Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

This thread is for your reports.

6/3/08

Sunshine Skyway Area: The big gag grouper are leaving due to the warmer water, but there’s still some around. The mangrove snapper bite has been real good along with lane snapper and white grunts. Spanish mackerel are day to day. There’s lots of bait fish in the area. Boat anglers are hooking up on tarpon at the bridge on big threadfins, reports Terry Wilson of Skyway Bait and Tackle (941-721-0461). Big speckled trout in the early morning in Terra Ceia Bay. Occasional redfish on the flats in the mornings, Wilson said.

I was fishing at the skyway last week on thru/fri. In the morning the weather was perfect but by late afternoon started to rain both days. Caught 8 macks the first day, the second day I only caught 4 after that it was pretty slow. Lots of bait, but too small to catch on sabiki. Was going to stay untill saturday but decided to head back to Miami. I might go to Jupiter on the weekend.

We need a boatless trip to the skyway bridge. Anyone down for something in July?

Is it open 24/7 and can you "camp" in or out of your vehicle?

Mojo--You can definitely sleep in your vehicle. I'm not sure about setting up a tent though. You might be able to.

Here is the pier contact info:

North Pier: 727-865-0668
South Pier: 941-729-0117
Fax: 727-906-8085
Email: skywaypiers@wildblue.net

WhoDey wrote:We need a boatless trip to the skyway bridge. Anyone down for something in July?

Oh yeah..I'm taking time off from work in July..I'd be up for a day trip or two...(maybe an overniter)...

If anyone from Boatless plans a trip to the Skyway make sure to let me know. I'll drive over and meet up with you guys and we can make a bash out of it.

I'll take photos and maybe shoot some video too.

Dadfish wrote:

WhoDey wrote:We need a boatless trip to the skyway bridge. Anyone down for something in July?

Oh yeah..I'm taking time off from work in July..I'd be up for a day trip or two...(maybe an overniter)...

Dadfish, ( offtopic )

My Parents live in Dunellon, and I have seen those snook in your Avatar laugh at me every winter basking in the 72 degre headwaters of all the nice Rivers there ( most are protected as you, I'm sure, know all too well......) Chasohowitzka, Homossassa, and Crystal.....Especially in the Homosassa...gives new meaning to " stacked up like cord-wood"

I found a lil bubbly spot out off Ozello Trail W of 19, however, that is not protected...unfortunatley my Kayak is a wet ride and your winters up there are friggin cold....lol

One day I will get to em on a boat and see if they hang there like they do in the others....

i know exactly where that spot is! if you can make your way thru the manatees in the winter, you can catch snook there all day long. found that spot by accident about 5 years ago.

Il take a day or two and head up there during a weekend in July.

today was a good day for the tarpon. we got to the pier at 8 am. we netted some little fry baits to start us off til the tide change. when the tide swiched it was on!! tarpon everywhere busting thru the bait schools. pods of them on each side of us. the ones that were rolling were small, only 50 to 75 pounders. total of 7 hookups for us and the guys next to us.

btw, biggest of the bunch was about 150 lbs and ate a whole 19 inch spanish mackeral.

Sweet..I figured they would show up after I left..lol

Did you guys try to catch any snapper? I'm heading over to the Gandy tomorrow afternoon and evening.

my friend caught a 44.8 pound cobia last night

I need to catch my first tarpon, and test out my saltist

the snapper bite wasn't so hot, but we fished for snapper for an hour or so. caught 2 keepers.

I'll be there tomorrow afternoon with my nephews. Hoping for some small fish for them, they're 8 and 6 years old. I'll put out a shark rod inthe meantime. Will post a catch or no catch report when I come back.

O.K. Went on a mission to hook my nephews on their fish fish. The day was slow, others were catching tiny mangroves now and then and a small grouper less han than 15 inches here and there. The bait was all over as it always is. Since it was so slow I thought; What better way to get them on some fish than to do it with some bait. They were extremly happy about catching those pinfish for my key trips,

Chris' first fish Matt's first fish Family wiith bait stringer
The shark rod had no action, I later found out I was too far out. A 6 to 7 foot bull was caught near the entrance of the Skyway, they killed it and took the meat and jaws.

Does anybody fishes skyway anymore? Come on guys I would like to see some good reports.

I was out at the South Skyway last weekend before Fay came through and a few buddies of mine were there the night before. It was slow. You would have thought with the full moon the mangrove snapper should have been off the chart. But all I got was one keeper mango, a nice big white grunt, and two short red grouper.

My buddies faired even worse, but they're not that experienced and didn't move once the entire time they were out there.

what us guys im from miami and im commin up to spring hill to visit my mom for the weekend . just wanted to know how far the drive is to skyway or any decent spots i can wet my line? any info will be great. thanx

chum on her face wrote:what us guys im from miami and im commin up to spring hill to visit my mom for the weekend . just wanted to know how far the drive is to skyway or any decent spots i can wet my line? any info will be great. thanx

Pier 60 in Clearwater Beach is usually worth wetting a line at, I,ve always caught a few when I,ve fished there,free parking too if you dont mind a 5 min walk from the harbour bridge(next to the new foot bridge)

6 hours to go till i Finnish work and im going up to Tampa tonight visit the girlfriends family will be out on the boat all day tomorrow, but hoping to fish skyway on Sunday any pointers for me please will be my first time there.

Thanks

Adam.

freeline a pinfish or a big threadfin and hang on!
grouper all over the rocks. kingfish out at the end.
if you like throwing a gocha or a spoon, there are lots of big spanish mack and bonito everywhere.

ripnlips, are you netting the pinfish/threadfins?

if you want the big ones. use a sabiki. you can net the small ones for the spanish macks or for chum.

Thanks! Are they all around the pier, or only at the beginning closer to the rocks?

they are everywhere nearly year around. the threadfins will face into the current. very easy to catch on incoming tide with a net or a sabiki. for the pins, tip your sabiki with a little "stank" before you toss it in. (i.e. squid chunks or small cut pieces of whatever)

ripnlips wrote:they are everywhere nearly year around. the threadfins will face into the current. very easy to catch on incoming tide with a net or a sabiki. for the pins, tip your sabiki with a little "stank" before you toss it in. (i.e. squid chunks or small cut pieces of whatever)

remember me ripnlips ? I was the one introduced myself on sunday. So did you catch any grouper since you moved to your favor spot ?