My wife and I decided to go to the beach, do a little fishing, and then watch the fireworks from Anglins pier at Lauderdale By The Sea. We got close to it and the lines for a parking space got going until I finally got to the pier’s parking area.

Fireworks seeing from Anglins Pier at Lauderdale By The Sea

Well, I forgot that they raise the parking rate when there is a special occasion such as watching the fireworks to celebrate the independence of our great nation the United States of America. And they do so by doubling the regular price. It was $20 bucks!!!! Oh my it is still hurting my pockets! I could have bought a nice lure or a couple of leader wheels. Well, thinking about it it was well worth the increase if you count a mile walking to the the pier in the middle of intoxicated people asking “hey man, are you going fishing to the pier?” I got a couple to ask that question at the parking lot and as I was already in the pier. I wonder what made the ask that question? Was it the fishing cart and the fishing rods in it? Or was it the alcohol or who knows what that makes people ask the weirdest questions?  LOL, people were having fun and so I really don’t mind as long as they don’t start touching my stuff asking if they can fish with it. By the way entrance to fish at the pier is $7.00 and if you forget your weights then for a 5 ounce weight it is $2.00 so don’t forget any terminal tackle or be ready to pay a premium for it. Well, we got to the pier and saw how windy it was so we decided to head straight to the pier and skip the crowded beach. As we entered the pier I asked my wife to stop for a second so we could snap some pictures. The crowd was rolling in the high waves on one side and on the other the surfers were enjoying the waves. What a nice day for shark fishing and here I was with mackerel and snapper gear 😦

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Once we got pass the middle shelter we started fishing for bait. There was no white bait only dork jacks a few small blue runners and some spottail pinfish. I spoke with some of the kids that frequent the pier looking for some toothy critters with fins and they said it had been slow for the past couple of days. As we kept on getting bait my wife got some moonfish that were released and as I kept getting more we decided to move to the T. Some very happily cocktail drinking tourists were there and this particular one kept on saying “this man is ganna catch a biiig one, hip! Just look, look he is fishing with shiners, hip! He is gonna catch a biiig fiiish!” I smiled and explained that I was fishing with dork jacks and was looking to get some bonitos or maybe some summer bluefish and as I was saying so my reel started going, but it ended being a vicious hound fish. It had swallowed the whole dork jack.

The second fish hit a small morsel on my light rod, I was fishing with a Troll Right jig and a piece of a spottail pinfish. It was intended for any snapper under the pier. Well, it wasn’t no snapper. After a small run a Tarpon jumped halfway out the water and shook the jig off as some of the tourists were going “woooow!” I guess not many get to see a Tarpon jumping mid air. So I decided to play a little and setup my 30 pound test rod and reel with a barbless circle hook, I place a nice size spottail pinfish on it and sent it on it’s way. My wife was ready with the camera and was trying to snap a few pics but it just wouldn’t take them since the camera was on auto and it was getting dark. As the Tarpon took the bait and jumped 3 times we could hear the tourists going uuuuuuhhhh!!!!    ahhhhhh!!!   woooow!!! The only pic my wife was able to get was a pic of the Tarpon’s behind saying good bye to us.

It was a great day at the pier, we had some fun talking to the tourist from other states and to the local tourists as well. We enjoyed the fireworks and took some video of it. Below is a small quick video of the fireworks so you get the idea.