What About Fishing, Though?

As the beaches are now temporarily closed, many who don't own boats wonder if they can still fish?

It is a good question, so I asked it and was told the decision to keep the Pensacola Beach fishing pier open or not open was up to the operator of that facility.

It was open for business this weekend, and I am told business was good, with many anglers coming out and with Cobia and Pompano now running.

But as these pictures sent to me by a friend illustrate---the crowds in some instances were not following the social distancing guidelines.

A fortunate Angler caught this
60 pound Cobia earlier this month
from the  Pensacola Beach Fishing
Pier

I have been asked by a constituent a different question now....Can we surf fish from the shore?

As all the public beaches are closed, I don't see how that is possible unless one knows someone on Perdido Key that owns private beachfront property.

I would like to go fishing again at the beach.  I am hoping, now that spring break is nearing an end, that fishermen  (like me) can once again go to the beach and fish from the surf and sand.  We can do it responsibly and we can do it maintaining "social distancing."

At our meeting on April 2nd I am going to ask this question.  It is a reasonable one to ask.

And the Pompano are running.....and the Cobia.....

Great News For Area Fishermen!

I received the below email today from Robert Turpin, the BCC's  Director of Marine Services.


"Skanska [the contractor that is building the new 3-Mile bridge] deployed approx. 150 concrete piling cut-off pieces (approx. 800 tons) in Escambia Near-Shore East Artificial Reef Site at 30 Deg 17.750'N; 087 Deg 13.500'W (approx. 4.5nmi ESE of Pensacola Pass). Water depth at the site is 45 feet."


This is great news for area fishermen...now they know exactly where to go for this new structure which will become habitat for all sorts of fish species in the years to come.

Thanks to Skanska and hats off to everyone from the county and state that was involved in making this happen!

Here are the pictures, below, of the piles being taken out and dropped.