Hey guys i did some fishin in the St Pete and Boca Ciega Bay Area for a Snook Fishing Tournament and diddnt even see a snook.  We did catch alot of fish though. 

We got on the water at about 6:30 in my uncles 27' Custom Cris-Craft and headed straight to a marina we know of that is usually slam packed full of snook this time of year.  We saw alot of baby tarpon but couldent get them to take any bait, and neither did we see any snook.  So we left the marina and went to get some bait on the flats.

We diddnt even have to chum, and we got a livewell full of about 30 dozen large Greenbacks and Threadfins and got some Pinfish as well.  We left from the flat and went to an area that has mangroves in the back country that we know usually carries large snook.  We saw alot of mullet but thats it.  We threw bait to every crack and crevice in the mangroves and diddnt get anything.  So after a little more aggrivation we went to a well known pass that i had snorkeled the day before and seen literally thousands of slot sized snook in about 20 - 30 feet of water.

My best guess is that they are getting that low to get in the cooler water.  We threw some pinfish down on a sinker and also triend green backs and the threadfins and diddnt get anything but some grouper, mangos, and a bluefish.  So then we decided to head to a bridge that we thought might have some snook.  First cast i got a nice sized redfish just in the slot size at about 19 - 20 inches.  I was catching alot of undersized mangos and a couple ones that were in slot.  We also caught ALOT of undersized groupler from about 7-8 inches.  We probably caught about 20 undersized grouper on greenbacks.  Then we were all throwing our greenbacks and getting robbed and rocked by something that seemed pretty nice sized.  My friend tyler finally got a good hookset and broght in a gag grouper that was about 16 to 17 inches.  Then we had decided to go to one more spot on the flats but stopped becasue soemthing got our attention.

We were heading under the bridge by Tierra Verde Hi and Dry when we saw the Spanish Macks Murdering the small greenbacks so we just couldent help but to give them some attention.  We had greenbaacks that were WAY larger than the ones they were demolishing so we had no trouble at all getting some bites.  We ened up landing quite a few nice sized slot macks and had alot of action packed adrenaline mack attack fishing.  Then we decided to get back to the task at hand.  We made our way to the flat and searched for some sign of bait or snook. We couldent find anything, the place was scarce.  So we fished the dropoff by the flat and got some more little gags, mangos, and some lizardfish. 

So at the end of the snook tournament out of all the guys that entered only 3 people even saw a snook. My friend Tony ened up winning it with his crew of guys that caught 3 snook. Oh well it was alot of fun and at least i got to get back out on the water again.  Oh well guys thats it for me, Cya round.

~Shallow Minded