Fort clinch pier: part II

    I headed out to the Fort Clinch Pier again, this time my goal was to primarily target Trout with a Float Rig, as well as just do a little general fishing to see what would bite.  I headed out at about 6:00 pm as the tide was receding.  A buddy and I set up camp at the end of the pier.  When I say set up camp, I mean we occupied at least the last 100+ feet of the pier, with baits tossed out in every direction possible!
    We set up a few 12’ surf rods with spinning reels and Ol’ Salty Classics, tipped with dead shrimp and tossed them East, off the end of the pier.  As well as a couple of light tackle rods with a float rig and live shrimp, that we tossed North, and let float close to the pier pilings.
    We waited an hour so, until about 8:00 pm.  As the sun started to descend, the tide slacked and began to head back in.  That’s when the bite turned on!  It was complete chaos for about an hour.  We had rods tipping left and right, it started with the ones on the end of the pier, where we landed a few small sharks and a nice Bull Whiting.  Then the float rigs started taking off, which were on the North side of the pier.  They produced a couple of premium Trout.
    Soon after, we brought in a few smaller fish, Croakers and juvenile Whiting.  Which we decided to hang on to and use for bait, on a large shark pole later.  I tied on an Ol’Salty’s Shark Rig Medium Jawz, used a small Whiting as bait and tossed it out as far as possible.  With a large bait casting reel designed for trolling and deep water fishing, you’re not going to get it out very far by casting alone.  However, that is okay here, because bait schools around the structure of the pier and jetty rocks.  Which draws in game fish, which in turn draws in larger predator fish, like sharks.  So, it is not unusual to hook a good sized shark within yards of the pier itself.
    As the night drew on, we landed a few small Blacktip and Bonnethead Sharks, Atlantic Spadefish, Whiting and Croakers.  Our big shark pole buzzed only once, and just as suddenly as the line started screaming off the reel, it stopped.  Which was disappointing but only slightly, because overall we had a great night of fishing.