Headed down to the coast again, just got confirmation tonight!
Hoping to find some late season sheeps, maybe some redfish, and maybe some pompano off the beach, but anything that bends the rod will put a smile on my face.
Doubt I can afford a boat ride this time, it'll be shore-based this trip.
OK, so we're 11 days out.
I've hit up some local guys to find out where to go for bait and local water temps, it's looking like waters will be just hitting 70F next week, so that means pompano running, and spanish coming around. Also some cobia if I can find one 36" long, we'll see.
There are a BUNCH of public fishing areas in pensacola that offer deeper water access, and I can see on the satellite imaging that there are some big flats that I can get to as well.
Namely:
Fort Pickens has both gulf side beach access, as well as deeper water bay side access from the jetty and the pier
Pensacola beach pier is 1470ft long, but I'll need a pier net
Navarre Beach pier is also accessable
There are beaches all along the gulf with parking access via Gulf Islands National Seashore, that are away from the condos and resorts-hopefully that'll mean fewer people
There is a small pier opposite the (closed?) Pensacola bay bridge pier, apparently called "the octagon"
There is are the Bob Sikes north and south piers, but no one can tell me if they're open or closed
Then I could drive over as far as perdido key and stay on the florida side, as that's where my license is, plenty of beach access there too.
Sounds good, nice to here what other fisho`s, are thinking from the other side of the world, good luck, leave some in the water for the other members, cheers Don.
It's now forecast to be thunderstorms and rain, better than 60% chance every single day I'm going to be there, so I don't know how much fishing I'll get to do.
we'll see how it goes.
(Pro Tip: If I'm going fishing, it's probably not a good time to be fishing!)
Native Floridian's weather insight:
That could be only for a portion of the day. The mornings or afternoons could likely be clear. Weekend before last they said the same thing 60-80% chance for both days. They were still saying that on Friday evening and Saturday morning... Then it rained for 20 minutes one of the days. Weather forecasts in Florida are kinda hit or miss, and they err on the side of predicting storms.
Look at the hourly forecasts. Unless they show high probability of rain, AND a high volume of it, every hour of the day, then you can still fish.
Oh, rain doesn't stop me from fishing, but the severe thunderstorm line that will be rolling through might...I'll be leaving Kentucky under a tornado warning, in all probability.
It shouldn't be too rough on the coast but definitely won't be optimal weather.
When I this class finishes up I gotta run the truck through the car wash and start loading my gear, gonna borrow a mop bucket from the tool room for my pier cart this trip.
Got on the road at 2:30 this afternoon, after class was over and the lab was cleaned up. Not much good it did, as I only made it to Birmingham by 9PM...Never got over 40MPH the whole time I was on I-65 through Tennessee.
Currently staying in Leeds, Alabama-Right down the road from the Barber Motorsports Museum. An incredible place, too bad it doesn't open until 10AM tomorrow. I love going through that place.
On the road down to Pensacola by 8 in the morning, hopefully the traffic isn't so awful through Alabama tomorrow.
You're not even in FL yet and it already sounds like FL.
Yeah, the drive this morning was supposed to be 4 hours and took 6. Finally got here, got the truck unloaded and realized I forgot the beach cart.
Gonna be schleppin' tackle the old way, I guess.
Tonight is getting the reels fitted and rods rigged, and drive by the bait shops and check out possible fishing spots for tomorrow. I'm staying pretty much exactly where I-10 and US-291 cross, and it looks like a straight run down 291 to get to 3 mile bridge and gulf breeze.
Day 1 of fishing
Sheepshead bite very slow and selective at Fort Pickens pier. No bites on live shrimp or fiddlers for me, but I caught a slew of Spanish mackerel on a silver gotcha plug. Kept four of the biggest, then learned to toss a cast net with a friendly pier rat and caught a handful of glass minnows to go in the engle.
Eating lunch now, then will try my luck at Bob Sikes south this afternoon/evening.
Dude if you want sheepshead get a drywall knife and tape it to a long broomstick. Scrape off some barnacles then drop your shrimp right there. One of the more reliable tricks out there. I find I do better with pieces of shrimp than I do with whole ones.
Yeah, it's a felony to do that at ft Pickens or any other government owned pier or piling. I know the trick, but FWC was handing out reminders this morning.
There were people pulling sheeps up all morning, I just wasn't one of them. You had to have the right color socks on I guess.
How are you rigged ? jig head or dropper rig . Keep the hook small , circle hook 1 0 or 2 0.
half shrimp drop down keep line tight 30- 60 second window for tap tap ,set hook ,they have a tough mouth /jaw bone .. :fish :fish :fish
I was fishing the exact same Carolina rig the guys catching them were. Even had one of them tie it for me to be sure. Only got one shrimp bit and the rest never got touched.
Also tried a swing jig for a few hours and a sweeper jig. Didn't make a difference today.
Went to clean the mackerel I caught and realized I left the vacuum packer at home. Had to do it the old way with ziplocs and salted water tonight, it won't be as good for as long but at least I'll get it home.
You have good fishing days this week !!
Currently under a tornado watch, although I doubt it will be an issue it is pretty blustery.
Going to try ft Pickens again today, have another shot at some sheepshead. If that doesn't come up good, I'll swing around to the beach side and try for some pompano/whiting, depending on how the wind settles today.
No luck yesterday. Got run off a few beaches by guys fishing 10+ rods, apparently 50ft down the beach is too close when the whole area is full of rods.
Scoped out a few other places I saw on the satellite, I'm sitting at one of them now.
Last night I hit up the Bob Sikes pier and sabiki'd some 3" pinfish, I have about a dozen live ones this morning and have one out on a 3/4 oz Carolina rig with 30lb fluoro and a 4/0 mutu circle hook.
Fishing a big grass flat that is about 2ft deep for as far as I can throw the surf rod. Hoping for a redfish to come through this morning.
IMG_20230404_083413.jpg
I've not ever had a lot of luck with pinfish from shore personally.
They're great at creating tangles though. Like, surprisingly adept at it. So check them semi often.
I'd have told them to F off. It's one thing to refuse to move over for a newcomer. It's another entirely to try to make them leave. I can't stand that mentality. I threw a guy over the rail at a pier once when he got super insistent. (He pointed a fillet knife at me, turns out judo works)
Turns out it didn't matter. Park rangers made us leave (all of us, not just me, but the whole pier and all the beaches) due to the Blue Angels flyover, which I doubt happened because the fog was so thick you couldn't see 50ft in front of you.
I didn't say anything, just packed my gear and left. I tried to drive east to get out of the fog, but no luck-I ended up at Navarre Pier. I went in with the same little pinfish (those things just don't quit!) and couldn't get a bite, so after him being on the hook through 4 fishing locations, plus a ride in the Engle from Pickens to Navarre, I let him off the hook and he swam off. Moved to about where I thought the sandbar would be on the pier and threw out some fishgum and a half a shrimp to see if I could tempt one of the pompano that were coming up every 10-15 minutes, and promptly had a guy come up and cut my line for "fishing his spot". It took a lot to not take a swing at him, but I just packed my stuff, and let the pier attendant know on my way out who it was and what happened.
I am tempted to make the drive to Destin (it's about an hour) and get on a head boat tomorrow, just to get on any kind of fish. It's crazy to me that there aren't any in Pensacola, everything is 6 or 8 pack charters. (At least none that I have called yet are.)
Needless to say, no fish today. As I am typing this, I can see the sun FINALLY come out of the fog, but I'm back in the house. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
Got a boat ride in the morning, so hopefully tomorrow isn't another bust.
You guessed it, no fish today.
Started out at the beach today, gulf islands seashore, at 5AM. Found the first and second trough, then walked along until I found a deep cut that cut through both of them and set up there. Cut shrimp and sand flea on the pompano rigs, two rods out and it's "bait and wait" time. At 10AM, I switched one rod to live shrimp and cut pinfish, and I finally gave up at 4pm, because I ran out of cold drinking water.
IMG_20230405_121106.jpg
I did loose two live shrimp and one sand flea, but that was it. I changed out bait when they looked ragged, the surf was pretty rough so it battered the bait.
At least it was a really nice day to sit on the beach and drink cold water away from all the teenagers. There was one family about a quarter mile down the beach but other than that it was just me, the surf, and that one pinfish in the livewell.
Floridian insight: If you have live shrimp don't cut them if a small fish tries and fails, it'll be cut shrimp. I dont even wanna fish dead shrimp. Fish down here are picky man.
I was just trying everything I could to figure out what presentation was going to work. Nothing did that day.
Went out yesterday on a cheap-fare boat and managed 4 vermillion snapper, the kid next to me did better with 6 snapper, an amberine, and a graysby grouper. It was a tough bite, lots of wait time.
Today is my last fishing day so I have another dozen live shrimp and I am headed over to Perdido key to try my luck there.
Today was a much better day. Not sure what the difference was, be it location, weather, or phase of the moon, but whatever it was, it was a great day. My cousin came down and we proceeded to go have some fun.
Picked up 2 dozen live shrimp, same as I've been getting, and headed to downtown Pensacola, to Palafox Pier. This is the old municipal harbor I guess, it's set up for large boats but the anchoring and mooring features are so degraded I doubt anything ties up here anymore.
Anyway, started out with a Carolina rigged shrimp, 20" 20lb fluoro leader and a size 4 hook, and a 1/2oz egg weight. Within minutes of flipping it out around the pier, short mangrove snapper started coming up. Cranking the weight up off the bottom a few feet, and keepers started coming up. In the end, the two of us caught 7 fish.
Today was a good day. Tomorrow is the long drive home.
Diiiiiiiinner
Persistence paid off. Safe travels!