By JAMIE FOSTER,  Skyway Fishing Piers

Posted 5.11.08

While the king mackerel have just about gone from the Skyway Piers, there are still great numbers of Spanish mackerel to keep our anglers busy and happy. And circling all round the big bridge are many pod of tarpon, lots of cobia as well as many decent size mangrove snapper. Many gag grouper are being caught, but at this time of year most are non-keeper size.



There have been several large sharks showing up and if you do hook them – or any of the big fish, just break them off so that that can live to fight another day. If you do want to lift and keep a larger fish, our bait shops sell inexpensive hoop nets for that purpose.

The shallows off the Pier Toll Booths are holding lots of nice trout, blues, ladyfish, reds and snook.

The piers are still the awesome “bait magnets,” which account for the many fish that hang all over these great structures. Using a Sabiki rig or cast net, any Skyway Pier angler can get all the bait they need for a full day of fishing in a couple of minutes.

Many don’t realize it, but our South and North Piers are a couple of miles apart, and you admission price allows you to fish either one. Many like fishing the heavy rocks down below off the shorter North Pier, but there is also some good structure off the South Pier, which incidentally is the world’s longest fishing pier. My own preference is that South Pier because of all the great elbow room it affords, to say nothing of the impressive numbers of Spanish mackerel that are available this time of year.