Pier Pressure Part 4

  About 8 miles to the north of the Church St. Pier was a large public community pier in the town of Fulton. Known appropriately as "The Fulton Pier", this was a very long very robust pier that many of the locals would congregate to on any given night. For many years, my family stayed at a hotel in the Town of Fulton called The Sportsman's Manor Hotel, which was within walking distance of the Fulton Pier.

  Probably my most memorable experience on the Fulton Pier was around 1988. My dad had an old 12' Shakespeare Wonder Rod that was mated with a Garcia/Mitchell Spinning Reel. It was a classic old surf fishing combo that I still have hanging from the rafters in my shop to this very day. I had decided I was going to take up residence on the very end of that pier with that surf combo and throw the largest chunk of cut bait as far out into Aransas Bay as possible, to catch the biggest thing that was swimming within casting distance of that T-head.

After a few hours, and several large chunks of bait lost to crabs, I was just about ready to give up. I committed to one more hour on the T-Head and made one last cast out into the depths of the bay. Now, I do not know if any of you have ever seen the movie JAWS, where Robert Shaw's character "Quint" is sitting on the back of the boat when that big Peen reel starts to sssslllooowwwlllyyyy click away as the shark runs with the bait. Well, that is exactly what happened here. That old Mitchell started to slowly purr as whatever had attached itself to the end of my line swam in direct opposition to the T-Head of that pier. I waited about 5 seconds then set the hook into something VERY large. It wasn't moving fast, but it was powerful and determined.

  As the drag started to sing on that old Mitchell, a crowd started to gather around to see what it was that I was doing battle with. As I continued to gain ground, someone showed up with a large dipnet with an extended handle on it to retrieve whatever it was that I had hooked. A few minutes later, we could see the leader....then a shadow of something under the lights of the pier. Then, it finally broke the surface. It was about a 60lb STINGRAY! While it gave a great account of itself before being brought to hand, it had virtually no value as table fare. The crowd sort of moaned and groaned as we were all expecting something much more exotic. Maybe not a mammoth Great White like Quint did battle with, but a 4-foot Blacktip or Bull Shark would have elicited a much different reaction from the crowd.
I hadn't been back to the Fulton Pier in quite some time...many years.

  When Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Rockport/Fulton area in 2016, we drove down to take a look. The Fulton Pier had suffered MAJOR damage and was unfishable for a year or two after that while repairs were made. I am happy to say though that the pier is in great working order now for more memories like mine to be made.

Hope you all are having a great week,

Andy