When it comes to pier fishing 10% of pier anglers catch 90% of the fish, but this isn’t just because they are better pier anglers than everyone else. It’s more along the line that the 10% of pier anglers are the ones who really put in the time and spend the most time out there. The fish being around the pier is never a guaranteed thing, you could hear a good report from the day before and show up the next day to find it absolutely dead with no one catching anything. Sometimes it takes all of 30 minutes for the fish to move on from the pier. I planned a last-minute trip down to Panama City Beach to go fish on the County Pier in the back half of October. I kept an eye on the reports and asked my friends down there to try and time it to the king mackerel. But even with reports and favorable weather conditions, as I said earlier a day, or even 30 minutes can make the difference between limiting out or struggling all day.
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The reason I chose to head down in October is that it is considered a good month to fish the pier. The heat of the summer is gone, water temps are in a more comfortable zone again, and the bait is usually thick around the pier. So following my friend Sam’s weekly fishing reports I saw a couple of good weeks of fishing and a steady weather pattern, and thought it would be a good time to make a last-minute trip down. So, I loaded all my gear into the truck, booked a hotel, and slept for a few hours before heading out around 3 am to start the 6-hour drive down to the coast. After a long uneventful drive mostly in the dark, I got to the city proper around 8:30 am with the time zone change. Before hitting the pier I had to make a couple stops, to grab some live bait, get a couple of odds and ends, and visit a good friend. After getting all that done I got to the County Pier parking lot around 9:30 am and already saw people leaving with coolers that had the tails of king mackerel sticking out of them.
This was great news, or at least I thought it was. I had made it on a good day for kings it looked like. Talking to one of the guys he told me kings had been on fire that morning since sunrise. Several people had limited out and over 18 kings had been brought up over the rail. But then he told me that the bite shut down around 8:30. That there were still Spanish mackerel and bluefish hanging around but the king mackerel had made themselves scarce. But even still I had nothing better to do, I drove all the way down to fish. So that’s what I was going to do. So, I paid my $6 at the pier house and headed towards the end, stopping here and there to take a look into the emerald water to look for bait or just to chat with other fishermen I know.
Once I got to the end, I did see plenty of people still fishing for kings but I did not see a single king get hooked up while I was rigging up my rods. So instead of trying to fish some frozen cigar minnows, I decided to try and make some bait with a sabiki rig. While targeting some live cigs I ended up with a more uncommon bait, a goggle eye. These are high-dollar baits down in south Florida, with a dozen live goggle eyes costing about $90 and $45 for a dozen fresh dead ones. They look similar to cigar minnows but have a deeper body and larger eye. They are also a bit hardier on the hook. So I got him rigged up on my king leader and slung him out on the west of the pier. Letting it swim and take line to go further out and hopefully get munched by a king. I kept the line on my index finger instead of the roller as I did this. So if a king did come by and eat the goggle eye, I could give it slack and let it take the whole bait down with no tension. Then once I was sure it ate the whole bait I could put the line on the roller to set the hook.
With this premium quality bait, I was hoping to entice one of the scarce kings far out from the pier. After 5 minutes of letting the goggle eye swim out, it started to freak out. I could feel it trying to run from something through the line. So when I felt the hit I gave it slack, letting it get swallowed up. Afterward, I set the hook, hoping for that drag-screaming run of a king. Instead, the drag just clicked a couple of times and fought a little. I thought I must have missed the king and just started reeling in, but the fish fought a little. So I thought the goggle eye was still on there, but I needed to check it out just to see what condition it was in. After cranking a little I noticed it was actually a fish and not my bait kicking around so I brought it in, disappointingly a smallish bluefish had eaten the bait.
I wasn’t the only angler having problems with the bluefish though, it looked like a school of them had pushed in and started to eat up all the live baits that were being cast out. The blues also seemed to push the baitfish out from the pier at the same time making it harder to get live bait. This went on for a couple of hours with not much action happening. Until my friend George finally got a solid bite from a king mackerel, it took a big run in the beginning and then started to take him back and forth across the end of the pier. He had to be a bit more gentle with the king due to his lighter shock leader of 15# monofilament. But after several passes, he finally wore the fish down and got it pier side. I had my pier gaff ready for it, and gaffed the king as soon as George slide the fish over my gaff in the water. We then pulled that king up and over the rail.
Since I gaffed the fish for him George offered to let me have the king mackerel, which I gladly accepted. But we had to wait till Sam came out onto the pier before I could gut the fish. George was fishing in the month-long tournament on the pier for King Mackerel and wanted to weigh his fish for it. So to keep it from drying out and losing any weight, we stuck it on ice in my kill bag. But the king was so long the tail was still sticking out of the bag, so I wrapped that in a wet rag to keep it from drying out. We waited till a little past noon for Sam to arrive, as soon as he did we took the king down to the pier house to weigh it on the scale stand. The fish came in around 21 pounds, but was still 6 pounds shy of George’s 2nd place fish. We all headed back out to the end, where I promptly gutted the king help let the blood drain out.
I kept fishing till well past 2 but saw the ice I had bought that morning for the kill bag was melting off. So I thought it was a good time to head off the pier and get some ice for my big cooler to store the king mackerel in. Also I was starving and needed to eat something. I asked my friends Sam and Ivan if I could leave my gear on their carts, which they said yes to, and then headed off the pier with just the kill bag and king. I got back to the truck and drove over to Buddy Gandy’s Seafood Market back over the bridge in Panama City for ice. They have some of the cheapest ice in town, filled up my 165qt cooler for $10. It would have cost me over $40 dollars if I was using an ice machine and even more if I went to a store. After packing the king in the ice at Buddy Gandy’s I made a small stop for some lunch on my way back to the pier. I got back out to the end of the pier and found that another king had been caught while I was gone, and shortly after arriving Sam also hooked up on a king. It being later in the day Sam had a bit of trouble dealing with the tourist crowd trying to go up and down the rail while fighting the fish, but after a short while he got the fish next to the pier. I had my gaff ready again but I was a little slow on yanking the rope and stuck the fish in the softer belly area. I knew it was a bad gaff shot but unable to make another I had to just try and get the fish up on the deck. Halfway up the gaff tine ripped out but thankfully same was ready for this was in free spool.
We got the king situated and stuck a good gaff shot into it this time and brought it up on the deck. Ivan was especially happy with this because Sam said the king was his to take home for his wife. This fish came out to be about 19 lbs a solid fish. I kept fishing for kings for the rest of the day and had only one bite. Which of course happened when i was just messing around with my line on the roller. I had a half-dead cigar minnow on and I was just jigging it near the pier messing with the bluefish, when from out under the pier a king came up and slammed it. Or course my line being on the roller put tension on it and the king dropped the cig after just taking a chunk of it. After that, besides some bluefish and ladyfish, it stayed slow till sunset. There was no repeat of the morning’s bite. So, I called it quits, I needed to get some things from Walmart as well as get some dinner. Day 1 of my pier fishing trip was over, but I still had another day and a half left. Better go to bed early to get out on the pier at 5 am the next day.
