Fishing on the Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier

Skyway Fishing Pier Information Excuse me for again talking about the great fishing going on at the Skyway Fishing Pier right now. The root function of outdoor journalism is to help readers catch fish and take game. Because hunting and fishing are really far more complicated than we let on, it is constantly a challenge to connect readers with these activities. And by many multiples, more challenging when the reader doesn't have access to a boat. But all of this is lifted where the north county pier is concerned. Kingfish and mackerel are stacked around the pier, and with a minimum of tackle and skill available for any and everyone interested. As you read this, chances are I will be crowding the pier railing and casting a big shiny spoon for anything willing to play tug-of-war. For the first couple weeks in May, practically everything with gills in this part of the planet will be sucking in or crashing into any and every offering proffered. The actual taking of snook is closed for the summer, but it is still perfectly legal to catch and release them. The various flats, passes and the western most portion of the Manatee River is harboring good numbers of these stripe-flanked brawlers. A few snook should be showing just outside the surfline of the island beaches and hitting live shrimp, live shiners or any light hued artificials. Far and away, the best time of the day is at the approach of first light in the morning and in the half an hour or so between sundown and full dark in the evenings. The beaches and near gulf are hot with mackerel and kingfish as is Tampa Bay between the Skyway and the passes. Jump a few (or 100) miles inland and freshwater fishing is absolutely exploding. This is easily my favorite time of the year to cast to emergent vegetation or docks and seawalls with tiny popping bugs for bluegills, shellcracker, warmouth and stumpknockers. Yellow or white will both work, but generally I give a tiny round bug in lime or fluorescent green the first shot of the day. Most days that is all that is needed to gather a bucket full of tasty panfish. Any flyrodder capable of tossing a bug 30 or 35 feet can ice down a mess of bream fishing the rim and residential canals at Okeechobee this time of the year.