Feast or Famine: October Pier Fishing in Panama City Beach – Part 2
Eugene L. 11.30.23
After missing the kingfish bite by just 30 minutes to an hour on the first day, I planned on making sure to not miss it this time. For the second day of pier fishing, I made sure I was up early before the sun was up. I got to the parking lot by 5 am to make sure I had plenty of time to get out to the end before sunrise. As I loaded up my pier cart I noticed the wind was blowing a good bit so of course it was time to put on my Grundens charter bib and a hoodie. Even with it being in the upper 60s it was still a bit chilly with how humid it was. Once I was all set it was time to go out to the end, so I paid my $6 and started walking. The first thing I noticed on the way out was how many people were walking out with me. The end of the pier was pretty packed, especially considering it was a Wednesday. Word had spread pretty quick about the good kingfish bite the day before so everyone of course had to come out.
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I had some frozen cigar minnows in my kill bag, but even still my first goal once out at the end was to catch some live bait. So I spent most of the time before sunrise walking around the end trying to find some bait without much luck. I even lost one of my sabikis to a pelican that flew out from under the pier. But besides some incredibly small cigar minnows and a few hardtail, I didn’t have much luck in the bait department. Once the first rays of sunlight started peaking up over the horizon a lot of people started throwing out baits for kings, while others throwing large long-cast topwater plugs.
We were all hoping for the kings to come flooding back in like yesterday but it didnt happen this morning. Instead, we had a small rush of Bonita, Spanish mackerel, and ladyfish come through for all of 15 minutes before the dolphins came through and scared them off. There was a big blow-up on a hooked ladyfish when a barracuda attacked it and ate half of it off the plug. Then a big loggerhead sea turtle came by and ate the rest of it.
Besides a bluefish here and there it was pretty dead for the next couple hours on the end of the pier. As the morning went on more and more people started to leave. So at least some space started opening up at the end on the rail. So with more space opening up, I started throwing some new plugs from Berkley Fishing to test them out. My favorite for the day was the Berkley Saltwater Juke 128, a pretty solid lipped plug to work on the pier. It has good action and digs in pretty well with its lip. For fishing it off the pier I was casting it out as far as I could then just working it like a jerk bait back towards the pier. Only thing is I’d wish they’d have a long cast version or a slow sink model, that would be perfect for piers and bridges.
I tied it on heavy fluorocarbon originally but when the bluefish suddenly came in real thick, I switched over to 20lb seven-strand wire. And when I say thick, I mean couldn’t get a bait past them thick. It was a massive school that hung around the pier for a few hours it felt like. I mean they weren’t the biggest fish but on medium tackle, they were loads of fun to target. And after hours of no bites, the bluefish were a good change of pace.
As the day went on the bluefish bite still held pretty consistent, they’d be in a frenzy for 20 minutes then stop for 10. Then start right back up, this cycle repeated for the rest of the day with several people limiting out on bluefish. We even had some bonus schools of Spanish mackerel and Bonita come by. But they never stayed for long giving you maybe one or two casts at them before disappearing. I had a pretty solid bag of fish for what started off as such a slow day. For those wondering about the lone ladyfish, I kept that for a specific recipe that I had not made before in mind, that catch and cook will be coming pretty soon.
After catching plenty of bluefish on my medium tackle I wanted to switch it up with some lighter tackle fun with a small hex-jig. And of course, on my first cast with it, a seagull flies right into my line. I try to flip the line off its wing while it’s still in the air but no such luck. It ends up getting the wing wrapped and I have to bring the bird up to untangle it. I threw a rag on its head to calm it down and then took the loops of braid off the wing. It flew off as soon as I took the rag off its head. This was the 4th bird for me on this trip, they all know the winter is coming so they are very active around the pier this time of year trying to fatten up for the winter when pickings are slim for them.
After getting the seagull untangled, I did catch the last couple of bluefish to fill out my limit on them. While the bluefish were fun I couldn’t specifically target them anymore so it was time to go after kings again. The bait situation got a little bit better with some cigar minnows showing up, so I started free-lining one out but not much luck. I kept fishing until around 4 or 5 pm without much luck besides a remora or two. Also, the wind started to die down, seeing that as a sign I decided it was time to call it a day and go get some dinner. But on the way out I see George who had left a bit earlier than me stopped near the 1st T of the pier. The Spanish mackerel had decided to make a last-minute showing right as the sun was going down. They were hitting small jerk baits rigged behind bubbles. So I rigged one up too and got some bonus Spanish mackerel for the cooler as the sun was setting.
The Spanish stayed around pretty steady until the sun was almost completely set, from then on it was mostly ladyfish. So instead of dealing with them, I decided it was better to gut the remaining Spanish mackerel when there was still some light out and rinse off all my gear. After which I did really leave this time, no stopping again. Even with a terrible start to Day 2 of pier fishing on the County, what were “annoying” on Day 1 bluefish made the day. Along with the nice bonus of Spanish mackerel at the end, it was a solid day with plenty of fish caught.
