Friday and Saturdays trips were all about keeping rods bent with lots of action. Both days were beautiful fall Florida Chamber of Commerce days. Sunny, temps around 80 with a slights breeze. Water temperatures now hovering at 69.6 in the St. Petersburg area. White bait was plentiful at the Skyway Bridge. Two tosses of the net had the live well full; white baits are on the smaller side but still excellent baits. Snapper, Black Sea Bass and Silver Trout made for terrific action. Any rock pile with deeper water 10-15' held many fish. Several grouper and snook were also taken. Fishing was simple, 1/0 bait hook and a small split shot to get the bait near the bottom was all you needed. You will be amazed how strong 15-20' grouper are. Be sure your line has no slack in it as the grouper and snapper will have you in the rocks before you can react.
Large Bonita to 15 pounds are still off the beaches of St. Petersburg and in the area of the Skyway Bridge. The schools we saw Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all in smaller schools; bait was not as abundant making it harder to spot the feeding frenzy's.
Sunday afternoon was all about snook fishing on the outgoing tide. We struggled to get 2 smaller snook in 3 hours of fishing. We did get several Jacks and several small Redfish along with Ladyfish. Snook appear to be on the move and in transition for winter. Look for snook to get aggressive with the better tides on the way.
Capt. Steven
