# Spanish and more!



## speckalicious (Nov 30, 2016)

Nice day on the pier at Garden City today. Perfect weather with lots of Spanish to be had (thirteen for me) and a lot of cool stuff to see - loggerheads, leatherbacks, and TONS of sharks and rays! Most of the Spanish were run of the mill, late spring little guys, but some were very nice size. I managed two good ones myself like (pic) and hooked a few doubles. Had one double almost to the pier when a shark gobbled up my whole rig, fish and all! Most of the fish landed on the pier today were caught on white or white/red jigging trees, with one or two coming on gotcha plugs. Based on what I saw it was about 95% Spanish overall, but a few blues and one real nice pompano were in the mix. I'll confess that I'm not a big fan of pier fishing, but everything fell into place today, everybody was cordial and a good time was had by all. Probably have my feet in the sand somewhere tomorrow or Thursday, hope to have something to report.


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## topwaterMOJO (Dec 7, 2016)

hey... so you said a few were caught on gotcha plugs? I was just about to make plans to head to NC coast but might opt for garden city pier/surf instead. good sizes?


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## MadDawgJ (Apr 16, 2016)

Nice report thanks.


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## speckalicious (Nov 30, 2016)

MOJO, I was there Sunday and Monday on the incoming and they were feeding on very small baitfish, so the gotcha didn't produce as well as the trees. Jigging at the rail only brought a few bites cause the sharks were thick and active so you'll need to cast out and work it in - a lot of work with 3 ounces... As for size the majority of the Spanish caught were just under the 12 FL legal length, but the bigger schools that came by occasionally gave up a few in the 15 to 17 inch range. Afternoons are already getting crowded with tourists/pier walkers so I'd get out early if you come this way. Good luck wherever you go


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## topwaterMOJO (Dec 7, 2016)

speck, thanks brother. the weather report for you guys looks a lot better than the nc coast. I'm pretty sure i'll be headed your way tonight and fish all day tomorrow. i'll probably rig up some gold hook rigs. I know you guys add the straws for more color. have you tried the glass minnow jigs as well?


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## speckalicious (Nov 30, 2016)

I haven't tried em


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## topwaterMOJO (Dec 7, 2016)

Well, where to start... had to settle for 2nd ave pier over the weekend. weather was ok. Hooked a couple decent Spanish on gotcha plugs but they were eaten by sharks before I could get them out of the water. Bonita and false albacore were running bait all over the place but they wouldn't hit. I threw everything at them, topwater, stingsilver, gotcha. Had one of them to hit gotcha but missed hooks. and there were nice Spanish jumping at start of high tide. it was a little frustrating, but exciting throwing at the bonita at least.


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## ChefRobb (Jan 8, 2016)

topwaterMOJO said:


> Well, where to start... had to settle for 2nd ave pier over the weekend. weather was ok. Hooked a couple decent Spanish on gotcha plugs but they were eaten by sharks before I could get them out of the water. Bonita and false albacore were running bait all over the place but they wouldn't hit. I threw everything at them, topwater, stingsilver, gotcha. Had one of them to hit gotcha but missed hooks. and there were nice Spanish jumping at start of high tide. it was a little frustrating, but exciting throwing at the bonita at least.


If you're lucky enough to nab one of those big boys...they're not much to eat, but have a better purpose. If you ever go out deep sea fishing they make fantastic bait for snapper & grouper. Chop them into chunks that are about 2" x 2", salt them a little and freeze them for future use.


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## topwaterMOJO (Dec 7, 2016)

that's great advice. I plan on taking a charter out of murrells inlet. met a kid on the pier that works on the boat. showed me pics of nice grouper and snapper and dolphin... I'm excited about that.


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## speckalicious (Nov 30, 2016)

Long drive for what sounds like a frustrating day. My son was in from Wilmington this weekend and we walked Garden City pier on Saturday. Didn't fish but it was the same story there according to the guys we talked to. Not many spanish hooked and the ones that were became shark treats.


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