# Gulf State Park Pier - 8/14/10



## PAWGhunter (Feb 3, 2010)

Fished the pier today and overall a great day. I arrived around 11am after sleeping in and went straight to the middle section so my daughter and wife had a nice shaded area to stay out of the heat. I was looking for hardtails, but all I could sabiki up was herring. Gave all the herring I caught to the guy fishing next to me. He was vacationing from Arkansas so I was more than happy to supply him with bait if it made his vacation better....AND IT DID! First cast he took with the live herring on he caught a 23" speck!!!









Only pic I got all day too You could tell it made his day, so I was happy not catching anything at the time. He went back to fishing and had a few misses...then he casted out and as soon as his bait hit the water he had caught a tarpon!! It made one jump and went directly under the pier and dragged half his line with him. Unfortunatly it broke him off, but he got to see it along with the rest of us for a second. It was only about 4ft, but fat! Then he got into the bluefish(good for me, bait). I ended up leaving him once it got too crowded around the area after everyone seen him pulling in fish after fish. Before I left though I sabikied up as much bait as I could for him. I moved further down the pier and set up myself for some big toothy fish. Was using whole hardtail(dead) and whole bluefish(fresh). My whole hardtail got taken by something big then ran straight at the pier before jumping and snapping my 65lb powerpro The whole bluefish produced a 4ft blacktip(very fat). He got wrapped up in the braid, so I attemped to bring it up on the pier with the drop net, but he bit right through it and dropped through...lol Good news is he untangled himself and got away unharmed. Bad news is I need a new drop net, I sliced my fingers open on the braid and he bit through my treble hooks(king rig).









When wife/daughter came back to see me after going to got some food, they told me that my vacationing friend from earlier had just pulled up a big bull red too:thumbup: Anyways, wife made me leave, but I asked for 15 extra minutes and played with the gotcha for ladyfish. Good day.


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## Billcollector (Oct 16, 2009)

Just a fair warning with the bringing up of sharks on the Gulf State Pier. Don't Do It. They will have you arrested for doing it. In the state of Alabama it is illegal to land a shark on state property, or the beach. They have gotten really serious about this, especially if Chuck is there. Just heed my warning if you continue to shark fish from the pier, be prepared to be harassed by the staff and possibly be asked to leave the pier.


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## PAWGhunter (Feb 3, 2010)

I would risk all that to bring up the shark to make sure he survives. 65# powerpro wrapped around you ain't no joke


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## Billcollector (Oct 16, 2009)

I agree. I got alot of the PP fishermen tying in a piece of shock mono into their line so that they can break off the fish without having to bring them up.


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## Nopierpressure (Jul 27, 2010)

Billcollector said:


> I agree. I got alot of the PP fishermen tying in a piece of shock mono into their line so that they can break off the fish without having to bring them up.


 
Good idea! :thumbup:


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