# Gulf State Park Pier, Gulf Shores, AL Saturday May 12



## ChileRelleno (Jul 7, 2012)

Up at 3am, drive the hour to Gulf Shores, wait for J&M to flip the sign to Open at 5am, shoot to the pier, arrive just in time to deck a stud Spanish and for the bite to go colder than frigid Eskimo titty.
Okay, maybe not that cold, but close enough.

The mackerel bite was reportedly pretty good on the Octi from 430-630am +/- with about a dozen Kings and numerous nice axe handle Spanish.
Bait of choice was Cigs, live or frozen.
After that the Kings shut down almost entirely and the Spanish were sporadic at best.

Last King I saw hit the deck was about 8am, and I think that there was maybe one or two more for the rest of the day.
The Spaniard bite for the rest of the day was here and there and not too often, a run and 2-3 fish would hit the deck and then gone.
I did manage to put two in the cooler and was gifted a couple.

Most of the day it was mixed Hardtail and Ladyfish blitzes, with ever present trophy class Remoras and a few thick Blues mixed in.

By lunch time the wind had picked up Southeast by South, the current switched around from West to East and it looked like a great day for Macks, but it unfortunately wasn't.
Late in the afternoon I hooked into a monster Spanish on a Cig, but I had my drag too tight and POP!
Pretty damned disheartening on a slow day.
But at least, as always, there was some excellent camaraderie to help pass the time.

Sharks were present in the AM but skipped off hand in hand with the Mackerel when they left.
Saw one big blow up of Jacks that had about a half acre of water flying everywhere, but they were just out of casting distance West and South of the T.
I think 2 got hooked up and none landed that I saw.
No schools of Reds today... Bummer.I did manage to put one or two in the cooler and was gifted another couple.
Saw one Cobe hooked and lost, a few Cownose rays, some fat Bluefish and those dagblasted Poor Man's Tarpon were abundant for a while too.
People were bored and started having what fun they could find with the Ladyfish, and with reasonably light tackle they are very entertaining.

Finally gave it up about 6pm and went to drown my shrimp in the shallows.

Word had it that the Pompano had been obligingly happy to eat today.
And I didn't have a freelined shrimp in the water for five minutes before I had a really nice Pomp on, and after giving it a good look at pierside it promptly snapped a weak knot/spot and said "Sayanara sucker!"
But I sealed the deal on a 14" Pomp not ten minutes later.
From then till dark there were several decent to danged fine Pomps to hit the deck.

I didn't see a one Speck and it wasn't for lack of looking or blind casting.

But the frikkin frackin Ladyfishes were nailing anything that moved.
As were the Hardtails and Hardheads, there were some small Spades too mixed in.

Around 8pm my freelined shrimp got ate at the 3rd light pole, and it was game on with an unknown adversary.
He was on my new Shimano Teramar rod (6'6", Med/XFast, 6-12#) paired with a Penn 4400SS/10lb line.
It was either pop him off or let him pull drag and head South.

It took 15 minutes and almost to the T to see it was a Big Ugly, and he wasn't tiring anytime soon.
Fishy freight train with a full head of steam, a crowd of Touristas and Googans to watch the show, and away we went.
Good golly how much crap can people pile on the rails and next to it at night?
Ridiculous, I just started wading through peoples stuff who didn't react fast enough.

Another 30 minutes and almost to the Octi we finally netted him, got him weighed at 31lbs 7ozs, I released him and once he caught his breath he swam off.

I have to give Shimano credit on this Teramar rod, I had that sucker folded over almost doubled, even accidentally high sticked it twice trying to go over people, and it performed great.
Good rod, it took some serious abuse and held together.
Caught on 10lb main, 12lb FC leader, #10 treble 2X and a tiny shrimp and just barely hooked in the edge of a lip.

Man he did a number on me, thankful for modern Rx drugs, better living through chemistry.


----------



## captken (Feb 24, 2008)

*I'll bet you can make the Bluefish taste good.*

How do you plan to cook it?


----------



## ChileRelleno (Jul 7, 2012)

Check the recipes forum.


----------



## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Fine report. Daylight to dark - I remember those days. Not anymore.


----------



## Offshore365 (May 9, 2018)

Navarre pier was the same Spanish at day light maybe 5 caught then the lady fish invasion started stopped at 8am then at 2 pm they came back sharks came behind them everyone was forced out of the water by life guards shit day of fishing


----------

