Florida Waypoint: Hooked on Sensational Fishing at Jacksonville Pier

On a recent visit to Jacksonville Beach, Shane Canny said he was pleasantly surprised to find a fishing pier within walking distance of his hotel. He and his son James rented two poles and purchased fresh frozen shrimp at the fishing pier’s bait shop.

“Instead of walking the beach, we spent the afternoon catching a bucket full of whiting,” Shane said. “We also had a better look at the Atlantic from the pier: sea birds, porpoises and fish, too.” The Canny family would have a nearby restaurant prepare their catch later that evening.

On any given day, the pier is visited by guests enjoying the quarter-mile walk to the end while watching fishermen bring in their catches. During the cooler months of fall, winter and spring, fishing baits on the bottom produces good catches of whiting, bluefish, flounder, croaker and occasionally red and black drum.

Jacksonville Pier fishermen have a wide variety of opportunities including drifting barbed live shrimp just behind the breaking surf offering excellent catches of redfish, seatrout and bluefish. Fishing on the bottom with fresh dead shrimp targets whiting, blues, croaker, puppy drum, redfish and more.

Securing a bucket full of sandfleas from the surf, then fishing just behind the breakers from the pier, will catch the pier’s best-eating saltwater fish, pompano.

Sheepshead are plentiful feeding close to the barnacle/shell-clad pilings. Catch them by fishing close to the pilings with fiddler crabs.

Arguably, the most exciting Jacksonville Pier fishery of all kicks off in late April and runs through August. That’s when the fast-swimming king mackerel show up. At times the very end of the pier, where king fishing is best, harbors shoulder to shoulder fishermen.

Young Hayden Nesbitt has mastered the art of king fishing from the Jacksonville Fishing Pier. He free-lines live baits from the very end of the pier.

“My largest kingfish weighed 33 pounds, but I have caught several in the 20-pound range,” Hayden said. “Barbing a live mullet or spot and drifting the live bait offshore of the pier with a high falling tide is best.”

Hayden fills his wide spool conventional reel with 20-pound hi-visibility monofilament, adding a 10-foot length of 50-pound fluorocarbon shock leader. Finally, a four-foot length of 44-pound singlestrand wire is attached to the shock leader using a small black barrel swivel. The heavy 10-foot length of 50-pound fluorocarbon leader is used to help land large kingfish that may wrap and possibly cut the fishing line around the shell-clad pier pilings.

Kingfish hooks and sizes depend on the size of the live baits. A standard live bait hook is a No. 1 4X treble hook barbed just behind the dorsal fin when fishing right on the surface with a float attached to the main line.

Fishing on the bottom with a 1- to 4-ounce egg weight attached to the main line will also attract kingfish, cobia, jack crevalle, and more. Here a 2/0 to 5/0 circle hook is barbed just behind the anal fin so that the live bait swims up off from the bottom.

Pier live bait fishermen use a variety of hooks and hook sizes when live baiting pier kingfish.

During one hot kingfish bite from the Jacksonville Pier, 21 kingfish were landed along with a few cobia and jack crevalle!

Kingfish and other larger fish are captured by lowering a gang hook with a long rope. Smaller fish, like whiting, are simply reeled right up to the pier. Medium size fish are captured by lowering a large hoop net and sliding the tired fish into the net.

WHEN YOU GO

There is a daily fee for fishing on the pier of $5. Residents pay $4. An annual pass is $300. Fishing license not required; it is covered in the pier entry fee.

The new Jacksonville Beach Pier was constructed in 2022 after damage from hurricanes Mathew, October 2016 and Irma, October 2017. The pier was constructed eight feet higher and fitted with wooden decking specially designed so that hurricanes may loosen and destroy the decking but not the main pier structure.

A list of rules is posted at the entrance of the pier including no cast netting from the pier and no overhand casting of lures or baits. Fishermen are allowed to fish no more than three rods.

The Jacksonville Pier is located at 503 1st Street N., Jacksonville, Florida, 32250.

For more information, visit thejaxpier.com or call (904) 372-0798. The website has links to live cams including a wide view of the pier and also surf conditions north and south of the pier.

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This article was featured in the March 2025 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe.

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