Gulf State Park Pier, Gulf Shores,AL PIER PICNIC 2018

[ChileRelleno]

Pier Picnic 2018, Gulf State Park Pier

I'd like to give a big shout out to Jeff and Robert for pulling this off, it was a great picnic.
Seeing all the familiar and not so familiar faces, and putting faces to names.
What a great group of people.












Some really delicious offerings hit the potluck table, most notably the Smoke Pork Butts that made up the mainstay.
Mmmm, Mmmmm Yummy, love me some smoked Butts with a good bark on the
And there was more than enough to allow for anyone to pile it on.
Many thanks to the cooks, John G. Jeff and Jeb who spent the hours required to put tender pulled pork on the table.




There was the Pork with sammich fixings, Pizza, Fried Chicken, Hotdogs/fixings, Taco Pie, a nice zesty Chili, Hashbrown Casserole, tangy Coleslaw, Tater salad, a fantastic Mack Dip/Crackers, some killer Pimento Cheese/Crackers with other assorted finger foods, tater and corn chips of all kinds and more, more, more.
And no lack of desserts, including that Strawberry Angelfood creation that disappeared quickly, there was a rich creamy Flan that I and several others particularly enjoyed and more, more, more.
Drinks too, something to quench the thirst on this warm day and wash down all the great food.

Anyone who went away hungry, well it's your own danged problem.
.............................................................................................


Let me just say... What a fantastic day!

Nate and I started off our day like we do every trip to the pier, J&M at 0500 for live bait, spool a couple of new reels and tackle odds-n-ends. What a great way to start a day of fishing browsing through J&M, it's like being a kid in candy shop.

Coming through the shallows there was some talk about a precious few Pomps and Specks, even got to see a few in coolers.
Learned later that it was slow through the day, but some fish were definitely making it over the rail.

Hit the pier at first light, make the end to find a sporadic Spanish bite which is the tail end of what was said to be practically a chew down in the predawn hour.
There were some size to the fish too, really nice axe handles were common throughout the early morning.
On and off bite as schools would run through.
Bubble rigs with green straws were the preferred color, they were getting slammed.
I'm not sure but we might have managed one limit of Spaniards, I'll count when I clean in the morning.

Following every other bubble and chasing every other Spanish were the sharks.
It was just ridiculous, but it practically became the sport de jour playing keep away from the sharks.
Lock the drag down and literally yank the Macks away from sharks, or free spool and let'em run.
Some real fun watching it play out, everybody encouraging, shouting suggestions and laughing at both success and failure.
But... The shark situation is just asinine.
Why will the State not allow us to follow state size/creel limits on sharks and thin the herd of pier dwelling sharks that know right where the meals are.
At the cleaning tables, behind every lure, tasty live baits and some mistakenly the lures themselves.

Kings were few and far between, several hookups and losses throughout the day and a few even managed to hit the deck.
A nice 15-20lb King taken on a trolley rig in the draw by the guy in the motorized wheelchair, Loyd?
Another one or two here and there and then a BIG got hooked up, somehow avoided being sharked during a 20 minute plus battle and finally slammed on the deck with huge thud.
I weighed it on my scale at 34lb 8oz.
The guys wife hooked it, almost lost the rod cause she'd left leaning on the rail, started squealing like a stuck pig for her husband, he came and fought it on a Penn Fierce 8000.
He had the drag down tight and this King still pulled drag throughout the fight, they must've been spooled with some heavy line.
Then Jeb's boy hooked a decent one and got it in, he was thrilled.



Today was a very interesting day to say the least for the diversity of what was seen.
Notable to me was a large Spotted Eagle Ray that made an appearance, it was an easy 8' wingspan and it was beautiful to watch glide by.
Other rays, sea turtles, a Mahi came by following one of the turtles, a Cobia, a large Tarpon, several species of sharks and all the usual birds.
The Mahi, Cobe, Jacks and Tarpon sure did cause the expected uproar.
As did a large school of Jack Crevalle that came through.

There was a irregular Spanish and Bluefish bite all day long on the Octi and in the Draw.
Haywire was doing pretty good with his trolley rig, him and several others were putting a hurting on some Spaniards and Blues.
Some of the Bluefish were of decent size as were some of the Hardtails.

Nate and I headed to the shallows around 5pm to see what might like some live shrimps.
We found the same slow bite of Pomps and Specks and managed to get in on it.
The Pomps fired off in the evenings early twilight, they were hitting both baited Pomp rigs and live freelined live shrimp.
Several came over the rail and a few even made it into our cooler.
I saw some fine Specks caught, the biggest was 26.5" and a couple more pushing or breaking the 2' mark.
We finally called it quits around 9pm, packed it up and had to put a little effort loading the cart/cooler into the car.
It seemed to have gained some weight.

[esgeo]

Sounds like an awesome day! Thanks for the report,

Eric
(Murphy HS Class of '93)

[Swami805]

Thank's for the report,quite a blow by blow, sounds like a great day on many levels. Pier fishing here is a way to pass the time,y'all actually catch fish!

[ChileRelleno]

A pretty good harvest.

8 Spanish
4 Blues
2 Pomps
1 Speck
For size comparison, the small Pomp is right at 12" FL.