Anyone fished pier 60 florida?

[Turner85]

Heading to clearwater beach friday for a day trip from international drive and unfortunately don't think I have time to fit in a charter trip so am just gonna fish the pier for a few hours. Wondering has anyone on here tried it and how was it?

[Determined Dan]

Hi I fished it a back in May. You can rent a rod and reel and traces there. On the pier there is a tackle shop and they will sort out gear and bait. Live prawn is best . But the small,pin fish do hammer them so buy plenty. It's a doller of 12 prawns. With a bucket of water to keep them alive. They like you to rent the bucket too but I asked to borrow it ant to return it when your done. The prawn won't last long in the heat and when died it works but not as good. The species you will get is sliver trout. Fast hard fighting fish. Snook. They are big. I seen one landed and it was 30/40lb. Grunt aka bream. They do grunt when you hold them. Wierd fish. And pin fish.Pests. And black bass .they do get flounder but you have to target them under the pier and it's a tackle graveyard . I tryed and gave up. Not worth it. They do get the. Odd shark and if there about use a alive pin fish. String ray can be got but not to often. There is a man called tom he is the pier helper. Good man for info. Try and fish under the roofs for shelter from the heat. And there is a fee for fishing there like a licence for a day or half day. I think 16dollars for the day and you get to bring a "helper " too. Two rods per angler . Helper I mean another angler if you want. Best of luck. Let me know if you need help.

[Turner85]

Thanks mate. I look forward to it now I'm off there first thing in the morning. Hopefully hook into something worth typing up a report

[blowin]

This may not be much help because I fished it 20 years ago and it has obviously changed since then .
My memories are of OH hooking into sailfin catfish almost as fast as I could unhook them so I got very little fishing done myself ! I went alone after that .
Bait was live prawn for the short time that they lasted then small bream-like fish as a substitute. These were caught by dropping a chain of silver rings straight down . The rings were from 1/2" to 1 1/2" in diameter and had a simple strip of red tape running thru them as an attractor . The bait fish "netted" themselves in the rings and you pulled them up . I have never seen that method before and might add that it doesn't work in Sligo Bay.
The Terns on that pier were the best mid-air bait catchers I have ever seen and the big Brown Pelicans were a devil for snapping up anything on or near the deck. I was holding a slimey fishy towel , looking out to sea , and the next thing I knew my arm was down the bird's gullet up to the elbow. It had grabbed the whole lot ! Note that they have a sharp toothy bit on the end of the beak and aren't afraid to use it .
But I guess you will soon be finding all that out for yourself .
Good luck .