# 3 mile bridge (pensacola bay pier) 7/20 - 7/21



## captainblack (Jul 4, 2010)

Got there a little before midnight and fished until about 10am this morning. The fishing went through phases.

At first it was big cats, then after a while stingrays started giving us a little fun. Not sure what it was after that because it kept spitting the hook but something came through making some big splashes and would gulp down our live mullet and take off HARD but spit the hook before we could set it. 

Then a school of huge LYs came through and two of em ran face first into a couple of our hooks and snagged themselves into them and became bait. One was about 12 inches the other 14 or so. 

Had one of those on as bait and hooked up on a blacktip but he broke me off after a while. 

Sun came up, TROUT, lots of trout. White trout and a few nice specks that got off, only one speck landed a couple inches too small, but dozens of white trout 14 to 20 inches long some really nice ones. used one whole as bait and hooked up on another shark, not sure what kind only saw it for a second before it took off on me. Fought it for about 20 minutes and got cut off up the mainline from the leader on something underwater.

Then it turned into croaker and pinfish, then the last hour nothing, not a bite from anything.

All in all LOTS of fish all night despite a lot of people telling me they haven't been catching anything out there for 3 days

Oh and to top it off, snagged on an old rod still in alright shape that was WAAAYYY out off the end, at least 60 to 70 yards out up against the 3 mile bridge, someone must have got it pulled over by a fish at least a few weeks ago, although not uncommon, ive seen guys catch other guys rods a couple times but it was still pretty neat.


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## Baitcaster (Oct 4, 2007)

thanks for the post . since it's just too hot for me to fish the skyscraper I might give the new bridge a try .


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## Gulflady (Jun 19, 2010)

Great report, thanks for sharing it. Hope you can put that rod to some use.  :thumbup:


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## Heartbreaker (Jun 30, 2009)

this is what my grandsons dad would say: WOW!!!!!!!!!!


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## foxbo (Oct 4, 2007)

Nice report. Looks like I might be coming back down in October (was there in June) and looking forward to fishing there again. Last time I wore out the white trout and croakers.


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## captainblack (Jul 4, 2010)

Went out there again tonight, well last night I guess its morning now. At first it was just hardhead after hardhead using 4 inch mullet, thought about calling it and trying somewhere else and then caught a small speck, then started hitting white trout one after another, so I thought maybe I would try my luck with the sharks.

Started throwing out cut strips of croaker and the trout were loving it, saw guys down the pier from me not getting bites other than occasional hardheads but I seemed to be getting a 10 to 15 inch white trout no more than 30 seconds after the bait hit the water.

I would get one, stick a hook through the tail and throw it right back out and wouldnt you know it sharks came in for dinner. Hooked up on a nice one at least 4 feet, looked like a black tip but the under the tail (anal fin i guess) looked black when it jumped so it may have been a spinner but 5 minutes in and he kinked and chomped and broke the leader. Got to see him do a little bit of acrobatic jumping and splashing by the pilings before he got away at least.

Rerigged, threw another 12 inch trout out and within 10 minutes had another one but he ran and fought for a minute then line went slack and all I had was a fish head. This happened again 2 more times.

Then the trout had vanished, so I threw the last one I had out there and set the clicker on and sat back in my chair and nothing happened for about 20 minutes then finally the reel screamed a little, but couldnt set the hook, pulled up a mangled piece of meat that was a trout when I threw it out there.

Another day another fish i guess, I spent 45 minutes getting pinfish nibbles and watching a couple guys on both sides of me get nothing while i got nothing so i thought it was about time to call it a night.


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## Croaker Chris (Feb 22, 2009)

Great report... Thanks for sharing....


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## Saltfisher (Mar 26, 2009)

Nice report. What kind of rod and reel was it? I didnt have the drag set right and something broke a rod holder and stole my rod about a month ago there. :wallbash: :wallbash:


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## captainblack (Jul 4, 2010)

caught another rod tonight, senator rod for some reason no reel, its missing one of the guides im guessing it flew off a boat its in pretty bad shape, project rod, the last one was a tidewater not sure what reel, the reel was pretty corroded. a guy i was talking to the other day said hes snagged 5 rods out there, 3 on the old pier pre ivan and two since the new one opened, moral of the story check your drags or bungee down your rods lol

once again tonight, one NICE blacktip a good 5 footer (this is where in hindsight i say take my own advice) had the drag off with the clicker on it started clicking away i flipped the swith, drag too tight, he ran, the line popped

45 minutes later, after getting my trout chewed with no hookset, the last half a trout i threw out was picked up by a 3 to 4 footer, fought him for 15 to 20 minutes and he decided he would go right under me and around the pilings and off went another one

im thinking of investing in another pier/bridge gaff hook and throwing it on a nice long rope to avoid this happening again


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