newbie to piers

[idtrout]

Hey guys,

New to Florida and Salt Water fishing. I have read all the stickies and plenty of great info on this site! Taking my 1 year old to the piers tomorrow with some sabikis and frozen bate. Got an aerator and 5 gal bucket. I'm in St. Pete... Which pier do you guys recommend right now? Lookin to catch anything.

thanks!

[tears143]

squid + sabiki and the kid will have a blast.

Squid on the bottom 2 hooks and the rest leave it alone. You'll catch quite a few pinfish with that set up.

[idtrout]

Thanks Tear... Looking forward to it. Would you recommend North or South Pier right now?

[tears143]

I usually fish the south more. There's more space.

[idtrout]

Thanks Tear. Had a great day and caught tons of pins, some baby mangrove and some others. One sea bass. North pier was packed and only parking was dead end of the pier so had to go sideways with the tide. Hope to catch something bigger next time.

[TheAshtonB]

Just wait until around mid april, the Skyway Piers will experience a mackerel run as a result of warming waters. Spanish mackerel primarily will be everywhere to catch at these piers. All you need is some shrimp or even a shiny lure and you'll be catching them like crazy. Then as we get into summertime, the Tarpon action will heat up along with Cobia. Its the best time of the year IMO to fish the piers. The fishing at the skyway sometimes slows down in the middle of summer, and then gets good again as the waters cool down in the fall. I hope you and your son enjoy fishing at the skyway piers. 

[idtrout]

Thx Ashton,
I am looking forward to it! I grew up fishing freshwater and hope to have my son growing up loving fishing as well.

what kind of rig for the mackerel?

[TheAshtonB]

For mackerel, I spool around 250 yards of between 10-20lb braided line. I tend to stick with 20lb line just because mackerel have a tendency to swim into the pilings and break you off. Next I tie my braided line directly onto a fluorocarbon leader of about 50lb strength. It is important to tie a direct knot, don't use a swivel as mackerel are easily scared by shiny objects. For a hook I use Owner size 1/0 Octopus hooks, although any hook size 1/0 should suffice. Finally, fish this rig with a live shrimp and you are good to go. If you have to resort to lures, white buck tail jigs, "Gotcha Lures", and standard spoons work great. Good luck, and the mackerel fishing should heat up in a few weeks if this warm weather keeps coming in. 

[tears143]

Feb 24, 2015 20:12:25 GMT -5 TheAshtonB said:

For mackerel, I spool around 250 yards of between 10-20lb braided line. I tend to stick with 20lb line just because mackerel have a tendency to swim into the pilings and break you off. Next I tie my braided line directly onto a fluorocarbon leader of about 50lb strength. It is important to tie a direct knot, don't use a swivel as mackerel are easily scared by shiny objects. For a hook I use Owner size 1/0 Octopus hooks, although any hook size 1/0 should suffice. Finally, fish this rig with a live shrimp and you are good to go. If you have to resort to lures, white buck tail jigs, "Gotcha Lures", and standard spoons work great. Good luck, and the mackerel fishing should heat up in a few weeks if this warm weather keeps coming in. 

My mack setup is also the same. Instead of stronger fluro line, I use a lighter one but long shank hooks.

I would tie a loop knot to the hook and use no swivel as well. The reason for no swivel isn't because it scare the mack but they might bite it. I lost quite a few trolling sinkers because the lead was so shiny. I fish with mostly live greenies.

[idtrout]

Thanks guys! Fished on the second bridge before skyway today. Lots of sea bass, but nothing over 12" aloso, got plenty of pins on sabikis. Kids had a blast!

[tears143]

Awesome job! Seems like you hook your kids onto fishing. This hobby will surely give your family that family time together!

[TheAshtonB]

Good job idtrout !