DATE: 04 Oct 2007, 9:33 pm / MOOD: Happy

You need to get out those heavy rods and get to the Skyway Pier when the tides are right and take advantage of the grouper swimming into the bay. The bigger grouper are starting to show up and it's only going to get better. The grouper are starting to move in from deep water into the bay to spawn. I have caught 14 grouper over the rail in 3 days. 3 were keepers: 28, 24, and 23 inches. The rest of them have been in the 17 to 20 inch range. The 28 inch fish weighed 9 lbs. Anyway right now I would have to say the bait of choice is small to medium size pinfish. The bigger pinfish are getting hit but they seem to get hit short and the pinfish gets torn up. I have had better success on the medium size pinfish. Also don't go out there with less than 50-60lb main line. I personally have 60 lb mono and wouldn't mind going bigger to maybe 80. Use a minimum of 80lb leader. I use 80-100lb tripple fish. Also, since I have increased my hook size to a 10/0 my hookup percentage has been a lot higher. I'm using Gamakatsu circle hooks.  I was using 6/0 and losing fish - I was just pulling the bait out their mouth. Well not any more. I have been broken off quite a bit also, not rocked but hooked up and snapped off. Rocked only once so far. Well, get out there in the early morning and late evening and get those grouper. I have been catching them in the middle of the day also but not quite as frequently. Good luck... I will be out there on October 5, red Pathfinder with fish stickers in the back window, Alabama hat on.... ROLL TIDE.... 

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DATE: 27 Aug 2007, 7:42 am / MOOD: Other

OK here goes. Friday 24 Aug 2007. Me and Joe were going to head to the skyway Friday but changed our minds to the gandy bridge instead. Just tired from work. We hit the bridge about 4:30 pm and just stood there as we watched a nasty storm blow through. WE waited it out and about 6:30 we started fishing, I caught one undersize snapper and then nothng but catfish. It seems like the bite is between 4-7 pm on outgoing tide. Oh well. Better luck next time. We packed up and headed home.

 25 Aug 2007 SAT.

4 AM came early, we headed to the creek and caught some finger mullet and and a few little grunts, We also had our shrimp leftover from gandy that joe kept alive all morning, we put on our life vest and swam across the creek to our fishing location. Slow incoming tide.  We swam the creek at 5:45 am, 3 grunts on a popping cork,  (SLEEPY)thats me,  JOE and Bob

Baits hit the water and pop pop pop, 3 reels screaming drag, and in the dark, and a few mins later, 3 slot size red fish. Well that was a quick trip, we kept fishing and the reds were on fire, 15 mins after the sun came up the reds were gone, we never saw them again all day, we made our way to the birds and the fun was on, JACKS, BLUES, Lady Fish, Sharks. After my fill of the other fish, I threw a small pinfish on a popping cork and a 4 foot black tip set sail with my line.... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Finally the 30lb leader cut, that was fun. We then started moving down the flats working the grass beds with jerk baits, shrimp on a cork or whatever and just picking up the trout every few cast, all small, I had one about 17 inches, but couldn't hold him and back in the water he went. We then got the brush a few times by some bigg bull sharks, we saw one shark go ariborn through a school of mullet, then the suprise of the day, I throw out my popping cork with a nice live shrimp, and nothing is happing, I real it back to me and something swirls, I pop it and bam it gets nailed, drag is screaming after a really good fight I see the fish, it's a bigg jack, but wait as I'm getting it out of the water I notice it has not teeth, I take a closer look, only one dorsal fin, it's a pompano on the flats... a nice 2-3lb pompano... and thick, ohh the fillets.... 

Well we finished out the trip back with some more trout and a few jacks then we saw a few nice reds cruising the shore line but had no intrest in eating, saw some juvi snook also.

Sunday, 26 Aug 07, hit the gandy bridge for early morning snapp bite, nothing , nothing nothing was biting. Caught one Jack, Sting ray and then Bob caught a catfish, and as he was realling it in a cobia came up and started just setting there trying to eat the catfish we left the catfish dangling in nthe water but the cobia about 22 inches never could quite eat him, I dropped down a shrimp and he looked at it and nipped it a bit then swam off... saw 2 other cobia that day also...

 

The END.

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DATE: 14 Aug 2007, 2:14 pm / MOOD: Bored

Ok, well I hit the flats Sat morning at 6am. Went geared up with my 2 light tackle rods, a bait bucket full of finger mullet and pinfish that I caught out of a creek. Started the morning off throwing a baby bass colored soft plastic jerk bait with 1/8 oz white jig head. My buddy Joe was throwing a bone diamond colored jerk bait, and well Bob he was fishing a popping cork with a live finger mullet... Well as soon as we got out there, on my 2nd cast i was hooked up,,,, took me a while to get the guy in but soon realized why, it was a bigg fat mullet about 6 lbs.... Had him hooked right in top of the head... by now the sun was coming up and the birds started moving in on us, and we were right in the middle of a school of feeding reds... and it was on,,, we pulled out about 15 reds in the next hour and half, with a lot of jacks, blues fish, lady fish mixed in the bunch. All reds were around 25-30 inches and fat... And then the bite just turned off and we couldn't catch anything we kept at it, working the shores and the deeper water, when bob was throwing a shrimp with a split shot weight to get it on the sandy bottom, as he was realing it up he saw a huge sting ray comeing after it, he tried to not let it bite but it took it, and the fight was on, only he didn't realize until later when he landed the fish he had about a 7lb flounder, it was a beauty, after that we worked the grass flats and picked up a few nice trout, and then on the way back we hit the mangroves since the tide was in, Joe picked up about 4 nice snook on some pin fish and a popping cork, 3 broke off while trying to get the hook out, and the other was released, 3 of the snook that broke Joe off were over 30 inches, and the smaller one was about 20 inches... That was Sat...

 Sunday Morning we returned to the same spot and it didn't take long after about 10 cast I caught another mullet, it never fails... Then we got into another shool of fish, and we caught trout until we were blue in the face, along with Jacks and lady fish and blue fish again, We did the for about 3 hours and finally we had to leave and the fish were still biting, we had several hook ups that we never saw the fish and the drags were screaming... OVer the two day period I would have to say we mucst have caught about 30 fish a piece if not more it was awesome... We didn't catch or see any redfish or snook on Sunday but man those jack are fun to catch....

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DATE: 20 Jul 2007, 1:32 pm / MOOD: Bored

This report is from a friend of mine, I sent some tips with him so he could take his dad fishing on the north pier. 

 

 

Not a bad day a the skyway. Caught 2 spanish, 4 grouper (small) and 5 keeper snaper. I lost two big grouper, they got me hung up in the rocks. That was a good place you showed me, there was plenty of structure and a lot of fish... It was really hot and the bite seemed to pick up after the tide change. We need to plan a trip, sometime around the first week or so of Aug. I would like to go back and catch some keeper grouper! Anyway, that's the report and thanks again for the tips!

Later

JOe

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DATE: 18 Jul 2007, 8:22 am / MOOD: Disapointed

OK... I just want to take a few minutes to voice my opinion. I understand that there are a lot of members on this website. I am a little ticked that I check the website daily if I can and I look for articles and tips and any info I can to help out any fellow fisherman and fishn gals. I'm dissapointed becuase those of you who don't know Josh and Steph, they have put a lot of work and money into this website. Besides myself and Pucky and a few other I don't see anyone else posting blogs, aritcles pics or even putting anything in the forum. So I would like to tell everyone to start trying to take an active part into making this website reach it's potential. Again I know that some of you out there have posted comments and other material and I thank you but with the members we have I see that same names over and over doing all they can to help this site. I'm not asking everyone to do much, but it seems that it doesn't take very long to ask a question or to put up a report about a fishing trip.  SO  TO THE PEOPLE JUST READING, TRY DOING A LITTLE WRITING AND PUT UP SOME POST....

 TO THE GUYS THAT DO POST ON REGULAR BASIS THANK YOU AND IF I DIDN'T INCLUDE YOUR NAME I APOLOGIZE JUST WANTED TO VENT A LITTLE ABOUT MY DISSAPOINTMENT IN THE FACT THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE SIGN UP ON THE WEBSITE BUTNEVER PARTICIPATE

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DATE: 13 Jul 2007, 11:43 am / MOOD: High

My daughter and I went fishing yesterday. We decided just to drive aournd the local area and see if we could fish somewhere close to the house for an hour or two. I finally found this little creek that flowed into the bay. It was right in the middle of this upppity neighbor hood. So i pulled over and we fished. I bought some shrimp and started setting out a line. We were freelining shrimp into the creek. We would drop our lines straight down about 3 feet into the water. The water was flowing pretty good out of the pipes that ran under the road and the current was taking our baits down stream and right under the over hanging limbs. Not much room to cast anyway. Well it was pretty shallow so I was just mostly spending time with my daughter when I got a strong hit and set the hook, and I cathc the first hard head of the day. Then my duaghter starts yelling daddy daddy while i'm putting the catfish n the trick as a friend of mine calls it, roll the top lip of the hard head back over his head so he down's bite again. Kaitlyn is realling in her pole but the line is going the other directionand all of a sudden her line is just sreaming off the little princess pole.. And out of the whole shoots what I thought was a lady fish but I believe it was a juvi poon, it's takes her line all the way down the creek I'm trying to help her but there is not much we can do, it jumps about 3 times and dissapears down the creek and the line goes limp, WE got lucky, the line didn't break but the little hook she had on broke. I got excited and so did she. Kaitlyn was just giggleing and saying daddy did you see that fish jump and then she started to try and act out the whole thing again. After about 4 more catfish and some mosuito bites we loaded up and went home. Not bad for about an hour of just wasting some time.

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DATE: 03 Jul 2007, 9:54 am / MOOD: Bored

Well I got off work early Thursday and my little 6 yr old daughter kaitlyn was begging to go fishing, so we loaded up and headed down to the skyway pier. WE got down there and got setup on the South Pier. I dropped down some cut squid on a Size 10 hook and pulled up a nice pin fish. I rigged up my daughters Princess Pole and she pulled up a nice sand perch, she wanted me tuse the sand perch instead of the pin fish so I did. I floated it out about 100 yards to a rock pile and bam I get nailed. I set the hook and start reeling and pumping, I start making some progress and I hit another rock pile. I know it's a nice grouper becuase it's pulling extremely hard, and the snapp goes the line. 80lb floracarbon prbably held up but no my 50lb mono. I was frustrated but figured the bite was on becuase i had been there 20 mins and already had a nice grouper on. I floated out the pinfish and nothing touched him then flipper showed up. The rest of the evening we enjoyed an awesome sunset, and a lot of sandperch and grunts. It was a good time being out there with a little girl who got turned onto fishing 3 weeks ago and now decides she would rather go fishing with daddy instead of bush gardens... That's awesome..

 

Sleepy OUT

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DATE: 21 Jun 2007, 10:34 am / MOOD: Other

81-pound dolphin looks to be a record

By Steve Waters
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted June 12 2007, 3:53 PM EDT  

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DATE: 19 Jun 2007, 9:42 am / MOOD: Happy

Well I took my 6 yr old fishing  Couple times in the last week and a half, we hit the south pier and I set her up on her barbie pole and cut up some squid for her. After that she must have caught 50 squirel fish, and about 5 pin fish which I used for grouper but never got the first bite. I did get broke off 3 times under the pier when the tide changed I'm guess goliath, but since I was not on top of watching my pole becuase I was busy with the little fisher girl I neve had a chance, I did set out the shark pole one time and got a small run and whatever had it, let go. It was a good time and now my little girl ask me everday when i pick her up if we can go fishing. It's funny becuase I had to talk her into going fishing but now I can get her to stop asking when we are going again. Also I have some pics to post of a gator I tried to catch behind the house. I would have caught him but I found out that my wife took out some trash, one of the trash buckets she sat out on the curb had my cast net in it. Oh well honest mistake.

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DATE: 04 Jun 2007, 8:42 am / MOOD: Bored

Well I met up with Josh Friday night at about 4 pm after trying to catch bait at the skyway for nearly an hour while Trop Storm Barry started coming through. It was windy, rainy and nasty out. Well I waited on Josh for a while becuase he had to stop and get a rain suit, which was a smart idea. Anyway, after Josh arrived, I showed off the new 4/0 that I bought and we started trying to catch some pinfish for our grouper fishing. I managed no bait, josh pulled up a dozen greenbacks and sardines. Well we went to first grouper hole, # ###.... I forget which number hmmm. Anyways we drop down some baits and after a little bit we get nothing so we move to grouper hole ###, we drop down and josh gets hit, then I started gettng hit, but no fish, josh moves down one more whole and it doesnt take  10 mins and up come a nice 24 inch grouper, Josh freelined, and Ifished on bottom so we  could see what works, Well both way s were working Josh caught that on a squirell fish, then he managed a pin fish, starts floating it out, and bam, it doesn even get out all the way and he gets nailed, a fat, 20 incher.... almost  but not quite, aafter a little longer I get nailed and pull  up a fat little 18 inch grouper. Well we ran out of bait and couldn't catch any more that succked becuase the grouper bite was on....

 

 

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