Slamming the Spanish Macks

This weekend i ventured to Anna Maria Island. It was a beautiful day but the water happened to be quite cold. The first few hours of fishing were not successful. Usually i see lots of snook running the beaches but they weren't because of the cold water. I hadn't caught anything for the first hour so i went on down to the local pier. The rod and reel pier is a great fishing pier as well as a restaurant out on the water. I bought some shrimp and tossed one line out bottom fishing. The other i was fishing around the pier pillars for sheepshead. The sheepshead at the pier are quite big and lots of people were catching them. I just didn't have the luck. I left to the beach house and grabbed a bite still eager for a big fish. Then i journeyed back to the beach. I was walking down the beach fishing a Zoom pink fluke under a red jig head. I caught a little puffer fish. Then a crazy splashing erupted 40 feet from the shore. My first thought was jack crevalle. So i waded out and casted to the middle of the school. I did a quick reel and jerk across the water and got a bite. A quick hook set got me in to a great fish. After a few minutes i reeled in a nice Spanish Mackerel.It turns out that a few dolphins chased a huge school of macks inshore. The other good thing was the amount of bait inshore. The mackerel were jumping everywhere. The bite was hot. I was using a 6.5 foot rod and my quantum escalade reel. Overall i caught around 10 Mackerel. One fish i caught was the biggest Spanish mackerel I've ever caught. There was a boat that spotted the commotion of fish breaking the surface. They chase the schools around the schools around the flats but didn't catch one fish while I'm at shore catching tons of fish. A few fish i hooked up with snapped my line. One even snapped my 20 pound leader. I used a ton of pink flukes. The Mackerel have big sharp teeth. If i would of had the kayak out there i would have caught a million. Hopefully i will be back to slay them again.