Spare, I can confirm those reports. We went down Friday night for a short weekend to fish out of Murrell's inlet sc. It was RUFF but we fished until 1 pm on Saturday catching about 7 or 8 spanish and 5 blues. Sunday it was RUFFER so we hit the surfside pier while the girls hit the beach next to the pier. No spanish were being caught off the pier but it was only because no one was trying for them. I sent out a gold hook rig and caught several blues before finally catching a small spanish @12.5 inches. It was slow so I gave up the jigging and opted for fresh shrimp on the bottom and caught a couple whiting. My buddy Chad had a nice hit on his shrimp which turned out to be a 2.5 lb weakie which was the talk of the pier. It was nice to be on "solid ground" during a blow and still get to fish. I cut my saltwater teeth on the planks and this was the first time in quite a while fishing from the pier. Fried about 20 fish last night consisting of bluefish, spanish, whiting and the summer trout not too bad for SNOTTY weather fishing! I've done worse!

sh!t willy, i was just thinking the same thing. a little 4 or 6 pound spinning outfit and you got yourself a fun afternoon.
i wish we got them up here.

ct, your right, a lot of fun on light tackle. a lot of guys will anchor up on a flat where it drops off to 6 to 8 ft and throw out chopped up minnows to get em started, then fly fish for them. they are pretty toothy so a good leader or small wire helps.

They sure are fun on a light rod. I used to jig the homemade sabiki rigs on the pier with coffe straws over multiple long shank gold hooks in the spring. I caught 5 keepers (12+ in.) at one time once and multiple 3 bangers. You had to reel fast or the sharks would have a nice lunch.

We went out Saturday out of Shalotte Inlet, NC after seeing and hearing reports of the Spanish jumping in the boat, there was one charter that had 70 of em the week before.

We got 2.

All the chatter on the VHF was how they were killing them the day before but no one was getting any the day we went.....just my luck.

Spanish are wacky in that the tide, sunlight and weather (& bait) play a big role in where they will be. The best you can do is try and it sounds like you must have done something right since you got a couple. When we fried them everybody liked the blues better any way. I like my Spanish grilled the same day caught.

Did you put some spoons on planers? I use a #2 and adjust the running depth by adding/taking up line. You don't have to let much line out to get your spoon down 20 + feet with a #2. A lot of people say to run a #1 but honestly I rarely catch them on a #1. One problem with a #2 is a small spanish sometimes aren't heavy enough to trip it and you end up pulling him around for a half hour hooked in the bottom lip with his jaw wide open. His belly fills with water and he drowns. When you finally pull him in he is DOA and water pours out of his mouth. So sad for the poor fishy LOL.