Pier & Shore Fishing Outlook 2/19/25

Pier & Shore Fishing Outlook 2/19/25

By David “The Pierpounder” Thornton

An unprecedented warm spell through this past fortnight seemed to keep fish perplexed with water temperatures quickly increasing even as anglers dealt with near-record warmth and bouts of dense sea fog. There were some signs though of good things to come as water temperatures quickly rebounded to above average levels for February. Inshore and nearshore water temperatures increased to near 70 degrees in many spots by mid-February, and even into the upper 60s at the buoy 12 miles out in the Gulf. Just as shallow water cools off quicker than deeper water, it warms faster too.
It was kind of surprising that no spanish mackerel were reported in our area during the recent warmup, though some were caught from the Florida Panhandle piers during the period. Also, very little has been mentioned about bluefish being caught lately, though historically good numbers of blues hang around the Perdido Pass jetties in winter. They will bite a variety of live or fresh dead baits free-lined or fished on bottom rigs, but also respond to spoons or jigs, and especially diving plugs such as Rapala X-rap in the #8 or #10 sizes.
The surfzone is finally showing signs of life with more whiting and some pompano being caught all along the beaches. The pompano bite has been quite inconsistent since the January freeze, so understandably ghost shrimp have been the most productive bait. That will likely be the case until more pompano move into area waters, usually beginning in early March.
Hopefully, we will be seeing more of them soon. Meanwhile, whiting action at the Gulf State Park Pier has been miss than hit lately. Though some nice specimens have been landed by the group of snowbirds who regularly target them from the pier this time of year.
Intermittent action has been noted at the pier and around Alabama Point jetty recently, as sheepshead numbers have only slowly increased at these venues. Since we are entering into the late February darkening moon period there should be more sheepshead aggregating for their spawn beginning in a few weeks.
With more fish available to anglers things should really improve once we move through the NEAP tide period centering around March 1st.
Until then look for sheepshead around the Perdido Pass Bridge and seawall and jetties as they stage in these locations before moving into the Gulf and numbers increase at the pier. Live shrimp and fiddler crabs are favored baits by sheepshead anglers whenever the sparse supply is available at area bait and tackle shops.
Otherwise, it behooves anglers to gather their own bait such as ghost shrimp or hermit crabs. At times these alternate baits work quite well to entice the normally wary sheepshead to bite. Keep your hooks relatively small and terminal gear light, especially in calm and clear water. Use just enough weight to keep your bait in front of the sheepshead you are targeting. They are often sighted around the pier pilings or rocks along the jetty, but at times sheepshead hang out in schools near the bottom too. That’s when ghost shrimp are your best bet.
In mid-winter sheepshead may be available inshore around seawalls, dock pilings and rocks along the banks of the Intercoastal Waterway (canal) from Bon Secour to Orange Beach. Medium spinning tackle with 7 to 8 foot medium-fast action rods in the 8 to 15 pound class with 2500 to 4000 size reels are ideal for sheepshead.
Drifting live shrimp or fiddler crabs on a fairly small circle hook with just a splitshot or two a foot above the hook is a very popular method to target sheepshead.
The canal is also a great place to target large black drum this time of year. Cracked blue crab is the most popular and effective bait for drum, though they do sometimes bite smaller offerings intended for other species. Of course the typical tackle class for drum is heavier (9 to 12 foot rods in the 20 to 40 pound range and 5000 to 8000 size reels) as these mature fish can weigh 20 to 30 pounds, or more.
This is almost exclusively a catch and release fishery as these adult drum represent part of the breeding stock which may live 15 to 25 years while producing millions of offspring each year to support the fishery. Besides the flesh of such large, older fish is coarse and they have a disparaging reputation of being infested with spaghetti worms, a harmless, though quite unappetizing parasite.
In all likelihood we are not done with winter quite yet. But hopefully the worst is well behind us even though the real possibility exists we could see more freezing temperatures at the coast.
After all, late February historically experiences the coldest water temperature of the year. But with coastal water temps already warming to levels we usually don’t see until mid to late March, fishing may be poised to take off into a springlike pattern.