I need help, I’m headed to clearwater Florida the second week of March and I was hoping to get in some shore or pier fishing. My problem is I don’t have a clue what to being for gear. I don’t care what I catch, I just want to fish. We are driving down but I’m limited for space so I can’t bring a lot.
I usually take a good reel with pp along and buy a cheap rod from Walmart along with hooks, jigs, sinkers. You’ll also need a needle nose. Make sure you hose everything off with fresh water EVERY time you use it. You may want to pack a plastic floating bait bucket with a long rope for shrimp. The rod only needs to be a medium, not the big heavy duty thing.
For casting I like gold spoons like the Johnson Sprite or similar. 1/4 oz jigs like the Offshore Angler Deluxe Shad Head Jig or similar with paddle tail or curly tail 3″-4″ plastics are deadly too. It’s hard to beat white, pink or chartreuse for plastics. Minnowbaits like a Husky Jerk or Bomber Long-A are another good option and are overlooked by most gulf coast anglers.
A simple bottom rig with an egg sinker and a 2′ leader with a hook and shrimp is the most common way to fish and is quite effective around piers, bridges and mangroves.
10# line is plenty for most inshore species but I really like 15# braid. Make sure you have some fluorocarbon in the 30# range for leader material if you want to catch Snook or toothy rascals.
Good Luck!
Quote:
For casting I like gold spoons like the Johnson Sprite or similar. 1/4 oz jigs like the Offshore Angler Deluxe Shad Head Jig or similar with paddle tail or curly tail 3″-4″ plastics are deadly too. It’s hard to beat white, pink or chartreuse for plastics. Minnowbaits like a Husky Jerk or Bomber Long-A are another good option and are overlooked by most gulf coast anglers.
A simple bottom rig with an egg sinker and a 2′ leader with a hook and shrimp is the most common way to fish and is quite effective around piers, bridges and mangroves.
10# line is plenty for most inshore species but I really like 15# braid. Make sure you have some fluorocarbon in the 30# range for leader material if you want to catch Snook or toothy rascals.
Good Luck!
^^^ What he said 
Here is a quick report from when I was down in Ft Myers a few weeks back
Surf Casting in Ft Myers
Ah Just got home from a trip down there!! spent a few days at disneyworld and then drove out to Clearwater!!
We took a charter out http://fishanddivetampa.com/captain-shea/ Fishing was good and the Captain was top notch.. Really knew his equipment and how to place the boat on the spot!! if your looking to take a charter I highly advise contacting TJ.. This is a bottom fishing trip so you hold the rod and hook the fish!! not hours of endless trolling!!!
Pier 60 has a nice fishing area and baitshop with rod rentals!! Fishing is good off the pier.. for a variety of fish.. It is a bit of a tourist trap but fun too see..
right there is a restaurant Crabby Bills.. you can take your cleaned catch and they will cook and serve it to ya! with fries and coleslaw! we did half lightly blackened and half fried! was excellent.. They are also have a great selection of seafood!! try there appetizers!! some sort of fritters! and there batter fried gator tails..
there is a bait shop a few block north of the causeway on the mainland side right in the marina where 2 shea fishing charter are.. we did not fish the shore there but looked to be good.. there were a few others out there fishing the shore.. the bait guy told us of a few other shore fishing spots but I cant recall all of them…
Winter the dolphin from dolphin tale movie is right there in clearwater beach.. at the clearwater beach aquarium.. I think it was like 60 or 70 bucks for 4 of us to get in.. If you got Kids along and a few bucks to blow its pretty neat to see once! if you dont have kids along.. I would say skip it…
again the fishing with TJ was non stop action.. If you went 15 seconds without a bite you had no bait on the hook!! we caught tons of snapper and a pile of grouper with one toad fish mixed in.. all were a first for me!!
hope some of this info help.. good luck, safe trip, and have a good time!!! 
Corey
Thanks guys great stuff
bummed around Naples for a week prob five years ago and had a riot, it was summer so I’m sure the local fish species vary quite a bit seasonally but what I had the most fun with was spanish mackerel off the piers and once i got a little more gutsy sneaking into the sailboat/yacht club marinas, the mangroves held mangrove snapper and jacks along with juvenile tarpon (absolute riot), the snapper were live lining shrimp and the jacks and baby tarpon hit zara spooks and plastics, but by far the most fun was catching the young (still 20-50 lb)goliath groupers that hung out under the docks, the guy who put us up down there had a stand up boat rod and some huge lever drag reel that he lent us and we’d use that and a big circle hook, for bait you’d catch a saltwater cat and smack him over the head and hook em up under the chin, even the 20-25 lb grouper would hit a foot long catfish and the strikes were all the violence of a musky times about 10, most of the time they’d wrap you in the pilings and break off but you could wait 15-20 min and hook the same fish again and get your circle hook back, as far as the piers we used pilchers nose hooked on walleye rods and we killed the mackerel and lost a ton of line to tarpon, you could watch your pilcher dissappear into a giant toilet bowl flush on the surface followed by a few seconds of excitement and fantastic jumps followed by getting spooled, for the yacht club fishing what worked for me was memorizing a name off of one of the boat boxes and claiming to be a guest of Mr. so and so, that worked a few times and then I got booted but totally worth the azz chewing
Just another thought or two…any jig will work really but it is important to have a stout hook on it. If the bite is slow you can tip your jig and plastic with a small piece of cut up shrimp or remove the plastic and just slowly creep a plain jig and whole shrimp.
And if you have some Tinglers, bring those too, it worked for Will!
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