Peach's Pier Sailfish Trophies

Aldeer's Peach is quite a pier fisherman and wanted to show y'all the sailfish he's caught off piers in the Florida panhandle. Posting these photos and stories for Peach.


He caught this one three years ago off Panama City.



That is Peach on the left and his buddy on the right. This is a giant sail caught off okaloosa pier two years ago by his buddy. Ran out 500 yards of line.


Here is a fish Peach caught off Panama City pier last fall. Got him to the pier and released him.



This fish was caught ten days ago off Panama City pier by a friend of Peach.

WOW

That's awesome off a pier. Congratulations on some fine fish.

Off the piers! Gonna have to book a trip with him!

Looking good Peach!!

Amazing to me that those are caught off a pier. Super cool.

cool!

I was there to see that fish get landed. They were thick that day. Probably saw a dozen or so. A ton of tarpon too.

What bait are you using?
Great job!

Congratulations Peach!

If any of y'all are down visiting you need to go to local piers and watch these fisherman. They know their stuff and the majority of them like Peach will be glad to help you out if you want to wet a line. I didn't really know about these guys much until the nineties when my Daddy's health kept him off the boat and he took up pier fishing.

Are the sails edible?

Anything live with a mono leader works well. I prefer live cigar minnows, smaller hardtails, ballyhoo, lys, but my preferred bait is a moonpie.

I just got back from a family vacay to PCB an hour ago, fished on both piers 3 days (Fri, Sat, Sun). Overall it was slower than previous trips, but had some really neat experiences. I didn't see anybody catch anything large, BUT I had two humongous tarpons make an idiot of me! LOL

I always take 3 or 4 of my bass rods, nothing special, and a backpack with some boxes of tackle/equipment. I don't spend much time on the end of the pier with the wannabe pros, but I'll wander out there throughout the morning and make some casts. I like to throw a 6" flutter spoon, and I'm just throwing it on my 7'-6" Heavy bass rod with 15lb flouro. I caught several decent Spanish, some oddly big remoras, and I did land about a 10lb jack!! But twice Saturday morning I had a tarpon (looked 6 or 7 feet long and big around as a man) roll on my spoon!!!!!....trust me, it's over quick, but it's awesome for the 10 seconds I have them on! LOL

The dolphins were awful this time, they took 5 fish away from me. And I've never seen dolphins this big, one in particular had to have been substantially over 10' long and half as big around as a dern car! He/She would sit at the bottom of the pier with it's mouth open begging for fish. Lots and lots of giant sea turtles too, they were neat.

I fished the County pier last thursday. It was pretty dead except for a few tarpon. Dog days of August are officially here. It will get better in September.

Who are these wannabe pros at the end of the pier? And did they leave in a wakeboard boat?

That's just how I refer to 'em! I'm a know-nothing goober down there with my flimsy bass rods, and there's always this group of younger looking guys with Huk shirts, those fancy wheeled carts with a dozen rods in the holders, Yeti cooler, and they all seem to know each other.

Did either of the PCB piers used to be longer? I really don't know the length, and they may all be the same, but they "seem" shorter than the one at Gulf Shores.

My experience too but the ones I've got up the courage to speak to have been super helpful. Find one with a little gray on the temples. They seem to take pity on us freshwater guys and will help you.

I know almost everyone that fishes the end of Navarre Pier, Okaloosa pier, and some at the Panama City piers. Most are very helpful if you just ask, but there are some real jerks out there. Me and some of the older veterans, stay on their case all the time. I wonder if some of these younger guys go to school or work! I actually enjoy helping the novice anglers out and let them fight a bunch of the fish I hook.

Beautiful fish!

Nice, the sailfish getting caught off the piers actually happens more than you would imagine.

I don't know him personally, but his buddy in that second pic is quite infamous on the Pensacola Fishing Forum. He was always catching large bass and then taking pictures with his sidekick in blackface...pretty funny trolling actually.

I thought we were goin to see a fight on the pier across from the shrimp basket. The old guy on the scooter had some fish laying on the pier. Apparently someone picked one up. Some big guy that fished with scooter came unglued. When the crowd split up it was a like a 10yr. Old kid he came unglued on.

I had no idea about this bunch today. Twenty or so years ago they wouldn't have lasted at the Panama City Beach pier. My dad and others would have told them to go surf fish somewhere with that elitist type attitude. This fall when it cools off I'm going to go to the GSSP pier and bust up among them just for fun.

I remember that well!!! The young kid is now a college engineering student.

Awesome fish Peach

Thanks for the comments! Going under the "knife" tomorrow, so my fishing will come to a halt for a few months. Yall say a prayer for me.
Thanks

Prayers sent Brother. What you having done?

They are pretty-much going to give me a bionic wrist. Take my biggest wrist bone out, fuse four other wrist bones together, and throw some titanium in the mix.

Dadgum. Hope it goes well. Was injury fishing related? Sometimes my casting wrist hurts after long session on water.

Just from years of over usage.

Awesome accomplishments sir and prayers for a successful surgery and a speedy recovery.
I can assure you that you won't find many people offering to help others on an internet forum the way Peach has always done for us.

If you're a newbie, be polite, don't hook folks in the head or tangle their lines and chances are you will find someone willing to help. There will always be azzholes among us, but such is life.