Oakaloosa Island Pier

[juan sapatos]

I grew up fishing on this pier and my boys have been after me to take them for the last couple years, so we went this weekend. Things have changed in some interesting ways. First, I saw a school of breeder size redfish in the surf which you never saw when I fished there in the late 70s and 80s. People now fish with a "bubble rig" which is a tube lure behind a transparent plastic ball filled with water. Works great for spanish, hardtails, ladyfish. Saw one guy catch a northern mackeral on it as well. Didn't see a single bonito caught which was odd. No Kingfish either. There appears to be a well-trained bottle nosed dolphin that showed up in the evening and ate pretty much every fish that anybody hooked. I personally donated a hard tail and my son gave up a nice Spanish. Pretty amazing to see although I worry about the ingestion of treble hooks.

It was brutally hot. We only fished in the morning from dark until about 8:30 am and then from 6pm until dark and then the next morning. The water is absolutely full of long-tentacled sea wasp jelly fish.

The pier is not as long as it once was, but is longer than it was after one of the hurricanes I remember from the 80s. Long enough to catch a kingfish in the spring and fall I'm guessing. Definitely long enough to see cobia in the spring.

The trip inspired me to try to find a Penn 706 or Mitchell 302 with a manual pickup which is what all the hep cats used when I was a kid. Those things are hard to come by now. Van Staal appears to have persuaded the world that everybody needs a $600 spinning reel. Not all change is for the better, I guess.

Anyway, a big time was had by all. My kids are agitating to go back when the Kingfish run in October.

[Sir reel]

Thanks for the report juan. Sounds like there was a lot of activity and another testimony to the return of the Red Fish

The "bubble rig" that you spoke of. Can you explain the purpose of the water filled ball? Does it create some type of effect? Is it below the surface or on the surface??

[bman]

The water filled bubble adds weight so you can cast...



I is also used for throwing a fly on spinning gear.

[Sir reel]

Thanks Bman. I've seen them used as strike indicator and to provide additional length to a cast as you mentioned. Just wanted to make sure I hadn't let a new technique slip in on me

[grim reeler]

The bubble rig bman shows works well trolled also. It leaves a trail of bubbles. My BIL introduced me to those last time we fished choctaw bay. It out fished a silver spoon when trolled together.

[juan sapatos]

At the pier they were worked in a series of pops, faster than with a cajun thunder for trout. Filled about 1/2 with water it made a very convincing spanish hitting on top imitation.

[leonreno]

I have been using those off the pier in PC for a long time. They work well for spanish, blues, ladyfish and bluerunners(hardtails). They are a blast to use watching the spanish zoom in a swipe the lure on top, many times it takes a few strikes to get a hook up. You can use a number of different lures on the end from soda straws, clark spoons, rubber tubing(my favorite - the kind used to hold sunglasses on your neck) and anything else you want to try. Always use really sharp hooks, and I generally like to stick with a single hook but sometimes do use a treble hook but they can be tricky getting out without inccident sometimes. And the number one thing to do when using them for spanish is to reel as fast as you can it drives them wild.

[DixieReb]

There's noth'in wrong with a good pier fishing trip. I like fishing them, myself. The wife and I just got back from St. George Island and fished the old SGI bridge. Caught mostly catfish but also got ladyfish, small sea bass, a 13'' trout(released), and a good mess of croakers and whiting. Wife got 2 small sharks and I hung and lost a real big shark, never saw him but fought hin almost to the bridge on a big rod/reel made for big stuff. Let us know how fishing is over that way.