# Fort Pickens Pompano



## SHAKE N' BAKE (Jul 31, 2012)

Me and a friend decided to try Fort Pickens for some pompano on Saturday and it worked out quite well. We got there around 2 o'clock and stayed until around 6 or so. Shortly after getting all of the lines baited up, one rod goes off and we land a nice 13 inch pompano. From there on it's steady action catching 8 pompano all measuring right around 13 inches. There was schools of bait everywhere and we noticed a couple boats catching redfish down from us not far off the beach. We were about to decide to pack it up when I noticed one of my rods doubled over and the drag screaming. Right off the bat I figured it was a large ray until I could feel some head shakes and it was not clinging to the bottom like rays typically do. Then we saw a tail and I knew immediately it was bull red. After a tough fight on light pompano tackle we get it to the surf only to have the line break while we were pulling it up on the sand and the fish swim away when a wave washed up. We guessed it to be a little under 40 inches. Right after that we saw a tail moving along and we thought it was my redfish showing his self but as it got closer we realized it was a shark. It turned out to be about a 7 foot hammerhead that came probably 15 feet from the beach. Anyways, it was a great day and will make for a great dinner!:thumbup:


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## pompanostradamus (Oct 17, 2007)

Wow what a haul. Outstanding!


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## fishin for pompanos (May 10, 2012)

Hey SHAKE N' BAKE all you need to do now is FILET N' FRY....Great catch there.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Nice mess of pomps ! :thumbsup:


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## fishmagician (Jun 4, 2014)

What bait were you using???


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## jayman (Nov 11, 2014)

nice pompano, use to catch them down in outer bank, NC


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## SHAKE N' BAKE (Jul 31, 2012)

fishmagician said:


> What bait were you using???


I was using fresh dead shrimp mostly. I only caught 1 pompano on a sand flea and everything else was on the peeled shrimp.


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## Pilar (Oct 28, 2014)

Pompano slayer!


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## ALtoAK (Feb 9, 2015)

Can't wait until I figure out what it is I'm doing wrong so I can get in on some of this pompano action.

Also can't wait for this crappy weather to clear up.


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## SHAKE N' BAKE (Jul 31, 2012)

ALtoAK, one thing that I have figured out lately is that most all of the bites I'm getting are right off the beach about 15 yards. I will usually try two lines far out and two lines close in and the lines closer in are getting more bites. Try that if you haven't already and see if that don't help.


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