Russell Pier -- now the County Pier

After reading the reviews and how the "locals" have acted at times on this pier, I tried to be optimistic as I ventured down Front Beach Road this morning in search of "good things" (other than the sunshine and great looking young women running all around) so, I pulled into the public parking area when I saw the pier on my left as it extended out a good distance into the ocean.  No crowds here as the "Spring Breakers" seemingly were back towards the heart of the hi-rises and the attractions there -- guys to girls and girls to guys, I'm sure (mostly).

Lots of parking spaces and easy access to the beach here but, my attention was drawn to the pier so, I paid the $2 to walk the pier and find out what I could.  The guy taking the money indicated that Cobia were coming through and King Mackerel with some Spanish Mackerel always being around, that things were pretty active or good on the pier.  I chuckled inside a bit and went forward thinking the guy was probably just throwing a line out there and not being at all truthful.  I confirmed this feeling with numerous "locals" as I walked out toward the end of the pier and periodically made stops to chat with folks -- most saying the fishing had been lousy at best.  The wind was pretty stiff out of the south and seemed like hard conditions to fight as well -- not to my liking for sure.

Largest Spanish Mackerel

The waters were a few shades of beautiful green and blue as some pics may show and the waters were mostly clear so the sandy bottom brought out the shades of green I had seen in the Keys.  Various bands of darker waters indicated deeper pools and the end of the pier had some 25 to 30 foot depths for fishermen (and some gamely women) to probe -- all were hopefully looking for the appearance of the Cobia or King Mackerel as some of their rigs sat idly against the railings.  Others were probing the waters with smaller jigs for the smaller Spanish Mackerel and a few were being caught near the end of the pier or just at the turns before the end.

I leaned hard over the railing to look at the schools of the feeder fish running in and around the concrete pilings of the piers and occasionally noticed a few big fish of some size (30 inches or more) cutting casually through the baitfish getting their fill of the little fish.  These bigger fish looked to be yellowish orange in color and I made mention of them to a few people and they thought they might be Redfish.  I believe, in afterthought, they may have been Cobia as evidenced by the sudden appearance from the depths at the end of the pier of a fairly large fish -- and anglers scrambled to the right corner to throw their half dozen or so lures at the target beginning to move away from the pier (it looked to be about 4 feet or more in size).

68 Pounds/55 Inches

Magically, one young guys lure hit the right spot and the huge fish turned to take his bait at the bottom of its large mouth and all others faded away as the young guy fought the fish back and forth across the end of the pier and down the east side, returning again to the end and westward, back again to east side where the fish finally was pulled from the waters.  He fought the fish for approximately 20 or 25 minutes and the dolphins or porpoises started to close in on the trophy as he struggled to get it close enough to the pier so, someone might get a huge gaff into the fish and bring him up.  It took a few attempts with the gaff but, finally the fish was brought up to the pier by two strong young guys -- it weighed in at 68 pounds and measured around 55 inches or more in length.

More Surf Here -- Bigger Drop-offs

Before that trophy was landed, one woman had a two foot Bonita on and someone had gaffed it but, when they tried to get it over the rail, the gaff slid through the side of the fish and it fell back into the greenish blue waters emitting a reddish trail of blood as it floundered into the depths -- food for some shark most likely.

Pic fron the middle of the pier (west)