Overall, A Miserable Spring 2014

I know in the last few weeks there have been flurries of activity. Some Kings, a handful of Cobia, some Spanish here and there, Reds and Specks and so on. But overall, pretty disappointing.

We waited for the water to warm for the longest... and then for the mud to clear... and now the rain comes back. And the wind... good Lord it has been BLOWING.

Now I'm just a tiny, tiny bit OCD so I have marked and noted my fishing victories on a calendar in the garage... along with motorcycle maintenance and other such stuff. In 18 trips to the pier since spring began, I have caught 2 Spaniards, 6 Ladyfish, 4 Hardtails, a plastic bag, a guys' hat, and more skunks than I care to admit.

Now I'm an amateur angler, mostly doing Gotchas, and bubble rigs, and spoons. And pretty casual, doing on average about 3 to 4 hours on the pier at a time. But there were days last year where I caught more fish in a morning than I have caught all spring so far. It's been really slow in my eyes. Like this morning...holding on to our hats as we watched each other along the rails... hoping the chew down begins on this next cast. I left after 3 hours... bringing the skunk with me... again.

Is this just my experience, or do others view the spring the same way?

All I caught this spring is 5sheepies 2spanish 7ly's hard tail a blue fish and lost 2 kings and yes I'm not lying about ly I caught them the other day all this is the 3 times I fished the pier this spring

Hating the bad news guys, hoping it picks up soon for everyone. I will be down in 10 days, hoping for a better bite, but even if not gonna be a fun time and hopefully get to meet some of you guys. David I sent you a PM.

This is the same week in 2012 where there were 50+ kings caught per day and probably 20-30 more chokes, sharkies, and breakoffs. I have fished about 12 days on the pier this year in April and May and the water has been cloudy to down right muddy every trip. Spanish and Kings are sight feeders and the bite would probably pick up if the water cleared up at least until the water gets hot. Better days are ahead. I hope.

Remember well May 2012. Best week I ever has at GS. Last year was much slower but still not bad. Bunches of sharks. This year May fished 6 days. Except for a couple hard tails and blues caught nothing but sharks 4 days. Did get into some mid sized Spanish fri and sat. Thanks Haywire for the Albright knot tip! Of course it got hot for a few days right after I had to leave. Almost considered going back down in a couple weeks :(

By now I should have put in at least 50 little short trips but I have only made two so far this year. Y'all don't feel bad,it's not just the pier.

I've been all but skunked at the pier too and have put my new kayak in the water 3 times around DI and have yet to catch anything but a couple small croakers.

It's definitely not just you mandmalabama. before the oil spill, we used to kill it when we came down. It was not uncommon to catch a limit of one species and then try for another IMO. Now I'm just glad when I catch something worth eating. I will try to dig up some pics I took a few years ago. In one trip I had enough fish to last me all winter and early spring. Ahhh, the good ole days...:cool:

Will be down in 15 days! Hoping that is enough time for things to get back to normal. Planning on a couple of pier days if it's to rough to launch my kayak on the beach.

Define "NORMAL" http://www.acfafish.com/forum/images...n_confused.gif

Thing is I can recollect several springs over the past 40+ years with GSPPier catching almost as bad as this year.

1974 (I believe) was a phenomenally wet spring and king fishing (and the gulf water) pretty much sucked into the summer.

On the flip side, I remember 'Skeet' Walton telling me of the year the pier opened they were catching threadfin herring on gold hook rigs (this was pre sabiki) and they caught kings like mad.
Mr Donovan said "If there weren't 10 kings on the deck by sunup they knew it was not going to be a 'good day'."
And 'good days' back in the early 1970s were 50-100 kings.
On a pier half as long and half as wide as the one we have now.

By the mid to late 1970s those 'good days' were a thing of the past.
In 1979 (before Hurricane Fredrick in Sept) there were only a couple of dozen kings caught on the GSPPier that whole year.
That's what nets can do for ya http://www.acfafish.com/forum/images.../icon_evil.gif

It took over 10 years for the king stocks to rebuild to about what we are used to seeing now (and that is still a shadow of the pre-netting population in the 60s and early 70s.

Anyway, fast forward to 2009 and 2010 and 2011 and the king fishing was "fantastic" for most folks.
The past couple of years not as much so.

Relatively speaking it WILL get better, and I PRAY it won't get worse ;-)

Thanks for giving us a fine historical perspective on the fishing. I thought it was all my fault, at least that's what John G says.

Sort of reminds me of an old country farmer from back when I was growing up. Several old country folks were sitting in the shade of the awning in front of the Piggly Wiggly on a hot July afternoon in the middle of a long spell of dry weather and one of them squinted up at the hot, blue sky and asked, "Think it'll ever rain?"

Another sun-wrinkled old fellow looked at him a minute, spat a noxious glob of Brown Mule juice on the ground and replied, "Well, it always has before."

I sure had a fine time as a kid, absorbing this kind of wisdom.

I reckon the fish will be back if we wait long enough. ????????????????

"I reckon the fish will be back if we wait long enough. ????????????????"

I am a crappie fisherman who three years ago discovered the wonderful world of salt water fishing for spanish and kings. I mean no disrespect when I wonder how many years it took, back in the 70's when netters in Florida decimated the kings, before you all knew they weren't coming back?

I keep hearing about good populations off shore, but this is the second bad year for all the piers. I've heard of a few flurries this year, but the best days so far would have been "slow" in 2011 or 2012.

I have two kings, one barely legal. Maybe two dozen spanish. That's it for our week's vacation and two weekend runs. I may be chasing bull bluegill the rest of the summer if this keeps up. Or (gasp) bass. :)

The bass bite is great on the TN river. Night fishing for smallmouth is on fire and the early and late topwater bite for largemouth is on like donkey kong.

I have seen more juvenile kings already this year than I have in 40 years.
HOPE that is a sign of 'good years' ahead!

The bass bite has been on fire up here also on the Chickamauga Lake. Chickamauga Guide Catches 49-pound Limit of Bass « Wired2Fish Here is a link of a bag limit of bass from one of our recent Tx. And if the hot weather keeps up the striper run will be in full swing. Then it will be time to catch some more like in my avatar!

leave them bigmouf green carp alone,crappiefisherman Rich1

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Originally Posted by countryboy1983

The bass bite has been on fire up here also on the Chickamauga Lake. Chickamauga Guide Catches 49-pound Limit of Bass « Wired2Fish Here is a link of a bag limit of bass from one of our recent Tx. And if the hot weather keeps up the striper run will be in full swing. Then it will be time to catch some more like in my avatar!

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i live literally 2 minutes from the boat ramp on chickamauga...not everyone is catching monsters and the fishing pressure is UNBELIEVABLE and is already taking it toll. i have bass fished here for 15 years and 5 years ago you could fish Mon- thursday and never see another boat. Now you struggle to find a parking spot if you get to the ramp at daylight on a monday morning. we are seeing boats from Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Arkansas, and any where else within 600 miles. I can not believe anyone would drive 600 miles for a freakin Largemouth bass! i will stick to crappie and bluegills!

at least some have heard the screaming drag, try being without any smell of salt water for over 6 months....I would love just leaning on the rail waiting to see some of Gods creations to swim or fly by.....it always can be worse, and sure could always be better,

so enjoy what you have and make the best of it :D

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Originally Posted by fishheadspin

i live literally 2 minutes from the boat ramp on chickamauga...not everyone is catching monsters and the fishing pressure is UNBELIEVABLE and is already taking it toll. i have bass fished here for 15 years and 5 years ago you could fish Mon- thursday and never see another boat. Now you struggle to find a parking spot if you get to the ramp at daylight on a monday morning. we are seeing boats from Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Arkansas, and any where else within 600 miles. I can not believe anyone would drive 600 miles for a freakin Largemouth bass! i will stick to crappie and bluegills!

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I've got nothing agaisnt bass fisherman, I used to be one, I still fish for them when I need a fix and can't get to saltwater. But when I see these guys with $300+ reels, GLoomis rods, and a $50k boat I just shake my head. All that dough for a fish that seldom gets over 10lbs and does not put up much of a fight besides a spotted bass. Just my .2 cents.