Fishing Adventures in St. Pete/Clearwater

I'm a Type-A fisherman. I don't want to just be fishing, I want to be catching. That's why I was pleased to arrive at the Maximo Park Boat Ramp at 6:30 one morning to find our guide, Rick Frazier, already floating in his 22-foot Privateer fishing boat, cast net in hand, looking for bait.

This is my kind of guide, I thought.

When I hailed Rick from the dock, he came over to pick us up, then backed out into the stream again. Within five minutes and with just one toss of his big net, we had enough live bait for 50 boats. “The tide’s just starting to turn, so we’ll go fish a shallow flat I know about that we can only reach at high water,” Rick told us.

Ten minutes later, I was making my first cast in just two feet of water. Ploop! The cork went under, and I had a fish on. It was a baby sea trout, one of the cutest little fish you’ll ever see. But on my second cast, Big Mama came calling. This was more like it. A few minutes later, we had what would have been a keeper trout in the boat. Jane and I were headquartered in the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort. While the room was great and the views across the shimmering white beach spectacular, there were no cooking facilities. Mama went back to be caught another day.

In the course of our five-hour charter, Rick put on an impressive demonstration of the range of species available within just a few miles of downtown St. Petersburg. We caught mangrove snapper, Spanish mackerel, even a small cobia (more often found offshore). If snook had been in season, I’m sure we would have caught one or two of those as well.

For the earnest angler, the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area is fishing paradise. Consider that the day after our trip with Rick, we were planning to take one of the many party boats in the area out to the near reefs. Generally a half-day party boat trip is aimed at catching lots of small – and very tasty – reef fish. But as we strolled the Clearwater Marina docks that evening, we came across a sport fisherman called Wild 1 with a sign in the stern: “Looking for two for five hours Thursday.” I called the number, and we were booked. Meet at the boat at 6:45 a.m.

Since the Wild 1 was only a block from our hotel, we walked over and were still early. Our fellow fishermen – a dentist from Nashville and a young couple from Ohio – soon joined us, and we were under way. The plan was to head out to a reef about 15 miles offshore and troll, hoping for king mackerel. Almost as soon as the lures were in the water, the hookups began. But it was Spanish mackerel, the small cousin to the much larger and more powerful kings. The Spanish were plentiful, and within an hour or so, we were actually getting tired catching them.

The first mate reloaded our tackle with bigger lures, including ballyhoo and even one of our smaller Spanish mackerel. The action slacked off quickly. Not everything swimming out there was big enough – or brave enough – to tackle our big baits. But then something slammed the trolled mackerel, and the fight was on!

Pretty soon a big barracuda was beside the boat. A few minutes later my reel started screaming.

The captain slowed the boat. The fish and the old man began their battle.

The fish would take some line, I’d take some back. The tug of water continued for nearly 10 minutes, and I thought I was making some progress. Then suddenly, the line went slack. Somehow the big fish on the other end – probably a very nice king mackerel – had slipped the hook.

Back at the dock, I looked mournfully at the stack of Spanish mackerel awaiting the filet knife. Had I been home, I would have put some on the grill that night and done a few more filets in a soy sauce braise, then arisen early the next morning to stack some more filets in my smoker.

After two days of being up early, Jane and I were looking for something a little more laid back for our third day of fishing. As Jane slept in and the sun rose in the east, I was out on Pier 60 at Clearwater Beach, just half a block from our hotel, trying to take advantage of the bright floodlights the pier burns all night to attract fish. I was hoping a small snook or a little grouper would be hiding behind a piling looking for an early breakfast (they had to be small, or my light spinning tackle wouldn’t handle them). No such luck.

A little later, after Jane got in a run along Clearwater’s justly famous beach, we headed south to the North Skyway Pier. This remnant of the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge (along with its counterpart, the South Skyway Pier) is now a state park catering to fishermen. The beauty of it is that you can drive your car out onto the pier and park it next to where you want to fish. No lugging rods and reels and tackle boxes a couple of hundred yards from the parking lot out onto the pier.

It looked like I had hit the pier at precisely the right time. I could see a big school of something – either Spanish mackerel or jack crevalle – tearing up bait fish a few hundred feet from the pier. So near, yet so far. Try as I might, I couldn’t cast my lure quite that far. Had I packed heavier gear, I could have joined many of the other fishermen on the pier soaking a bait around the pilings. The pier juts out into the entrance to Tampa Bay, and the swift tidal currents attract big fish, but it takes a heavy sinker to hold bottom. Next time!

As my three-day adventure suggests, there is almost no end to fishing possibilities in and around St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Weather is often a limiting factor in fishing elsewhere, but because we're mostly on a peninsula separating the Gulf of Mexico from Tampa Bay, seldom are the winds and waves able to spoil all fishing opportunities. A strong westerly that makes the Gulf untenable is barely a zephyr on the shoreline inside in the bay. And vice versa. If an easterly spoils the bay fishing, close-in Gulf fishermen barely feel it.

You can bring your own boat – ramps and marinas abound – or rent a power boat and head out on your own. But the truth is, life is a lot simpler when somebody else is doing the driving. Whether it’s an inshore or offshore charter, the captains know the waters better than you ever will. They can put you on fish faster than you could probably launch your own boat. The added benefit is that they provide the bait, the tackle and even the fishing license. All you have to do is bring your lunch, a hat and some sunblock.

Pier fishing is even easier. The piers rent rods and reels, you don’t need a license to fish from the piers, and all sorts of bait is available in the bait shops. If you’re looking for some advice, stop by local bait-and-tackle shops such as Mastry’s Bait and Tackle on Fourth Street in St. Petersburg. Proprietor Larry Mastry can tell you what’s biting and show you the best combination of tackle to catch it.

I’m a fishing fool, and that’s how I spend the majority of my leisure time. But, know that, whatever you want to do on the water, you can do in St. Petersburg, Clearwater and the communities around them.

23rd Annual Old Salt and Bill Currie Ford Ladies Fishing Tournament: The men can drive the boats, but the women do all the fishing in this tournament, which is one of the largest events of its kind. Held in mid-August, the event also includes silent auctions, crafts vendors and more. Click here for more information.