Skyway pier is ruined

[snapperdan]

Well I have returned back to the UK after my recent visit to FLA, the last time I was there was 4 years ago and when I revisited the Skyway Pier during my visit I was shocked about the way you guys are being treated ,there is no justification is closing down the foot traffic to the bridge, to stop people from fishing there its a nonsense to say its too dangerous to allow you to fish there, I think its much more dangerous the way the traffic is routed there now.
To put wire mesh up to stop you from crossing over to the other side whos great pathetic idea was that(the fish must think its good they are all over the side you can not fish from now fish now.. (But I did see a lot of boats there now which did not happen a few years ago.
Well to end I will not be going back ever again,its just too bad they were allowed to get away with what they have done to what was the best fishing pier in the world

[bcc]

I believe that all of us here feel your pain. I to visited the skyway just a few weeks ago after not seeing it for about 15 years and i was not liking what has been done to it at all my self . I will fish there when ever i get the chance until the morons in Florida government find an excuse to shut it down completely.

[snapperdan]

Unless you become a band of brothers then they will close it , you have at your finger tips the use of a superb fishing pier, despite those who would deprive you your current use of it, for what I can only consider to be some other hidden agenda they have in mind, personally I do not think they have your safety in mind at all, I am sure they have thier excuses already made up , so unless the fishing fraternity that use the pier do some serious protesting you will as sure as God made apples lose the Skyway pier,

[havetofish]

Yeah, so much for all the signatures sitting around on that other site and going nowhere.

[snapperdan]

yes I agree I signed that aswell, even though it does not effect me anywhere near as much as
you that love the Bridge and its fishing .
If I lived there I would stir a hornets nest to achive a reasonable result for the Fishermen and others rights to use the Bridge .But of course most people just sit back and wait for others to do the work for them , and when its gone, they all cry out IF I HAD KNOWN I WOULD HAVE HELPED...Yeah Right.

[tylerdurden]

Good luck with the financial mess florida is in, i doubt they could even invest in the cost to remove the dividing fence at this point

[havetofish]

Dividing Fence?....There were 8, that I counted fishing on the east span. The Pier employees never said a word to them. Was there today from 8-3pm, caught a lot of bait and waited for the outgoing tide. The winds were constant 20 + and made it tough to freeline anything but a blue runner. Saw nothing caught but a few Macks.

[bcc]

If the state of florida and pier managnent were smart they would come up with creative ways to make money on allowing foot traffic on the closed side of the pier. People obviously want to fish there.

[snapperdan]

maybe they have another agenda? But Florida did not look anywhere near as run down as parts of New York or Detroit or Calif that I visited whilst there ,so I cannot believe they have no money in that state in fact it looked very well looked after compared to a great many others, I agree that if they were smart they could easly make money from both piers, people will pay good money to fish if (A) the fisging is good which it is (B) if the facilities are clean and accesable ? Now thats where the problem is.. the toilets are quite nasty and are not looked after , maybe a shower or two put there would have helped, with some one to moniter the place of course as there is always the odd one who wants to screw it up for the rest.
But anyway thats not ever going to happen as the next thing I expect to hear is that the piers have been completly closed which will be a great loss to Florida

[BigDawg71]

Jun 5, 2009 16:14:53 GMT -5 bcc said:

If the state of florida and pier managnent were smart they would come up with creative ways to make money on allowing foot traffic on the closed side of the pier. People obviously want to fish there.

they would hve to care first which they don't. i contacted several state represenatives and got a form letter response or false promises to look into it enjoy them while you can.

[bcc]

Florida needs money right.

Well the best way to make money is to find what the need and wants are of the people that they will be willing to pay for ( like fishing on the closed of section of the pier.

But Florida gov. is to stupid and their give a crap level about anything but their back is absolutely nil.



But of course we are all just

[snapperdan]

OH Well it seems as if I will have to stick to fishing Reddinton pier when I return to Fla next year.
I have fished De sotto Park but it was so busy, and people were catching greenbacks with nets and leaving a lot of these small fish to flounder and die right there , so that was enough for me. at least it has fewer people on the one at Reddington probaly due to the cost of fishing it.but I would pay twice the price if it had good fishing and facilities.
So there's a lesson for the Skyway ruling classes, Give your Fishing people and Families good quality places to fish with decent bathroom facilities and you will see it will more than pay for its self.. but do I expect them to listen ? HELL NO

[tylerdurden]

Reddington doesnt neccessarily make money snapperdan. They were actually closed and had to spend a bunch of money to reopen it. Now its called the Dubai long pier so that the owners could irritate the city councel and so they could hopefully sell it to some rich indian investors.

And as far as fort d. There are some people that will leave greenbacks out but the birds will usually clean it up. It a skill to throw your net and only get it to open partially to get only the bait you need. Its so thick out there sometimes. But Reddington and Pier 60 in clearwater might be worth your time. Or vacation in a town called Englewood at a resort called Westons. Not the nicest rooms but awesome beach and great dock fishing at nite and sometimes off the beach as well

[snapperdan]

Thank you for the info, but when I come over there (I have Sisters in Mich/Calif Ariz, and Indian Rocks Beach also in Oregon ,my wifes family are fom New York my daughter is with the USAAF in Texas (having served in Afganistan) so you can see I have lots of connections there in the US .we do as much as we can to visit and then we take time out to do our own thing for me its fishing . for my wife its reading and sun bathing, we mostly end up in Marathon (Keys) and obviously as you know there is some good fishing to be had there,
It was about time some money was spent on Reddington pier as it was getting a bit rickity..
The place and land it stands on must be worth a kings ransom in development, I understand about the birds eating the fish what I found hard to understand was after you have cast your net and had a good haul why not throw those you do not want back to me thats preservation of your fish stocks.
Why is it called Dubia ? I do not see the connection between India and Dubia...? it was still called Reddington Long pier when I was there 3 weeks ago has it since changed

[tylerdurden]

oh right my bad. United Arab emerates. They did it cuz they were pissed at the city coucil so they changed the name thinking it would irritate them. The council kept fining them over its condition for a long time. And they are trying to get some rich middle eastern oil barrons to buy it from them

But thats why westons is pretty good. Farely cheap too, whole week bungalow for like 700/800 with everything in it. The docks hold huge amounts of snook at nite that you watch in the lite and actually see them grab your shrimp. and they are across the street, but the beach is spectacular and thats where the rooms are. Its also awash with shark teeth every morning. This is as much for you as anybody else reading the thread. Family has vacationed there every year for the past 20 years. It is on a key and they are the last property on that key the rest is a nature reserve beach for about a mile. Thats great at nite and awesome if you have your girl with u if you catch my drift... And its not crowded which is whats important to me

[goindeep]

Hey Dan, I dont remember hearing about your trip to Marathon....howd you do fishing?

[filletnrelease]

Dan, this is from the original article in the Times.

No longer Redington, it's now the Dubai Long Pier
Wed, 2008-12-03 14:38 — Times Staff

Redington PierThe Redington Long Pier has been renamed the Dubai Long Pier because of a long-running dispute between the owner and the city.
I told City Hall they are not honorable enough to put their name on my pier,'' pier owner Tony Antonious told a St. Petersburg Times reporter.

Why Dubai?

Antonious said he has visited Dubai several times and found it to be
a compassionate country. Dubai deserves the name more than Redington Shores, he said.

[snapperdan]

Going Deep, the trip was great.we stayed at Casa Clara condo's in Key Colonony Beach Marathon.It was a brilliant condo it even had fishing poles and bikes for us to use, the owners are great people the rent was a fair price for the place has all you needed and more A two bedroomed and right smack on the beach.
I went into Islomararda (forgotten how to spell it) and went on a days fishing trip there were a lot of yellow tail caught by useing the sand ball /oatmeal method I caught the biggest Angel Fish I have ever seen (it surprised a lot of the locals aswell ) 12and a half inches long by almost the same in depth I gave it to some one local who had a really big aquarium.
and I also got broken twice on 30lb braid, Rod bent, reel screamed, Fish on FISH GONE.
I also fished the small pier right outside the condo there was a barracudda that lurks beneath ,it must have been 4 ft long everyone who goes there tries to catch it including me , but its one smart fish throw a bait to it on a line and it will not take, throw it a fish with no line WHAM, so I thought well if he /she is that smart why am I wasting my time trying to catch it.
Its smarter than I am.
I fished from the beach and caught a few stingers, I got broke off one night fishing the pier outside the condo (after I had spent most of the day baiting it with pieces of spanish mack, A put good sized piece of Stinger on the bottom, at high tide.. well the tide was almost on the ebb, I had 60lb wire to 80lb braid on my Old favourite Dover Rod that would hold well over 200lbs and my reel is a TLD two speed ...two tiny taps on the rod tip even though it was on free spool with clicker on a small run about 6ft and then goodbye line, all hell let loose reel screamed and it must have stripped 50 yds off before I could even set the hook the rod bent over and I though to my self ok whatever you are you are not ging anywhere , it on the other hand had other ideas and after I lost over 100 yards of line it all went slack and I reeled in to find the wire trace to the hook had been broken it was frayed all along it So my belief is that it could only have been a very big shark (I had caught a few hammerheads there over the past few days not big ones but ranging from 18 inches to 3 ft ) and also a lemon shark about 2ft..
Whatever this was it was not a baby.All in all the fishing was great with Grunts and yellow tail
all over the place.the weather was fine to start with and then we got the mother of a storm one night, and some very heavy rains but that was ok as we went to movies one day when it rained, the other couple of times were great as far as my wife was concerned it meant I would not be fishing therefore I was free to take her shopping.
But all in all a very nice vacation
THANK YOU FLORIDA

[snapperdan]

Dubia compassionate ?what plannet is he from..me thinks if he liked it so much why did he return to the USA,,,,Maybe the local council told him to make the pier safe which in my opinion it has needed work done to it for some time, this of course costs money maybe he did not like to spend anything on it?

[eaglesfanguy]

HUH? I dunno im just posting for points ... Se ya on the pier!~

[goindeep]

Cool report Dan, sounds like a great trip

[eaglesfanguy]

Piers as ruined as the sun wont shine tomorrow

[SkyJay]

Guys a Jabronee in the bad/worst form, as well as the majority of the Yahoos, who frequent "his" Pier these days. Sad really.

Long Live The Reddington Long Pier, and all the memories she gave so many people!

[SkyJay]

"posting for points" you kill me Stephen.

[eaglesfanguy]

Made a rank once tonight whose to say i wont get another 61 left

[SkyJay]

I was sitting on the curb about 3 am recently, operating on about 2 hours sleep in 36 hours, and as I looked around at what the Pier has become, a tear came to my eye. Damn the Riff Raff!

And Damn the Powers That Be, who allowed this crap to happen.

Three finger Salute to each and every one of the bastages.

Fish On.

[bcc]

I sure dident like what i saw when i was there in april compared to what i use to fish on before it was a state park. Ya im sure its nice with a bait and shop stinky restrooms but i am sure those days i was there alone just me and my buddies fishing will never be repeated. I probably wont be able to afford to fish on there next time i am in town. Between the raised pier prices and having to buy a license to fish on the pier as well its gonna be tight.

[goindeep]

I believe you wont need a license to fish the skyway piers, they are covered. Someone correct me if Im wrong, but thats how I understood it.