Looking for advise on pier fishing

[JDPA]

Coming down from pa jan 9th to 16th looking on doing some pier fishing. I have experience in pier fishing in the outer banks nc fishing for cobia and kings using a pin rig I believe in Fl it is referred to as a trolley rig. I will not have the gear to fish with that type of setup but i am looking for other ways to fish for kings and cobia and what piers are the best. I know it will be hard with limited gear but willing to try. A bad day on a pier fishing with good company is better than a good day at work. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Staying at in laws in Tamarac so looking for something closer to that area but will travel if need be.
Thanks JD

[JDPA]

Thanks for the info. Do individuals fish for kings any other way than pin rig fishing? Flying down and can't get all my pin rig gear to Fl.

[Xpierrat]

Hi JD...
as Rob was saying one of the popular ways is to free line a live bait often a Blue runner small Spanish or bluefish....hook rig is sometimes a 6 to 8/0 circle hook ( depends a lot on size of the bait ) with just a trace of wire.... hook is placed in the rear back or anal fin area... allowing the bait to swim out as far as you can get it to go... strong current will often kill it in very short time and you have to get another and repeat... the strike will usually be a sudden rush (reel is in free spool ) and then nothing ( the king has cut the bait in half ) if you wait and the remaining half falls naturally with the current the king will come right back for desert and game on.... in other cases you use a j hook with a treble stinger much like the rig used on a pin rig....

another way is tossing large Xraps size 14 on spinners kings will of the hit them when they are thick but most of these kings are small 6 to 10 pound size but of course there are cases where larger one are taken...

Pin rigging is not very popular around here and some places have even tried to ban it (if they don't under stand it and its different then it can't be better than the way we do it around here mentality at its best )

the local way is called a trolly but it is not.... it is a slide rig... much like we used back in the 70's before the benefits of pin rigging was worked out.

there are only two advantages ( if you want to call them that ) one is it only requires only one rod and most will fish 2 or 3 rigs which fill up a pier t very fast....and the other is the bait can swim out a long ways covering a larger area.... course the line is often cut on a strike because there is no control, you don't know if you have a live or dead bait ( or any bait for that matter ) because it has swam out... when you get a strike you have to crank like a mad man to get the slide rig to the end where it comes tight against the sinker.... if you try to use a larger bait that often results in the larger kings it will drag the 8 oz sinker all over and tangle the other lines close by...

the best pier normaly for Kings is deerfield but the T is closed due to damage from Sandy... Lake worth is open all the way but there is no T so gets crowded very fast and juno is very good but the preferred method is free line and xraps up there... is a newly built pier in Sunny Isles that will also be very good for Kings ...

best of luck and enjoy your visit.

[Floridahogfish]

I guess u let the secret out Rick no more kings for you or me lol

[JDPA]

Rick, thanks so much for all your advise it is very helpful and your secrets are safe with me.

[JDPA]

Does anyone know if the pier in sunny isle is opened yet? I can't seem to find any info on the web about it.........Thanks JD

[PhishingPhanatic]

Nope, not yet. Someone posted an update the other day and thinks it will be open this spring.

[JDPA]

OK Thanks for the update coming down on Wednesday and thinking about getting out fishing Thursday or Friday. Any idea where the fish are biting?