Unexperienced. Need advice... (Skyway Pier)

[kemster99]

love fishing the pilings on the skyway. have caught some beautiful mangroves. i put a bullet weight on, tie on a swivel. so the weight can move. and then tie on my leader. have been using braided line as a leader. can pull the mangroves right out of the pilings. has worked well. will be starting to head that way to fish, after turkey season is over.

[Iluv2hunt]

I have never fished the skyway, but used to fish the Gandy pier all the time. You might want to tie up a "dropper rig", or some people call them "chicken rigs". You can buy them commercially made, but I tie my own and use them exclusively when I go off shore fishing for grunts and sea bass. I use 2 or three hook rigs, but you can make a single hook rig just the same. The basic principle is it puts your weight at the very bottom of your line, while your bait is free standing off of the bottom

Basically just tie a dropper loop on your line, and tie a 1 0z sinker on the bottom of it. For mangroves, a 1/0 hook is just fine
Looks something like this, with a weight at the bottom of it

Here is a link on how to tie the dropper loop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P7DSPU4 ... re=related
Courtesy of Mark Sosin
If you need further details on how to tie it let me know and I will try to explain it better

[Kortsman]

That's the same concept as a drop shot rig for bass fishin right?

I was fishin in the pond by my mom's condo and some old man came up and was flat out tearin up the bass. I asked him what he was using and he said drop shot son. Never did explain how to rig it up...

Do you have to fish straight up and down with that? Or can you cast out?

[Iluv2hunt]

Had to google "drop shot" to see what it was. Never heard that or seen it used for bass fishing. It does look like the same concept as my rig.. I would carolina rig before I did that for bass fishing, though

[DouglasB.]

Ok....

I've had a few emails asking me for the map that I found. So let me explain it a little.

The Line at the bottom is the begining. The Line at the top is the end. The map begins at the second bathroom and ends at the third. All of the circles are individual pilings.

"L" stands for Light.
"CW" stands for crosswalk.
"L+" is the same light pole. The strands are connected by that lightpole.

The perpendicular lines represent how far out each rock pile BEGINS. Some 20 yards, some 35 yards.

The person who created this map has one area starred.... Supposed to be the best. HOWEVER, I've found that someone else has gone back and put a metal band around the cement railing on the pier for each place that represents a "honey hole"... If you go to the second "L" on the map, and look at the railings on both sides of the pier you will see this wire.

I DID NOT CREATE THIS MAP. THIS IS NOT MY WORK. I FOUND THIS MAP AND I AM POSTING IT PER REQUEST. ONCE MORE I DID NOT CREATE THIS MAP.

I DO however, after the last few days, know that it IS legit. You can compare it to aireal pics of the area and see that as well.

To print out the map, right click, save it to your computer and print at will. I will also add airal pics of the actual pier itself to compare it to.

[DouglasB.]

These are pretty self explanitory.

[DouglasB.]

That stuff probably wouldn't make a bad "Sticky". Just my opinion though.

[Kortsman]

Had to google "drop shot" to see what it was. Never heard that or seen it used for bass fishing. It does look like the same concept as my rig.. I would carolina rig before I did that for bass fishing, though

Yeah, but for that chicken rig you showed.. Do you have to fish that straight up and down, or do you cast that out? Or does it not matter?

[arhim22]

I was there last friday and no luck except a 3ft. shark. I've heard great stories though, I'm going to try it again soon

[bodysnatcher]

It's kind of hit or miss there. If you are there for a hour and no bite's it's best to go and get a cold one.

[greenswampman1975]

been catching alot of shark ,blue fish out there nothing of great sizeand few spanish mac.

[lamehawk]

I need a fishing fix!