Fishing From the Fort Desoto Piers
February 20th, 2009 | by David Spates |If you are in the Saint Petersburg Florida area then you have probably heard about Fort Desoto park. It is one of the best parks there are in Florida, and maybe even the entire United States. There are many activities that can be done at the park but here I will be talking about the fishing in Fort Desoto Park.
One option of fishing that can be done at the park is by boat, seeing that there are plenty of boat ramps in the park. You can fish the mangroves, under bridges or right off of Eggmont Key, all known to be exceptional for saltwater fishing.
Not everyone has the money to own a boat though, so that is why there are two great fishing piers that are at the park. The fishing piers are called the Gulf Pier and the Bay pier, both of them can offer excellent saltwater fishing all year round.
The Gulf Fishing Pier is the larger of the two piers, and it also has a bait and tackle shop there, the hours vary but for the most part they are open between 10 am and 4 pm. You will see that it is usually always packed with fishermen no matter what time of the day or night it is.
During the day the waters around the Gulf Pier are usually populated with porpoises, which means that bait fish are running. But if you are fishing there some of the fish you can expect to catch are sharks, snook, snapper, grouper, sheepshead, and many other species of saltwater fish.
The other fishing pier that is in the park is called the Bay Fishing Pier, which is slightly smaller than the Gulf Pier. This is where all the tour boats will drop off and load tourist to take them on various types of boat trips that the park offers. None the less it is also an excellent place to catch some fish.
I will usually start fishing at the Gulf Pier if it is during the day and then head over to the Bay Pier at night, as I have had more luck fishing there at night time. You can expect to catch the dame type of fish as you would at the Gulf Pier. The Bay Pier also has a bait shop that is open during the daytime.
The fishing piers are located at the southern most part of the island, and they are open to fishermen 365 days a year, all day and all night. At night they are well illuminated which helps you cast and make rigs, and also will attract schools of fish to the bright spots in the water.