Big Pier, Little Fish, Big Time

Doug Markham and I had a big time today catching little fish from a big pier in Venice, Florida. We started out throwing spoons and shrimp imitations with hopes of catching mackerel, trout or other "sport fish." But when the bigger fish cooperated neither for us nor the local anglers - some of whom appeared knowledgeable and well equipped - we bought a box of squid, tied up some small bottom rigs and dropped our baits for whatever wanted to bite. Our best customers were yellowtail jack, which pretty much bit as soon as the bait found the bottom, but we also wrangled in a few pinfish and a couple ladyfish. We didn't catch any giants, but we sure had fun with a simple brand of Gulf pier fishing that reminded me a lot of the fishing I did while growing up in Clearwater.