Best day at skyway pier

[stuckintherocks]

Got a case of the fishin blues…. Anybody around wanna share a story of your absolute best fishing day at the skyway was? Your haul, bait of choice, conditions. Etc… need something to keep me goin until I get back out there Monday night

[silverspoon]

Well I'll go first, in the early 1990s you could walk out for miles before they took down the old bridge, everyone tried to get a hold of the shopping carts that would be left in the parking area - you couldn't drive out onto the bridge but had to park in the area right before the booth today. On a thanksgiving day I went out with my brother inlaw armed only with 1 ounce kastaway silver spoons and we caught so many large spanish macs, easily a solid hour of continuous strikes of medium to large macs, ended up leaving a pool of blood on the pavement that we still to this day refer to as to as "The Thanksgiving Day Massacre". I have pics for proof but no idea where they are at, it's been a long time. I do recall we had 22 macs in the cooler and released many fish we considered small in comparison to the biggins we were catching. In the clean water you could see clusters of them chasing the lures with mouths open showing all their beautiful teeth, it was truly an amazing day of being at the right place at the right time. During the early 90s it was not whether you'd catch macs but more about how many, I truly miss those days.

[stuckintherocks]

Jun 2, 2023 14:44:56 GMT -5 silverspoon said:

Well I'll go first, in the early 1990s you could walk out for miles before they took down the old bridge, everyone tried to get a hold of the shopping carts that would be left in the parking area - you couldn't drive out onto the bridge but had to park in the area right before the booth today. On a thanksgiving day I went out with my brother inlaw armed only with 1 ounce kastaway silver spoons and we caught so many large spanish macs, easily a solid hour of continuous strikes of medium to large macs, ended up leaving a pool of blood on the pavement that we still to this day refer to as to as "The Thanksgiving Day Massacre". I have pics for proof but no idea where they are at, it's been a long time. I do recall we had 22 macs in the cooler and released many fish we considered small in comparison to the biggins we were catching. In the clean water you could see clusters of them chasing the lures with mouths open showing all their beautiful teeth, it was truly an amazing day of being at the right place at the right time. During the early 90s it was not whether you'd catch macs but more about how many, I truly miss those days.

A beautiful story for what sounds like a helluva fun day ! I only started fishing skyway about 4 years ago, so I missed out on her “glory days” sometimes when I’m hunting information I’ll go to the earliest pages on this forum and see reports of guys catching 30 inch mackerel off the pier… would love to see some that big again locally some day

[fishfinderbill]

I too wish for the good old days. I remember in early 2000's my buddy and I fished and caught so many that we filled a small cooler. He said to me, "We have to quit because we have no more spoons, they've all been cut off. I said wait a minute and went looking the garbage cans can game up with a McDonald straw and rigged it with a treble hook and split shot and fished for an hour or so more.

[carlf]

I haven't fished the SSP-NSP enough to have any glory days but I had a few on the Gulf State Park Pier in Alabama.
Got into a spawning school of spadefish one day and caught at least a dozen the size of dinner plates. All on fish bites.
Caught a nice greenies one morning, put it on the hook and walked to the rail. Asked if there was any action before I cast, "nope" the guys day. Greenie hits the water, 12# king immediately nails it and my drag is singing!
A day of Fishing in a driving rain and catching axe handle Spanish macs on every cast on live finger mullet for 8 straight casts.

[fishsci]

Just realized that I have never started a new post and cant quickly find out how?.

However, maybe the link below is appropriate for this thread...by showing, how on even what might seem like a very slow day, is really going on.  It also shows how really good rigging and bait (the one in the post is first-class for pompano in the surf) can make a big difference between a good day and a bad one. 


www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpcLvyjF7Hgp

[saltybass]

Best night would have been 2015? during the snapper spawn on the north side. I took a nap after work and got up late to go for the high tide & moon. It wasn't actually crowded for a weekend night so I found a good sized area open between lights. Not much was happening until the tide started to move a little. That's when everything came alive. Snapper were coming up chasing bait with ladyfish. I let the first couple go that were around 10-12" because I had a bucket full of shrimp. Glad I did because the next one was big. The bite lasted about an hour and I ended up with all 5 between 16" and 20".
All were caught on live shrimp. Split shot rig on a light spinning rod and a slip rig on bottom.
It was the first time I had actual fillets of snapper caught from shore.

[stuckintherocks]

Jun 2, 2023 20:37:41 GMT -5 fishfinderbill said:

I too wish for the good old days. I remember in early 2000's my buddy and I fished and caught so many that we filled a small cooler. He said to me, "We have to quit because we have no more spoons, they've all been cut off. I said wait a minute and went looking the garbage cans can game up with a McDonald straw and rigged it with a treble hook and split shot and fished for an hour or so more.

Now that sounds like a blast !!

[stuckintherocks]

Jun 3, 2023 21:00:54 GMT -5 fishsci said:

Just realized that I have never started a new post and cant quickly find out how?.

However, maybe the link below is appropriate for this thread...by showing, how on even what might seem like a very slow day, is really going on.  It also shows how really good rigging and bait (the one in the post is first-class for pompano in the surf) can make a big difference between a good day and a bad one. 


www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpcLvyjF7Hgp

Fishci my friend, I believe you started your own post the other day titled, “ is it really the case that no one fished” or something along those lines! I’ve seen more than enough underwater videos to know that there is (mostly) always fish around, it’s just getting them to bite that’s the hard part !! Haha when I see the random hogfish or school master snapper caught off the pier it really gets me thinking about what those structures are holding

[stuckintherocks]

Jun 3, 2023 8:37:10 GMT -5 carlf said:

I haven't fished the SSP-NSP enough to have any glory days but I had a few on the Gulf State Park Pier in Alabama.
Got into a spawning school of spadefish one day and caught at least a dozen the size of dinner plates. All on fish bites.
Caught a nice greenies one morning, put it on the hook and walked to the rail. Asked if there was any action before I cast, "nope" the guys day. Greenie hits the water, 12# king immediately nails it and my drag is singing!
A day of Fishing in a driving rain and catching axe handle Spanish macs on every cast on live finger mullet for 8 straight casts.

I’ve heard great things about that pier and man that sounds like one helluva day ! A keeper King mackerel off a pier is actually one of my goals from skyway, seems like it’s a lot less common now a days unfortunately

[stuckintherocks]

Jun 5, 2023 12:02:59 GMT -5 saltybass said:

Best night would have been 2015? during the snapper spawn on the north side. I took a nap after work and got up late to go for the high tide & moon. It wasn't actually crowded for a weekend night so I found a good sized area open between lights. Not much was happening until the tide started to move a little. That's when everything came alive. Snapper were coming up chasing bait with ladyfish. I let the first couple go that were around 10-12" because I had a bucket full of shrimp. Glad I did because the next one was big. The bite lasted about an hour and I ended up with all 5 between 16" and 20".
All were caught on live shrimp. Split shot rig on a light spinning rod and a slip rig on bottom.
It was the first time I had actual fillets of snapper caught from shore.

Maaaann!!! As a fellow snapper enthusiast that sounds like a dream to me! 20in snapper from the pier is another dream fish of mine, my biggest is 16. A saw a photo the other day of a guy with a large schoolmaster snapper from the pier, man that is a cool catch !

[stuckintherocks]

Thanks everyone for the replies !!! Tonight around 10pm til about 10am tomorrow is my time.. the beautiful thing about fishing is every single time you go you have a shot at having your best day at skyway pier !!
Some of my dream fish off the pier are;
20+ in. Mangrove
30+ in gag
20+lb kingfish
25+ inch Spanish Mack
Very large cobia.

I know those are all dreams for a reason, but at the end of the day you never know what could happen !!

[navygmc]

My personal best Spanish Mackerel day on the South Side... 80 fish up to 27" on 1/2 oz Cotton Cordell spoons.
My best ever day for Spanish Mackerel...Naples pier... 278.

[seabird]

I have not had what one would call a best day at the Skyway piers. I have had better catches of macks at Ft Desoto, large redfish at the former Redington long pier and plentiful catches of grunt and other panfish at Sand Key when the piers were present.
The skyway is convenient for parking and fishing but it hasn't been the best place for me.

[shot33gun9]

My best day at SSP was before the Pelicans took over

[stuckintherocks]

Jun 8, 2023 18:01:45 GMT -5 shot33gun9 said:

My best day at SSP was before the Pelicans took over

There was a time before the pelicans took over ?

[shot33gun9]

LOL, actually there was a time when I could fish there without 100s of pelicans buzzing back and forth along the piers and it hasn't been that long ago. It's just easy pickens with all that bait there, the word got out and they came in droves

[stuckintherocks]

Jun 8, 2023 6:58:44 GMT -5 seabird said:

I have not had what one would call a best day at the Skyway piers. I have had better catches of macks at Ft Desoto, large redfish at the former Redington long pier and plentiful catches of grunt and other panfish at Sand Key when the piers were present.
The skyway is convenient for parking and fishing but it hasn't been the best place for me.

I’ve heard stories about that redington pier, wasn’t it also a hotspot for tarpon and kingfish ? I never got to fish the sand key piers either, but heard that was a great night time spot… seems like I’m a day late and a dollar short for all this Florida fishin ! Has anybody here ever fished the green bridge pier in palmetto ?

[shot33gun9]

I have not fished the green bridge, have akways heard it is good for sheepshead

[stuckintherocks]

Jun 9, 2023 21:34:04 GMT -5 shot33gun9 said:

I have not fished the green bridge, have akways heard it is good for sheepshead

I have not checked it out yet but might soon, most of the time I get to fish is at night so it is tough for me to beat the convince of skyway like seabird had said earlier.. that green bridge doesn’t have parking on the bridge it’s self but it does look pretty well lit up, and in some possibly decent water ? Might be worth a try for someone like me..

[shot33gun9]

Just remember you will be in Palmetto, no way I would leave my vehicle and drag my gear on to that bridge at night, and maybe not during the daylight hrs