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Day 3 of fishing the county pier, my last 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’d reasonably 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 received 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 must run your self ragged doing it, particularly for those who anticipate 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 car parking zone was quite a bit emptier this morning. I received 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 way of proper at dawn. Oh effectively, no level in getting upset over missed fish, I had loads of Spanish on ice in any case, no have to be grasping. So getting by way of the gate I began my stroll and seen the climate situations had modified an excellent bit in a single day. The wind was nonetheless blowing from the East however was quite a bit weaker right now. The water was additionally getting dirtier, with sediment seen within the water column. Each of those modifications have been precisely what I didn’t need.

My unhealthy feeling concerning the day was proper, the tip of the pier was fairly useless. The large Spanish have been already gone, and nothing had adopted after them. I bumped into my buddy and customized rod maker Ernie although, so not less than we may chat whereas we fished this useless water. Whereas the predators have been gone, the bait and birds have been thick on the tip. I used to be throwing a knife jig to hopefully discover a Spanish or Bonita, however as a substitute solely received a pelican that dive-bombed the splash of the jig hitting the water. He instantly popped my fundamental line on the sunshine setup and flew off. So I made a decision to only fish for bait, would possibly as effectively with how thick it was on the market. I dropped my sabiki down and began catching cigar minnows and goggle eyes. I saved 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 saved catching baits till one other pelican flew out from beneath the pier and snagged my sabiki. He broke off the rig, and I mentioned screw it to fishing the tip of the pier. Ernie additionally was carried out casting at no fish, so we each determined to move in the direction of the center T of the pier to strive 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 massive Spanish mackerel. It appeared 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 chunk with it. So I saved switching up my rigs for the subsequent hour or two making an attempt to get one among these Spanish to chunk. I saved downsizing my sort out from wire all the way down to 60lb fluorocarbon then all the way down to 40 lb fluorocarbon on a protracted shank hook. This lastly received me a strike proper subsequent to the pier, however the mackerel solely received 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 received a chunk. It wasn’t a giant Spanish nevertheless it was a fish and authorized to maintain. I threw on the bait once more, hoping for a repeat however solely received a few ladyfish as a substitute. After tossing again the second ladyfish, the birds struck once more on the subsequent forged. I had one other rattling pelican fly into my wind loop. I attempted to flick the road off however he received 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 internet to carry the rattling chook as much as the deck.

We received 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 chunk one other man who was fishing. After that, he flew off. After coping with nearly extra birds than fish at this level I felt prefer it was time to start out packing and cleansing up my gear. I received all my larger sort out sorted and simply saved 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 received 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 unhealthy apart from the rattling birds. I did miss all the large runs of mackerel for the journey, however oh effectively it occurs. Timing is essential on the pier and those who put in essentially the most time on the pier catch essentially 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.