# Report from Skyway Pier



## soup4smitty (Sep 13, 2014)

Ok here is a pier fishing report, but from a bit south of P-Cola. I thought I would post my results from the Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier in St Pete, maybe a sign of whats on the way here. The Skyway pier is the best pier I have ever fished, I love fishing there, and this time of year the action there is really heating up. I was in St Pete last week and was able to hit it twice.
Last Sunday, after leaving the PGA tournament at Innisbrook I headed directly for the Skyway for a beautiful sunset and some relaxing fishing under the moonlight. I had my two lines set up by 8, after catching some of the abundant greenbacks under the bridge. I put a whole live greenback on one line and cut chunks for the other pole, that had a two hook drop rig. Over the next 4 hours I never had a chance to sit and relax. Steady catching. I caught way to many cats but in between were a mix of odds and ends with 6 sharks around two to three feet. bonnetheads, black tips and sharpnose. I lost a big one that I fought for about ten minutes but it finally wrapped around a pylon and snapped my line. I was reeling in a catfish when a huge shark jumped after it just as I was pulling it out of the water, pretty cool.
I fished again Thursday afternoon / evening before returning to P-cola. When I got there a few people were slaying sheephead. There were massive schools of them passing under the pier in the shallow water. I was amazed how big the schools were, it was crazy! A couple guys were slaying them, the rest of us not so much. The rest of us were using shrimp, the slayers were using fiddlers. So I went off the pier and dug up a couple dozen fiddlers and joined the fun. I caught 6 sheephead, using the set up Fish On had showed me a couple weeks earlier on the Navarre pier. I kept three that were close to 18 inches. After some sheep head fun I moved down the pier and set myself up for other fish in deeper water. I don't know where the greenbacks went, but there were none to be found. I used dead shrimp and pinfish. On the shrimp I caught grouper and mangrove snapper, but didn't keep any. On the pinfish I again caught a few sharks, I kept one that was about three feet, and packed up around 11PM.
Over all the fishing was great. I spoke to many other fisherman and saw many nice fish caught. I saw two nice king macs caught and lots of nice Spanish macs. I saw some decent mangrove snappers caught as well. 
I have never fished the piers around here in the spring, but I hope this is a sign of what is headed this way.


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## jcallaham (Dec 13, 2009)

lot of action over there,sounds a whole lot better than what we have here , all though things are starting to pick up.


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## murfpcola (Aug 28, 2012)

Sounds awesome. Have driven by it and thought the area looks awesome with all the mangroves.


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## RandyGuy (Dec 20, 2014)

I'm ready for the action.


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