SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
I met up with jwhitlock yesterday afternoon about 6PM and we loaded his gear into my truck. After heading over to the Gulf State Park(near the condos), driving around the construction blockade, and driving over a few dunes that have settled across whats left of the road, we parked about 200' from the pier. If you are driving a car, don't even consider attempting it. If you are driving a truck, know that you're risking a tow and probably a ticket as well.
The water looked great and the surf was running with small shin-high sets. Visibility in the 10-20' range without much seaweed at all. Water temperatures in the high 80s and I wore no exposure protection and was paid back with a jellyfish across my elbow nearly immediately. There were actually noticably more jellies out there than I've seen this year yet. I'll be wearing a skin for the rest of the year. The pier was thick with fish. Spades, mangroves, mullet, and lookdowns were schooling everywhere. There were several bluecrab traps set out by the pier and all of them had quite a few crab in em - with several left over around any given pylon(we should have hit this site for the crab grab!). We saw several varieties of stingray, including southerns and electrics as well as another more diamond shaped ray with a short tail. Some of the rays were 4' across. One of the electric rays zapped me for messing with it - LOL. I clipped the flag to one of the pylons along the center section of the pier, then we headed south. At the colosseum, which is what I call the large round island at the southernmost part of the pier rubble, there was a large school of redfish. Luckily, I had my 54" Biller, and landed my first shot in a ~26-28"er, stoning it. I wasn't the only one with luck. Jwhitlock took a mangrove and two flounder with his polespear over the course of the dive. Max depth was only 12', shallower than my previous dives onsite, for a duration of 71 minutes. It was a great dive, even without us taking fish. I'm in somewhat of a conundrum on whether or not I want to take the Biller out next time or the camera. There was several more reds onsite(some bigger than the one I took), but also some great images to be captured! Regardless, Whitlock and I had a great time.
I made it home just intime to beat a larger thunderstorm, halfway fix some dinner(breakfast) before the power went out for the majority of the night.
The water looked great and the surf was running with small shin-high sets. Visibility in the 10-20' range without much seaweed at all. Water temperatures in the high 80s and I wore no exposure protection and was paid back with a jellyfish across my elbow nearly immediately. There were actually noticably more jellies out there than I've seen this year yet. I'll be wearing a skin for the rest of the year. The pier was thick with fish. Spades, mangroves, mullet, and lookdowns were schooling everywhere. There were several bluecrab traps set out by the pier and all of them had quite a few crab in em - with several left over around any given pylon(we should have hit this site for the crab grab!). We saw several varieties of stingray, including southerns and electrics as well as another more diamond shaped ray with a short tail. Some of the rays were 4' across. One of the electric rays zapped me for messing with it - LOL. I clipped the flag to one of the pylons along the center section of the pier, then we headed south. At the colosseum, which is what I call the large round island at the southernmost part of the pier rubble, there was a large school of redfish. Luckily, I had my 54" Biller, and landed my first shot in a ~26-28"er, stoning it. I wasn't the only one with luck. Jwhitlock took a mangrove and two flounder with his polespear over the course of the dive. Max depth was only 12', shallower than my previous dives onsite, for a duration of 71 minutes. It was a great dive, even without us taking fish. I'm in somewhat of a conundrum on whether or not I want to take the Biller out next time or the camera. There was several more reds onsite(some bigger than the one I took), but also some great images to be captured! Regardless, Whitlock and I had a great time.
I made it home just intime to beat a larger thunderstorm, halfway fix some dinner(breakfast) before the power went out for the majority of the night.
