Kristinas Fishing Blog

3 nights of fishing; 3 main fish! I decided it had been too long since I really caught some great fish. With my schedule I could only manage night fishing. The first night I headed out and tried to catch bait at night before fishing. This was not too good of a plan. I could only get about eight tiny pinfish. I mean tiny. They were no more than 1- 1/2 inches. Anyways, I caught one small Redfish. I also caught a trout and manta ray in my cast net.   The second night I not only came out with two dozen nice pinfish but one dozen shrimp. I fished my first spot (dock lights) and had no luck. I switched spots and headed to Madeira Beach. I fished and fished with no luck on a medium strength incoming tide. Suddenly the tide stopped and the bite began. I am not sure why or what happened. Anyways, I caught about 5 huge trout, and a small Snook. The bite was nuts for about an hour and then stopped. The following night I fished Madeira Beach with live pins. I caught a huge Snook about half an hour after my arrival. I also was able to pull it out of the rocks which made me pretty proud. I didn’t catch much after the snook, but have to say there are huge Tarpon all over this spot. They are a little farther then I can reach or want to. I say this because they are 200lb fish and there is no way I can handle them land locked with a 4000 reel. So cool to watch them rolling though. A few pics of three great nights!

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Tide too strong. Is too strong of a tide as bad as no tide at all? What do you do when this happens to you? I went fishing this morning at Treasure Island. Unfortunately there wasn’t any bait what so ever. After many failed attempts with my cast net I relaxed a while before switching spots. This time I stopped and got some shrimp. Unfortunately the bait shop thought it would be a great idea to sell Brine shrimp to their customers. Anyways, I headed to Pass-a-grille beach and tried to fish the jetty. The tide was so strong that before your bait hit the water it was all the way into the rocks. I again switched spots and fished Pass-a-grilles inter-coastal. This time was no better. The tide was too strong. You could hardly stand a few inches into the water without being swept away. You can imagine what your bait does. Anyways, I caught a small Mangrove Snapper. I would have let him go but he passed away after swallowing the hook.

Double dock light. I went fishing Treasure Island during a slack tide. I free lined live white bait.  This is unique. The tide was so slack that when you would reel your line in it would leave a line of bubbles. I had horrible bait too. I mean I didn’t know the bait could get any smaller. We had small Grunt and Sand Perch. Anyways the dock light I found has a small beach under it and then a underwater green light as well as an above light directed toward the water. I also have to say the neighbor has a underwater green light that is on sometimes. Well here are my catches!

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Its been a while… not since I have been fishing but since the blog has been up. I decided I would start blogging again after I hooked too big of a Tarpon. What I mean is I hooked about a 150lb Tarpon on a 12 – 14 lb reel. It was ridiculous. My pappy was with me and wouldnt quit telling me about his friend who holds a few records like catching a 600 lb Bull shark on a 20 lb test ect.. I panicked and tightened my drag all the way when I saw the fish and watched the last bit of my line disappear. Anyways, because of that hook something in me decided I should have never stopped the blog.

The mouth of our canal. About 50ft deep. There is a Jeep sunk at the bottom and loaded with Grouper. The mouth is FULL of adult Tarpon, Yellow Tail Snapper, Mangrove Snapper, Grunt and Pin.

That was a long winter. Today I went fishing in Treasure Island, FL. I fished the inter-coastal. I got there at about 11:30 and it was the middle of a nice incoming tide. I was so excited! I looked for bait, but there was nothing. At this point I ran to my car and sped to the nearest bait shop .  I got 2 dozen live shrimp. At first I was getting lots of Pinfish bites and a little worried. Then I got a nice Spanish Mackerel followed with a nice Sheephead. Unfortunately the Sheephead some how broke my rod. I was using a St. Crox med 7ft rod. I dont get it. I lifted the fish out of the water and the tip just snapped right off. haha So then I decided to continue to fish and caught a nice Red with half a pole. By this point the tide was also coming to a stop. Pretty good huh?

I also was able to dive into the sea today! So nice!

Broke rod

Would have had better luck at the seafood market. Haha.. Not too good of a night fishing but, a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work… I think that is the saying.  Anyways, I fished Treasure Island’s inter coastal. I used live shrimp and caught nothing. haha. This is a pretty hard report to make. I did however talk to the clerk at the bait store and they caught over 70 Trout in Fort Desoto’s channel. My friend also caught 7 reds at night, in Clearwater. Better luck next time.

Finally some time to fish! Today I fished docks for Sheepshead. I free lined live crabs. We must have caught 50 or more sheepshead. It was a great day in St. Pete. It was 75 degrees and sunny! I measured one sheepshead right before I filleted it and it was 17 1/2 inches. I hope that is legal haha. I always write things and then find out i’m keeping illegal things.

Not enough fishing… well I started a another new job! I am a medical receptionist for a prosthetics distributor. I have been so busy. I also moved into my new apt. I really like it.  So…. I started moving Tuesday and went to the job interview Wed and started the job Thursday. Busy week haha. Well I am 100% going to cast my rod next weekend.. both days!  Also, I have to say I moved into my new apt. and was planning on going without internet and cable. I knew there was a chance someone might have wireless internet somewhere around my house.. and I was right… free internet. Then I moved my TV over a few days ago. I was sitting on my couch and something told me to plug the cable into the TV… and free cable. I thought it was so funny! Well good luck fishing! I wish I had more time to fish. All the work I am putting into my career will only allow me to have better options to fish later in life.

Now I know what I am doing wrong.. haha

Four spots and no luck, but I did find something… I went fishing in my normal St. Pete spots and it sucked. I mean I had the best bait and the tide was right. I don’t get it. I really need a boat. Anyway, I was leaving the last spot when I found a mom and baby manatee. They were stuck in a marina, in a boat slip. I wasn’t sure what to do or how to help them. Truthfully I think they might have been sleeping? haha I don’t know. It was pretty cool though. Well, tell me how fishing has been for you? I think I might need some help. haha Well good luck fishing.. kristina