelus morio)
We were only fishing with pieces of Humbolt squid. I switched over to the boat’s 60lb class rental rods and dropped some live pinfish on bottom. The nicer sized groupers started to show themselves and these were my best gag and red groupers that day. Other did a couple of keeper red grouper (20” minimum) but gag grouper season remained closed until November.
The 5 hours of fishing came and went but both Kazu and I were full satisfied to have caught our target fish today. Some days you get lucky
The Tampa area is pretty nice. I wouldn’t mind living here.
Back at the dock, the deckhands started cleaning the catch. Why they don’t clean the catches on the way back is beyond me. It was common to all Florida party boats that deckhands clean the catches at the dock. While we waited for our turn, I took a couple wildlife shots. These avian scavengers were waiting for discards.
Some stringers had over 20 white grunts (there is no limit and no size limit). After waiting for an hour, Kazu and I decided to give away our 3 white grunts to someone who was fishing next to us. We were hoping to have the fish for dinner but we had a 2.5 hours drive ahead of us to Cape Coral. We were losing daylight and we coulnd’t wait any long.
At 9am, we finally rolled into our hotel for the next two days. I gave our charter captain a call and Captain Chancey said we would need to push our charter day from Thursday to Friday. The conditions were not ideal due to a recent storm on Tuesday and water was very murky. It threw our plans into a little turmoil but we were also paying some hefty cash for the charter. In the end, we decided to charter on the Friday and made alternate fishing plans for the next day.
That night, I had two pinfish leftover from grouper fishing. Our hotel backed into one of the many canals in Cape Coral and I was my full intention to fish for snook and tarpon in those canals in the mornings and evenings. I soaked the live pinfish for 2 hours while waiting for laundry with only one tentative bite. The water was much shallow than I had thought and there were little activity. There were three boys fishing with shrimp and they caught a couple of catfish. It was a little disappointing for sure.
April 7, 2011
This morning, we slept in until 8:30am. We had no idea what to do as there were so many options in the area. We found a bait shop nearby and probed for some information. This guy was the biggest hippie I’ve ever seen
However, he gave us a couple of good spots to fish on Sanibel Island. With a full belly after breakfast and 3 dozen live shrimp, we made our way to Sanibel for the day. Little did we know the fee to use the bridge was $6! I guess you gotta pay to play 
We found another bait shop on Sanibel where Kazu could get his saltwater license (party boat fishing included the license). The guys at the shop was real nice and gave some pretty good information, so we started at the beach where there was a chance for pompano and Spanish mackerel. Parking at the beach was $2/hour…average by Florida standard but another unexpected cost for tourists
We fished at the lighthouse area for about and hour. Kazu was tossing a spoon for Spanish mackerel and bluefish while I was trying to get some cruising cownose ray to eat my shrimp. I guess they were so concentrated on the spawn that food was not on their mind
After an hour, Kazu and I decided to move to the pier to see if we can find some better fishing.
We were told that the pier has sheepheads and this was one of my premier targets to catch on this trip. As we were setting up, one of the people on the pier landed a sheepshead and I had my hopes up.
I rigged up with 30lb braid, a Carolina rig with a ¾oz egg sinker and 30lb fluoro leader. I was told that they are notorious bait thieves and you needed to pull them out of the pilings quickly. They love oysters and the areas where they are found are fully of snags and sharp oyster shells.
I fished next to one piling and quickly realized how quickly a sheepshead and steal the bait without so much as a twitch on the rod tip. I was taught to hook the live shrimp on the horn; but after losing half a dozen shrimps quickly, I had to change my shrimp hooking technique to keep the shrimps on the line longer. With my new method, I lost one shrimp before I had a solid hookup on the second shrimp. The fish did tried to pull into the piling but it was no match for my rod
I was so happy to see the striped body of a sheepshead. This fish was an inch short of the legal minimum
11” sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus)
After I caught my sheepshead, it was time to switch targets. People were catching the odd jack crevalle. I think I’ve caught jack crevalle before…but without a picture it was hard to call it a confirmed catch. I tossed my live shrimp off the tee of the pier and hoped to find them in the deeper water. Somehow, I couldn’t shake the sheepshead off my line and I caught three more in quick succession. I was told that these fish were hard to catch?
The man beside me was fishing close to the pier and caught two jack crevalles on back-to-back casts. Before I had my line in, the fish had moved off and I was searching again. On one cast, I got tapped hard and thought it might be a good fish. The fish had lots of headshakes and soon I realized why.
9” gulf flounder (Paralichthys albigutta)
The bite was fairly steady and I was catching other fish in between sheepsheads.
This 7” pigfish was a prime grouper bait. I gave it to someone because I left my big rods in the car.
I take pictures of my catches often. Sometimes, even though I’ve caught a species before, I take a picture to record the number of species caught during a fishing session. This time, I managed to record a new species that would have been missed. This is a gulf kingcroaker. I thought it was a southern kingcroaker which I’ve caught before…but since it lacked the dark blotches, it was a different species and a new species
10” gulf kingcroaker (Menticirrhus littoralis)
Here’s a 10” southern kingcroaker I caught later in the evening showing the difference in colouration and body proportions.
Then I caught a little drag burner and another new species. This was turning out to be a productive day
14” hardhead sea catfish (Ariopsis felis)
At around 4pm, our parking fees ran out and Kazu went to put in more money. He also returned with one of my big rods so now I can soak some baitfish. Some time during the afternoon, I was offered some live greenback herring and extra live shrimps when one of the anglers were leaving. I couldn’t resist the offer and took the bonus baits. Now that I had the big rod, I sent out one of the herring to soak. About an hour later, I had a little rip on the rod and tightened on the line to find a little tug. It was a 14” spotted seatrout! It was a new pb
A lady who had been fishing next to me was making bait. We chatted quite a bit about fishing and found out she was a fish nerd and a species hunter just like me. When she was using her sabiki to make bait, I asked to see if I can catch a greenback herring to add to my list. It took about 10 seconds to add another new species
7” threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) aka greenback herring
Closer to sunset, I had a good rip on the big rod again. By the time I put the reel into gear, the fish dropped the bait. My greenback herring came back with teeth marks all over, no doubt a shark took it. So close!
After the shark rip, I took a good hit on the live shrimp on the surf rod. It was a good fight and I thought maybe the shark came back for the shrimp. I was giving everyone a show and the crowd started to build. It ended up being a gafftopsail sea catfish! It wasn’t even all that big but these guys are strong!
16” gaffsailtop sea catfish (Bagre marinus)
We were losing daylight fast. With that last catch, I put my rod down to take a sunset shot.
I lingered at the pier for another 10 minutes while Kazu returned to the car at 8pm. Kazu fished artificial lures all day and had a few hits but no hookups. I urged and urged Kazu to fish live shrimps to add a few new species but he was dead set on fishing artificial.
We went for a quick dinner and went to bed early since a very demanding day was ahead of us.