# Pier fishing help please!!! -16 yr old noob :(-



## FunkyHomosapien (Jun 10, 2014)

I'm about to get semi serious about peir fishing. I'll also try surf fishing if I really get someone that knows what they're doing, but pier fishing is #1 so far. I'm sick of catching little bitty whiting and pin fish, and I'm ready to slay something bigger. I'm 16, and my dad isn't very "fishing inclined". Basically what I'm saying is he's clueless when it comes to fishing. He means well and I'd never tell him that lol. I need to know where to go exactly, what kind of rig and bait, what time, what days are good, what conditions are good. Everything. I have poles, I'm not restricting to just spanish and pomps, I'm after sheepshead, king macks, reds, anything that I can get from a pier that'll put up a fight. I'm catch and release, so don't worry if you've got a secret spot I won't fish it out, or tell anyone. Biggest fish I've ever caught using my dads frivolous methods was a nice sized spanish, and it was really sheer luck. We used to catch lots of white trout where we went, but it got closed because of insurance reasons which sucks. There's a lot of other things a 16 year old could be learning how to do, most of them not good, so any help would be like really appreciated. Details are huge to me on stuff like this. Thank you very very much, anyone who can help. I'll definitely be around this forum a lot if I get good feedback. No hate please. :thumbup:

-Dalton H


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## weedline (Aug 20, 2011)

best bet is to go out there make friends and fish thats the way most learned start with the tackle u have and figure out what u want look on the how to page in pier fishing


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## Jackin' 'Em Up (Dec 31, 2013)

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f35/want-know-about-pier-fishing-read-110669/


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## fairpoint (May 9, 2013)

Go to the pier and pay attention to who is catching fish.....


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## Mike Moore (Feb 10, 2010)

Get you a decent spinning combo and some gotcha lures. Spanish fish up and down the pier and make friends in the process. Some will be helpful with the learning curve. You can learn much while observing too. Best of luck and remember the future noobs once your a certified pier rat yourself.


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## FunkyHomosapien (Jun 10, 2014)

Mike Moore said:


> Get you a decent spinning combo and some gotcha lures. Spanish fish up and down the pier and make friends in the process. Some will be helpful with the learning curve. You can learn much while observing too. Best of luck and remember the future noobs once your a certified pier rat yourself.


Thanks man. I'll definitely be in the loop to help any noobies once I learn the ropes for myself. Any ideas about pompano?


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## Chapman5011 (Mar 7, 2013)

Best Advise,

When at the pier,
Don't stand next to Trevor Wright or Michael Clanton,
or else you will learn nothing, because no one will talk to you.







.


.


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## Randall2point0 (Feb 11, 2011)

Wirelessly posted

Lol ^


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## BananaTom (Feb 16, 2008)

FunkyHomosapien said:


> I'm about to get semi serious about peir fishing.


You should get serious about pier fishing.

There is allot of "good character" that has been built on that pier. 

I love going out there, and just hanging, and watching.

Never fished it myself yet, but I can see myself doing it soon.


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## BananaTom (Feb 16, 2008)

FunkyHomosapien said:


> Any ideas about pompano?


Some of the most memorable fishing I have done.

Compared to boat fishing.

Boat fishing, a couple of guys, catch a fish, a pat on the back, a pic, and maybe someone hands you a beer. You spend allot of money.

Pompano, once you learn, cost a little money. You sit on the beach, watch the scenery walk by, and about the time you catch your third, there is a sea of bikini's asking questions.

Then when that 6th one comes in, one might even ask you, "Hey you got someone to help you eat all that fish"

Now, I am married, so my reply is 

"Why yes I do, but thank you for your concern"


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## eym_sirius (Oct 17, 2007)

My advice is to take what the gulf is willing to give up. In other words, you have to fish for the ones that are biting. If nobody is catching cobia or pompano or any other specific species, then why fish for them on that occasion? From now through fall, you can usually catch kings and spanish.
Rigging is critical and species-specific, usually, so you don't use the same bait and rigging for kings as you do spanish. When you fish for pompanos, you want to use florocarbon leader, never steel leader like you would for kings and spanish (although, for spanish, you can get away with 40ish florocarbon). I'd rig four rods, one for Kings, with steel leader and a treble hook, on which I'd use a frozen cigar minnow or a sabiki-caught scaled sardine or live cig. On the one for spanish, I'd throw a gotcha plug first, then a small scaled sardine or drift a half fresh-dead cig (again, on singlestrand light wire leader). On the third rod, I'd rig a "carolina rig" with a 1/4 - 1/2 oz egg sinker above a swivel, tied to a 20" length of florocarbon leader with a small (1/0 or smaller) circle hook. I'd use live shrimp/fresh dead and peeled shrimp for pompano or with that same rig I'd use live shrimp or fiddler crabs (2 of them because they help hide the hook) next to the pilings for sheepshead. I bring my own pier net because those large sheepshead are difficult to hand-line and there's always the possibility that you'll lose your fish when he's up in the air for a long time! Throughout the summer, you'll be able to use that pomp rig on whiting, redfish, flounder, black drum. The gotcha will catch mostly spanish, bluefish, and ladyfish. The king rig will catch kings, of course, and an occasional jack crevalle, barracuda, and shark. Sometimes you'll catch a really big spanish, which will have a black blotch on the dorsal fin (closest to the head). That's one way of determining that it's a large spanish and not a juvenile king mackerel, which may have spots typically seen on a spanish. Keep a measuring tape in your box, since there are size restrictions on most of these species.


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## FunkyHomosapien (Jun 10, 2014)

eym_sirius said:


> My advice is to take what the gulf is willing to give up. In other words, you have to fish for the ones that are biting. If nobody is catching cobia or pompano or any other specific species, then why fish for them on that occasion? From now through fall, you can usually catch kings and spanish.
> Rigging is critical and species-specific, usually, so you don't use the same bait and rigging for kings as you do spanish. When you fish for pompanos, you want to use florocarbon leader, never steel leader like you would for kings and spanish (although, for spanish, you can get away with 40ish florocarbon). I'd rig four rods, one for Kings, with steel leader and a treble hook, on which I'd use a frozen cigar minnow or a sabiki-caught scaled sardine or live cig. On the one for spanish, I'd throw a gotcha plug first, then a small scaled sardine or drift a half fresh-dead cig (again, on singlestrand light wire leader). On the third rod, I'd rig a "carolina rig" with a 1/4 - 1/2 oz egg sinker above a swivel, tied to a 20" length of florocarbon leader with a small (1/0 or smaller) circle hook. I'd use live shrimp/fresh dead and peeled shrimp for pompano or with that same rig I'd use live shrimp or fiddler crabs (2 of them because they help hide the hook) next to the pilings for sheepshead. I bring my own pier net because those large sheepshead are difficult to hand-line and there's always the possibility that you'll lose your fish when he's up in the air for a long time! Throughout the summer, you'll be able to use that pomp rig on whiting, redfish, flounder, black drum. The gotcha will catch mostly spanish, bluefish, and ladyfish. The king rig will catch kings, of course, and an occasional jack crevalle, barracuda, and shark. Sometimes you'll catch a really big spanish, which will have a black blotch on the dorsal fin (closest to the head). That's one way of determining that it's a large spanish and not a juvenile king mackerel, which may have spots typically seen on a spanish. Keep a measuring tape in your box, since there are size restrictions on most of these species.


Thanks man definitely appreciate it


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