OG forum guys

[Dave]

I’ve been around on here for a long time. And I’m old enough that I can’t remember how long lol.
My early years (early 70’s) was spent in Mobile so I fished the old pier a lot through the years. Taught my kids to fish on the pier - just returned from a trip down where my wife and I, three kids, son in law & 3 month old grandson all fished the pier on multiple days. Good Lord willing, when I retire I’ll be back down there, or close and I’ll get to go much more than now.

[Allen529]

Ive been here a day or two and enjoyed reading everyone's fishing reports and stories. It "inspired" me to write my own more as a story than a book report.

[1000 Miles Away]

I have been a member of the forum since 2011, started fishing the pier for the first time in 2009 when I didn't understand the pier had just been rebuilt.
I am from the Chicago suburbs and vacation in Gulf Shores, just love so many things down there.
Started taking regular trips and fishing long enough to have known Pete, Finchaser actually fished on a regular basis, John G stoppin out each morning with a few king rigs and cigar minnows to hook up on a couple kings before heading to the shop, Peaches snaking a king away from the less experienced (me), and I have proudly graduated from a tourist to a regular.
As others can say the same thing, people back home wonder how I can fish alone, well, I go to the pier alone but there are plenty of familiar faces and each year new ones that I meet and fish with if only for a few days of when our trips match. Nobody on the pier fishes alone!
Yes, it was so different a number of years ago, an octi, no sharks, plenty of kings, the daily red and spanish runs just to name a few.
With the pier damaged and too many sharks I miss seeing Slim, Sunshine, Haywire, and others on a regular basis. I MISS THE OCTI but not nearly as much as you that live there.
Even not fishing, there was nothing like sitting around the tables talking or just listening to everyone. Especially professor Pier#er. Always put a smile on my face when Lou was out there looking for that spanish handout. I was gifted many a fish that you good fisher men and woman caught that I was able to take back home.
After returning home from my last trip I knew I had to make a decision right away if I wanted to book my condo for next year.
There was a good chance there would still be no octi, lots of sharks, less fish, regulars that I would not see again for those reasons as well as others, yes, I too miss walking on the pier to say good morning to Harley (I make sure to say hi to the plaque) or share the rail with Garrett.
Well, my deciasion was to book for 2023...!!!
So many factors I cannot control, but what I can do is enjoy what is there when I get there.
I will enjoy the company of other people happy to be there, for sure David Lea will be bouncing around. I will fish, and maybe even catch.
Sure, I could go east to one of the Florida Piers but, I won't be at one of my happy places. I will be that much happier when I walk into J&M and see Michael Sawyer or John G or on the pier when Lloyd stops out or I get to see that yellow Haywire flag walk out on the pier. My trip migh even be the same week as Iron Man if he and his gaffs decide to return.
Some day (I hope for all of you) the pier will be repaired and Slim and Sunshine will be there every morning putting on a clinic, but until then I will enjoy what is there and appreciate who I see or what I catch. Just being there.
Gulf Shores and the pier will ALWAYS be a special place for me and will make many more memories in the future - whatever state it is in because there are outside things I can't control.
THANK YOU to my pier family, locals, regulars, tourists, and even the occasional googan that give us all a bit of a laugh before someone steps in to give them a hand.
The pier is not the same as it once was but it is still a special place over many other places to be but mostly for the people.
I don't want to miss out on that part.

[ironman172]

Sad as it is, very well said..... lost my regular stay in gulf shores(sold) and don't think I could match, what I found in PCB for a place to stay for the month of October ..... where I fished a lot till the rebuild of GS pier ....now with 2 full piers to choose from , way cheaper (my middle name ....cheap) maybe some might venture east to fish during my stay, or a few trips for me to the west like last fall trip and saw a few GS regulars

[Mr. Cleland]

I'm definitely not OG here.. but as I think back... I was a younger man with a lot more freedom and less responsibility when I discovered the pier and the forum... I was standing on Cedar point later one evening, playing scoop with a net and a bull red when a young guy told me how much better the fishing was at 'Gulf State Pier'.. so I tried it once and I was hooked.
I would come down every few weeks and camp and fish...
After a few kids and a mortgage that got harder and harder to just go fish whenever. Now after a divorce, a new marriage, more kids, a farm, it's nearly impossible to load up everyone just so I can fish..
Thankfully though, my youngest kids loved their 1st trip to the pier and beach so I'm pretty sure if they beg momma enough.... daddy will get to at least watch the kids play during the day and maybe sneak a shrimp in the shallows after bed time.

[Kraken]

Its crazy to see how some of the lives of OG's have turned out. I personally stopped fishing at the pier when the sharks showed up. I fished the old, old pier, the old pier (current pier minus updates), and the current pier. Back in the old days and then up to 2014ish we just didnt have the shark problem we have today. The worst we had to deal with was remoras.

The sharks plus lack of an octi make it really unpleasurable to fish there after having fished the pier so many great seasons before. It was a lot cheaper on tackle, too.