Pensacola Fishing Pier – Spanish Mackerels

by Steven Sentosa on August 9, 2009

Yesterday I went to Pensacola Pier trying my luck to get some King Mackerels. I started early in the morning around 7 o’clock. However, we fished for about 4.5 hours but we didn’t get anything. Later at night, we tried to fish again and, in the beginning, we didn’t get any, but once I switched from using cigar minnows to “Gotcha” lures, I finally got IT. Yup….it’s a Spanish Mackerel. It’s not a King, but Spanish is also a very good catch. I would never imagine to get a Spanish before.

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It was really tiring though using lures, because you have to work on that lure constantly to make the lure moves like a real and aggressive fish, but it paid off when I got that Mackerel. Among three of us that were fishing, I was the one that caught the first Spanish. One of my friend, Chang Hun, caught another Spanish after me, and my other friend, Irsan, caught another two Spanish, so we got 4 total. Plus, our other friend that we met there, Dan Shaver, gave us two of his Spanish that he caught because he didn’t want to keep it, so now we have six Spanish Mackerels.

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Today, we are going to BBQ all of these fishes and couple other things like pork, chicken wings and some vegetables. That was actually our other goal to fish yesterday, to catch some fishes to be BBQ-ed, which made us frustrated not to get anything in the evening, but we finally caught couple Mackerels, so we were so relieved. Well…hopefully our BBQ today will go as planned ;) more updates about it later.

I can only say that I’m thankful for God to give me this new hobby of fishing. Not only we can eat what we caught, but it also reveals to me that God is always in control of everything. I don’t know how many times I have gone fishing and didn’t get anything. There was also other times that I caught tons of fish when I’m fishing. I know it depends on the skill, but it also depends on the weather and many other factors that can only be controlled by God. Isn’t it amazing that we have a great God that always in control of everything?

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Bass Pro Shop – The Fisherman’s Meccah

by Steven Sentosa on August 4, 2009

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This past weekend we went to Bass Pro Shop for sightseeing, and let me tell you something, that place is awesome. If you like fishing, camping or hunting, Bass Pro Shop is the best place to go. I was literally amazed by the vast selections that they have there. I mean, if you are looking for fishing rods, you will find one here, no matter which type you are looking for. It probably has any human-conceivable rods.

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However, since I had already had two rods, I restrained myself to get another one. They also have a lot of selections for fishing reels, but again, since I already had two custom reels (Okuma Stinson Si 40 and Okuma Avenger AV 65a), I didn’t get another reels. I think 2 rods and 2 reels are enough for me now. Btw, I had Shakespeare PowerRod PBWS 580 2MH 8’0″ (2.44M) Action Medium Heavy (12-30 lb. Line) and Jarvis Walker Integra IS702M 7’0″ (8-17 lb. Line) rods. They are not the best ones out there, but they are decent.

Okuma reels

There is one more thing though. Just FYI, I haven’t gone fishing for almost 3 weeks now. You may ask me, WHY? Well…that’s because I was injured. Couple weeks ago, I fell down and hurt my knee, my hand, and my arm while I’m fishing at Pensacola bridge. :( I’m thinking to show you the picture of it, but I think I better not. The thing is that my wound got allergic reaction from something that you would never think of…..NEOSPORIN. It just kept getting worse and worse after I applied Neosporin to my wound, but since I didn’t know that I’m allergic to Neosporin, I ended up going to the hospital. Redness was covering all of my wound and it even got some abscess on it. My hand looked scary and gross. Finally, I realized that it was from the Neosporin, not because it got infected. The treatment is actually simple, I just washed my hand really clean until no Neosporin left. Thank God that my hand is already healed up now, and I’m ready for some fishing. I’ll bring some antiseptic medicine now though to prevent any infections, in case something like this happen again.

This next weekend I’ll go to Pensacola Pier again trying to get some King Mackarel fish. I have got several tips from people that have been fishing for a while. We’ll see if I can apply all the knowledge that I got from them or not to get the fish. I’m really looking forward for it. I’ll update you again later about this.

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My New Hobby of Fishing

by Steven Sentosa on July 14, 2009

I have a new hobby now starting last month. It may not be a hobby that everyone likes. Some people say that it was boring and only for old people, but I think they were wrong, because I’m still young and I like it; plus, it’s not boring at all. That new hobby I had is fishing.

This past weekend we went to Pensacola Pier for fishing. We were pretty crazy, I should admit. We were heading there at the crack of dawn, 5 o’clock in the morning on SATURDAY morning. Can you imagine that? Usually most people are still sleeping at that time, but we heard that it’s the good time to start fishing, so we went at that time.

It costs us $7.5 to get in there and it’s valid until 12 o’clock at night. So since we don’t want to waste our money, we stayed there from 5 am to 12pm and from 5 pm to 11 pm. It was 14 hours of fishing there. LOL….we are pretty hardcore, I know. We had so much fun though to see more experienced people fishing there at the pier and learned a lot from them.

However, most people are fishing for the king fish or barracuda fish there. Unfortunately, my rod is not as good as most people there had, so I don’t know if I can handle those fishes using my rod now. My rod now is Jarvis Walker Integra IS702M and my reel is Akuma Stinson SI-40 (btw, I just got this last night so I need to give it a try first). The reason I upgraded from JW400 reel to SI-40 is because I felt that my old reel isn’t smooth enough, especially when I’m catching bigger fishes, so I upgraded it. I bought my rod and reel as a combo (rod and reel) for $23, and now the SI-40 itself cost me $31, which is more expensive than the combo rod itself . Sighh….I guess a good reel will cost you money, ha?

Well…there will be more postings about fishing coming, since it’s my new hobby. This weekend couple of my friends from Atlanta will come down to Pensacola for fishing with us, so it’s gonna be so much fun, as always ;)

We took several pictures from the beach below. FYI, we didn’t catch the King fish nor the Mahi-mahi, someone else did. I just want to show you how big those fishes can be there at the Pensacola Pier. BUT….this Saturday we will go there again, and hopefully, we can catch some King Mackarel or Spanish Mackarel. I don’t think we can get the Mahi-mahi, because they said that it’s pretty rare to get it. We’ll see.

Do you guys have any experience or story in fishing? If you have, please share it with me here. Thanks. Happy fishing!!!

Pensacola Beach

People waiting for the Blue Angel show

King Mackarel

Mahi-mahi

Fishing Crew (me, Irsan, Fandy, Chang Hun, Joe)

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