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Post by conureman on Sept 10, 2023 14:42:14 GMT -5
 All caught in the morning at around 9 on white spoon during high tide. Overall caught 27 spanish mackeral bit only 9 were keeper size. Activity died around 11.left at 1. Fwc was at the beginning of the pier asking anglers if they wanna participate in a survey where then they ask if they can measure and wiegh you catch for research purposes. |
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Post by maksandjacks on Sept 10, 2023 15:22:17 GMT -5
Woah what a day! I was there from 6:30-2 around the 3rd bathroom on the ssp. Started with a spoon until i was cut off (30ib mono) with no other luck with spanish. (I saw one guy get about a 18in one on a gotcha plug at the end of a popping cork). By 9:30 I caught blue runners and pinfish for groupers and got rocked twice on the incoming tide and dolphined twice. Saw a school of about 2ft sheepshead by the pillings under the bathroom that wouldnt touch shrimp, or any cut greenbacks while actively eating barnacles. Long day for the biggest catch being blue runners!
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Post by shot33gun9 on Sept 10, 2023 17:02:42 GMT -5
I would not voluntarily participate in any FWC survey
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Post by maksandjacks on Sept 10, 2023 17:45:42 GMT -5
All caught in the morning at around 9 on white spoon during high tide. Overall caught 27 spanish mackeral bit only 9 were keeper size. Activity died around 11.left at 1. Fwc was at the beginning of the pier asking anglers if they wanna participate in a survey where then they ask if they can measure and wiegh you catch for research purposes. If u dont mind disclosing where the spanish caught closer to the end of the pier, middle or near the pay booth |
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Post by conureman on Sept 10, 2023 18:23:54 GMT -5
All caught in the morning at around 9 on white spoon during high tide. Overall caught 27 spanish mackeral bit only 9 were keeper size. Activity died around 11.left at 1. Fwc was at the beginning of the pier asking anglers if they wanna participate in a survey where then they ask if they can measure and wiegh you catch for research purposes. If u dont mind disclosing where the spanish caught closer to the end of the pier, middle or near the pay booth Before the end of the pier |
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Post by shot33gun9 on Sept 10, 2023 18:31:58 GMT -5
Ha! That's a great answer
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Post by conureman on Sept 10, 2023 18:54:09 GMT -5
Ha! That's a great answer Shhhhhh I went through what you call "la cremotoria" for a reason. I bet you know we're I got that from. |
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fishtailz
Rod Polisher
Hour and a half drive to get there but love the skyway piers. Big fish available.
Posts: 119
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Post by fishtailz on Sept 11, 2023 12:34:03 GMT -5
I would not voluntarily participate in any FWC survey |
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Post by fishsci on Sept 11, 2023 12:57:21 GMT -5
Very interesting or strange -- Two reports...completely opposite...one a good catch, and the other a bad day...both reportedly fishing about the same area of the pier and at the same time...both using spoons, at least to start. Does anyone have any idea how to explain all that?
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Post by shot33gun9 on Sept 11, 2023 13:47:25 GMT -5
Well, one guy kept fishing with spoons and the other quit after a cutoff and started fishing for gags, guess he only had one spoon. Color of spoons can be a huge factor as well, but I believe light conditions play a bigger role concerning color selection
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Post by tears143 on Sept 11, 2023 14:46:27 GMT -5
Very interesting or strange -- Two reports...completely opposite...one a good catch, and the other a bad day...both reportedly fishing about the same area of the pier and at the same time...both using spoons, at least to start. Does anyone have any idea how to explain all that? Not strange at all. Many time I limit on snappers easily while other people just look dumbfounded on how I was catching. Sometime it's the other way around. Same bait.. and stuff. That's why I usually ask my pompano friend.. how many people was there and how many total was caught and not how many did they catch. There are days where I limit out and other people got nothing. a few people get 1 or 2. |
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Post by carlf on Sept 11, 2023 18:11:00 GMT -5
Very interesting or strange -- Two reports...completely opposite...one a good catch, and the other a bad day...both reportedly fishing about the same area of the pier and at the same time...both using spoons, at least to start. Does anyone have any idea how to explain all that?
Been there, done that. On both sides of the equation many times!
Crappie fishing, dropping same minnows on same rigs on the same tree top and one of us is catching one every drop and other is sitting there staring at a cork.
Schoolie mac feeding frenzy, guys slinging same bubble rigs and there's one guy who cant buy a hit.
It's the age old mystery of fishin'.
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Post by fishfinderbill on Sept 11, 2023 20:28:26 GMT -5
Carlf: You hit the nail on the head. Macks are schooling fish and if you happen to be where they are you can fill your box. Otherwise a can of tuna on the way home. It's called LUCK and not necessarily lack of skill.
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Post by fishsci on Sept 11, 2023 20:58:31 GMT -5
No, I do not buy that.. Yes mackerel are schooling, but not school in the very same place for about two hours. Yes, it might be that the guy who quit fishing for mackerel just screwed up by not continuing to try for macks. As for Tears, I don't buy your explaination either. The fact of the matter is that you are extremely expert at catching snappers. I watched you once and have never been able to replicate your effectiveness, even doing almost everything I saw you do. I can fully understand a situation where you caught snappers when nobody else does.
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Post by Flatsrunner on Sept 12, 2023 6:20:03 GMT -5
What a great skill you have. Your able to criticize someone and compliment them in the same sentence.
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Post by cabowabo on Sept 12, 2023 9:02:04 GMT -5
Fishsci, i am convinced you complain more about fishing and not being able to catch and replicate techniques more than anyone on here and then x10.
Maybe you only fish the skyway, but all over florida have beit panhandle piers, atlantic side piers, rock/jetty formations than span atleast .25 miles or more you will always come across multiple areas in which macks will only feed.
Ive fished panama city beach piers for going on 2 decades now and multiple times one corner of one side of the pier is all you could catch a mack on. Sometimes you could only catch them at specific section of the pier.
So someone claiming to have limited out on spanish yet fishing the same time and day but not exact same location is completely reasonable even for a specific like a spanish mack.
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Post by shot33gun9 on Sept 12, 2023 9:32:17 GMT -5
On our piers I've noticed that sometimes I can stand in one spot and get a limit, then go back to that same spot the next day at the same time and get nothing. At that point it's time to start moving up the pier to find them, somtimes I find them sometimes I don't. I believe macks are always moving around and don't stay in one area very long, for me that's why it's important to stay mobile. I have no idea how it is on other piers and I'm not going to the panhandle to find out... lol
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Post by fishsci on Sept 12, 2023 14:27:24 GMT -5
Fishsci, i am convinced you complain more about fishing and not being able to catch and replicate techniques more than anyone on here and then x10. Maybe you only fish the skyway, but all over florida have beit panhandle piers, atlantic side piers, rock/jetty formations than span atleast .25 miles or more you will always come across multiple areas in which macks will only feed. Ive fished panama city beach piers for going on 2 decades now and multiple times one corner of one side of the pier is all you could catch a mack on. Sometimes you could only catch them at specific section of the pier. So someone claiming to have limited out on spanish yet fishing the same time and day but not exact same location is completely reasonable even for a specific like a spanish mack. How do you come up with the idea that I complain about fishing? I don't bother to complain about fishing, and at best just admit that I did not do well, just for others' information. My comment about Tears was a compliment, not a complaint. The point is that it is not just about knowing a technique, but also that it is knowing where and when to use the technique. Tears seems to know all this for catching snapper. I never, have been much of a snapper fisherman, but I can tell you that it is almost sure I have fished on more piers and other places than you have. Yes, there always places on piers where mackerel fishing is best. It has to do with a number of possible factors. Mackerel move along the beach and are influenced by sandbars, deeper sloughs, reefs, rocks and such. They then sense the pier and move parallel to it and then around it. They almost never move through the pier as a school. At times there are small mackerel that, as individuals or as small pods of individuals, spend a lot of time along the pier. They may move through it and back, particularly in the case of the Skyway, because the pilings are farther apart than those of most small piers. I have seen times when the water is clear enough to see some of the school, if you look carefully. I have seen those schools move up and down along the pier, and you can see the fishermen hook up as the school passes them one way, and then again when they move back. The fishermen think that they are different schools that are coming into the pier, but it is the same school. At some piers, the mackerel seem to skirt around the pier, and can be hooked at one corner of the end as they move out and around the pier to continue their movement along the beach. Also, there can be times where the water clarity affects where the mackerel come to the pier initially. For example, there can be an area of dirty water running out of an inlet along the beach. If that water is very dirty, mackerel stay just offshore of that line of dirty water, and that will determine where they encounter the pier along its length. How clear the offshore water can affect how close the mackerel come to the pier before turning out and around the pier. If the water is very clear, they can see or sense the pier and stay farther from the pier. Then there is bait. If there is a lot of suitable bait next to the pier, the mackerel will be attracted, and feed on it, keeping them around the pier for extended periods. If there is no bait, there is no reason for them to not continue their movement by skirting around the pier. Even with all of that, when there are mackerel in the area, a few straglers can be caught from much of the area along the pier. The South Pier being so long, certainly has all of those kinds of variables, so it can be very different, as to where mackerel are most abundant, at any one time. However, that does not mean that mackerel can be caught only from one small spot along the pier. They may be thickest along a stretch of a hundred yards or so, but most of the time there can be some present and caught along a stretch of several hundred yards. As for my original observation of two different results for two different fishermen is that they might have been just far apart that the second fishermen was having such slow fishing for mackerel that, as others have said, he decided to not try for them, and switched to fishing for gag. |
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Post by shot33gun9 on Sept 12, 2023 15:18:53 GMT -5
I've seen macks do some strange things that I can't explain, like once 4 of us were fishing spoons just past the entrance and getting some nice 18" fish, then boom...they completely quit. My bud from Plant City went to his topwater rig with a homemade epoxy jig with nylon hair and a small treble hook built in and the macks went wild, caught one on every cast and they were also in the 18" range. I finally gave up and just watched him, I have no answer for that mack behavior...eventually the dolphins moved in and it was over
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Post by Flatsrunner on Sept 12, 2023 17:34:19 GMT -5
Sometimes it's a small change like that will fire the fish back up. changing from pins to greenies and even shrimp and back to cut bait. It's like a buffet down there, not everyone likes the same thing. Mango's are like a teen,the worst at being picky.
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Post by carlf on Sept 12, 2023 19:16:39 GMT -5
Changing tactics can be good:
One of the best days on macs I had when nobody else was catching much was floating a DOA shrimp under a clear bubble, just cast out and let it sit there. Maybe a twitch every now & then.
Nothing for 5 minutes and then suddenly 2-4 Big Macs are fighting to get it first.
Everybody else is standing there chunking spoons, straw rigs and small plugs and getting no hits while I'm catching fish.
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Post by fishsci on Sept 20, 2023 21:20:49 GMT -5
I would not voluntarily participate in any FWC survey It is easy to see why someone might react that way. However, not participating only hurts fishermen like you and all the rest of us. The fact of the matter, is that the biologist doing the survey is just an entry level biologist who took a low paying job after going through college studying biology because he/she loves fish, fishing and wildlife. That biologist has absolutely no responsibility or authority relative to regulations. He/she works for a career biologist who is just trying to collect scientific data that could be used to make the right decisions about how the fish population are doing. The ones who make the regulation decisions, such as pelicans and the Skyway mostly are not that kind of dedicated biologist, but instead are the political appointees to the Commission. Not helping provide data is cutting off your nose to spite your face. |
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Post by Flatsrunner on Sept 21, 2023 6:31:27 GMT -5
What a dilemma you have, being a proclaimed expert on everything but social interaction.
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Post by shot33gun9 on Sept 21, 2023 9:35:30 GMT -5
Fishsci, did you know that Rodney Barreto, the chairman of FWC also owns a development company and is attempting to get approval to dredge and fill a lagoon in Palm Beach for high rise condos? I call that corruption and is one reason I no longer have confidence that FWC cares about our fishery no matter how many surveys they conduct. I have other reasons as well, like all the season closures, shortened seasons, and slot limits
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Post by fishsci on Sept 21, 2023 17:04:12 GMT -5
Not until you mentioned it did I only slightly recall hearing about that a while ago, but I did not know any details. Now that I have researched the issue that you correctly describe, I agree with a conservatiionist who was quoted as saying that after all those many years that he has been on the Commission (many of those years as Chairman), Barreto should by this time understand the important value of the seagrasses and mangroves that his filling-in would destroy.He purchased that submerged land just a few years ago, but he claims that the State of Florida rightfully intended the submerged land to be filled. As I said in my first reply, it is easy to understand why you and many others might have an immediate reaction to not want to do anything to help the FWC in any way. But as I also said, the problems lie with the political appointee commissioners, not with the hard-working, underpaid, dedicated biologists and scientists who are just trying to collect the data, so that maybe the data and facts can make it harder for the political appointees to do the kinds of things they have been doing.The more data, facts, and understanding that we have, the better the chances are that things are done correctly and in the best interests of the fisheries and fishermen.
Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't
tell them where they know the fish. [Mark Twain]
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Post by shot33gun9 on Sept 21, 2023 19:32:19 GMT -5
I believe you have more faith in their system than I do.........
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Post by fishsci on Sept 22, 2023 18:59:28 GMT -5
I believe you have more faith in their system than I do......... I doubt that I have more faith in the "system", than you have. As a matter of fact, I am sure that I do not have more. The "system" is the political system and political appointees to the "system." But I have spent much time around the dedicated and hard-working professional staff, biologists, and scientists who work very hard under, and within the "system." Most of the time, those dedicated and under-valued people that work under the "system" are the only things that save us from the politically controlled "system." Help them and they might be able to help you and all of us. |
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