Day 3 of fishing the county pier, my remaining day down on the Emerald Coast for chasing King mackerel in Panama Metropolis Seaside. I solely have a half day today, as a result of I’ve to load up the truck for the 300+ miles to get again house. After the morning on Day 2 being a bust I made a decision I might slightly have one other hour of sleep and begin sluggish with a espresso on the seashore, simply chilling on the shore with the waves on my legs. So I bought all my stuff loaded up into the truck, went to the foyer for my free espresso, and took a brief stroll on the seashore. Fishing is nice, however you don’t have to run your self ragged doing it, particularly for those who count on it to be sluggish. Now with a espresso warming me up, it was time to take a look at and head over to the pier to get some fishing in earlier than I needed to go away.
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Phrase of the sluggish morning the day earlier than unfold as quick, so the parking zone was loads emptier this morning. I bought my cart loaded up and walked up the pier home and requested the man within the workplace if something had been caught. And naturally, he tells me a run of huge axe-handle Spanish mackerel had come by proper at dawn. Oh nicely, no level in getting upset over missed fish, I had loads of Spanish on ice anyhow, no have to be grasping. So getting by the gate I began my stroll and seen the climate circumstances had modified an excellent bit in a single day. The wind was nonetheless blowing from the East however was loads weaker at the moment. The water was additionally getting dirtier, with sediment seen within the water column. Each of those modifications had been precisely what I didn’t need.
My dangerous feeling concerning the day was proper, the top of the pier was fairly useless. The massive Spanish had been already gone, and nothing had adopted after them. I bumped into my buddy and customized rod maker Ernie although, so at the least we may chat whereas we fished this useless water. Whereas the predators had been gone, the bait and birds had been thick on the top. I used to be throwing a knife jig to hopefully discover a Spanish or Bonita, however as an alternative solely bought a pelican that dive-bombed the splash of the jig hitting the water. He instantly popped my major line on the sunshine setup and flew off. So I made a decision to only fish for bait, may as nicely with how thick it was on the market. I dropped my sabiki down and began catching cigar minnows and goggle eyes. I stored them within the brine slush in my kill bag to maintain for my buddy Ivan. He likes to bag up and freeze bait to be used on a wet day. I stored catching baits till one other pelican flew out from underneath the pier and snagged my sabiki. He broke off the rig, and I stated screw it to fishing the top of the pier. Ernie additionally was achieved casting at no fish, so we each determined to go in direction of the center T of the pier to attempt there.
Up nearer to shore we some motion occurring, there was a ton of bait hiding within the shadow of the pier that was getting slashed by large Spanish mackerel. It seemed and sounded prefer it was raining bait with how the cigar minnows would leap making an attempt to dodge the mackerel. I attempted throwing my Spanish mackerel rig from the night time earlier than, however couldn’t purchase a chew with it. So I stored switching up my rigs for the subsequent hour or two making an attempt to get one among these Spanish to chew. I stored downsizing my sort out from wire right down to 60lb fluorocarbon then right down to 40 lb fluorocarbon on a protracted shank hook. This lastly bought me a strike proper subsequent to the pier, however the mackerel solely bought the tail of my dwell bait. I gave up on chasing these Spanish and went again to artificials with a small spoon behind an egg sinker.
After a few casts, I noticed some bait getting labored on a bit nearer to shore. So I ran over and threw at them and bought a chew. It wasn’t a giant Spanish however it was a fish and authorized to maintain. I threw on the bait once more, hoping for a repeat however solely bought a few ladyfish as an alternative. After tossing again the second ladyfish, the birds struck once more on the subsequent solid. I had one other rattling pelican fly into my wind loop. I attempted to flick the road off however he bought the spoon hook caught in his wing after which had me pinned to the rail for a bit. I needed to wait on Ernie to get a pier web to carry the rattling chook as much as the deck.
We bought the silly chook over the rail, and popped the hook out of him. He took a few steps away from us after which tried to chew one other man who was fishing. After that, he flew off. After coping with virtually extra birds than fish at this level I felt prefer it was time to start out packing and cleansing up my gear. I bought all my greater sort out sorted and simply stored fishing the sabiki rig to catch extra goggle eyes. I ended up with a pair dozen that I gave to Ernie and Ivan to freeze up. Whereas I used to be chasing goggle eyes, Ernie bought a pleasant slot redfish to eat a small hardtail(blue runner) proper on the primary sandbar within the pompano gap. Whereas this final day wasn’t as fish crammed as the primary couple of my journey, it wasn’t too dangerous apart from the rattling birds. I did miss all the large runs of mackerel for the journey, however oh nicely it occurs. Timing is vital on the pier and those who put in probably the most time on the pier catch probably the most. I’ll hopefully be again down within the spring and go fish the bay with Ernie after I choose up one other customized rod from him.
