The pier that sets the pace
Navarre Beach sits in Santa Rosa County, on the Gulf side east of Pensacola Beach. VISIT FLORIDA describes it as a place that has slid under the radar, with emerald water, wide uncrowded sand and a pace that makes people forget their email. Santa Rosa County manages the beach, and its centerpiece is the Navarre Beach Pier.
Santa Rosa County bills it as the longest pier in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. It reaches 1,545 feet out from the sand and stands 30 feet above the water, high enough that anglers can watch schools of fish, rays and dolphins move below them. A privately run bait and tackle shop on site rents rods, and there is an outdoor restaurant for anyone who just wants the view and the sunset.
The pier has rules that tell you how seriously it is fished. No fish of any kind may be left on the deck, there are no cleaning tables, no lights are allowed, and sabiki rigs are banned on the octagon at the far end, where all extra tackle, coolers and carts must stay in the middle, away from the rail. In winter the gates open at 5 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.; in summer they stay open until 11 p.m.
Ling, lemonfish, cobia
A UF/IFAS Extension article from Escambia County counts a string of names for this fish: ling, cabio, lemonfish, crabeater, black kingfish and sergeant fish, among others. Cobia is the accepted one, but along the Florida Panhandle most people still say ling. The Cajun name is limon, which may be where lemonfish came from.
Cobia hate cold water. The same article explains that Gulf fish head south toward the Florida Keys for winter, then push back up the coast and westward across the Panhandle each spring on their way to breeding grounds in the northern part of their range. An adult averages about five feet and can top 100 pounds, and its low, flat head makes it look a lot like a shark from the side. When one cruises past a pier this tall, everyone on the rail sees it at once.
Keeping one means following a short, strict FWC rule. Measured from the snout to the fork, a legal cobia is 36 inches or longer. Each angler may take a single fish, and no boat may come home with more than two. Legal gear covers hook and line, cast nets, seines, gigs and spears.
