Hurricane Isaias came ashore on Friday, Oct. 9. The Navarre Beach Fishing Pier was the first thing in Santa Rosa County to take the hit. Navarre Press ran drone footage from Jason Stanley that showed sections of the pier missing after winds topping 100 mph and the storm surge came through.
Eleven days after landfall, the county scheduled the pier to reopen. Santa Rosa County's Hurricane Isaias Update #16, posted Saturday, Oct. 17, set it to open daily from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. starting Tuesday, Oct. 20. The same update says the county estimates 1.5 million cubic yards of storm debris. As of Oct. 17, crews had collected a little over 80,000 cubic yards of vegetative debris, and the county expects removal to run for several weeks. So the limb piles along your street are likely to outlast the pier closure. The pier's own storm history shows how unusual that is.
The Pier Before This One Kept Losing
The Navarre pier has been rebuilt over and over, and most of those rebuilds were forced by storms. Here is the record, drawn from a 2017 history in the Northwest Florida Daily News and a Florida Department of Environmental Protection pier design report:
- April 1963. An 800-foot wooden pier opened. It cost 60 cents to fish and 30 cents to watch.
- 1973. After years of rough weather, the pier was rebuilt in concrete.
- 1985 and 1995. Hurricane Elena punched a nearly 50-foot hole in it, and Hurricane Opal buckled it a decade later.
- April 26, 2000. The renovated pier reopened and drew 2,500 visitors a week under the Florida Park Service.
- September 2004. Hurricane Ivan destroyed the seaward T-section and weakened the concrete deck and supports along the whole length, according to the DEP report.
- July 2005. Hurricane Dennis took out two more sections of the already-damaged pier, including three bays, a shoreline section and what was left of the T-section. The Daily News reported that this ended any chance of repairing the old structure.
- June 5, 2010. The replacement pier opened.
Ivan kept Navarre without its pier for six years. In the meantime, the Daily News reported, anglers drove to the Pensacola Beach or Okaloosa Island piers. One longtime angler said he took a 14-foot Zodiac out within 10 miles of Navarre Beach instead.
What Changed in 2010
The county didn't rebuild the old pier on its old footprint. It built a bigger one. Santa Rosa County Engineer Roger Blaylock told the Daily News that contractor Ed Waters donated labor and equipment to add about 100 feet while the county paid for materials. That made the pier 1,545 feet long, the longest reaching into the Gulf of Mexico. It is 30 feet wide and stands 30 feet above the water. The full budget, including tearing down the old pier, was $8.43 million, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency covered 90 percent of it.
The pier was also built with storms in mind. According to the pier's own facts page, the pilings go into the sandy bottom at a 20-degree angle so the pier stays stable in storms. The outer pilings reach six feet beyond the pier at the waterline. The deck also sits 30 feet up, so more of the storm passes underneath it.
The new design has held up before. After Hurricane Sally, Santa Rosa County's Sept. 19, 2020 update said the pier was open for business as usual and all repairs had been made. Isaias was a harder test. It made landfall near Destin as a Category 2 with 105 mph winds, and the Pensacola News Journal reported that County Administrator Brad Baker didn't believe a single square mile of the county's 1,147 had come through unscathed. The pier came out with missing sections and still had a reopening date within days.
When the 2010 pier first opened, less than two months after the Deepwater Horizon spill, longtime angler Pat Huggins told the Daily News it was packed "elbow to elbow."
"We're used to recovering from disasters. We bounce back."
What to Expect on the Pier This Week
The reopening isn't a return to normal yet. The Pensacola News Journal described the pier as scheduled to partially open on Oct. 20. The county's update says the pier "will be reopened daily" and doesn't say which sections, if any, stay roped off. Plan on a shorter walk than usual.
The county also asks anglers to bring their own ice, since the pier won't have any until further notice. Bait is expected back in stock by Thursday, Oct. 22. So pack a cooler of ice from home, and if you're heading out early in the week, bring your own bait too.
Here are the posted admission rates from the pier's website:
| Pass | Daily | Weekly |
|---|---|---|
| Adult fishing | $7 | $45 |
| Senior and active-duty military fishing | $6 | $40 |
| Youth fishing, 15 and under | $4 | $25 |
| Walking | $1 | $5 |
| Ages 5 and under | Free | — |
Admission is free for disabled veterans and for visitors who are mobility or visually impaired. The pier has an accessible entrance ramp and 16 accessible railing spots. You can rent a rod at the privately run bait and tackle shop.
The licensing setup makes the pier an easy place to bring out-of-town family. The pier says its fishing admission includes a fishing license. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says nonresidents generally have to buy a 3-day, 7-day or annual saltwater license unless a charter or pier license covers them. Florida residents fishing from shore or from a structure attached to land can get the free resident shoreline license. Licensing rules change and every angler's situation is different, so treat this as general information rather than legal advice, and check with FWC before you cast.
What's Biting in Late October and November
The pier's best fall fishing lines up with the reopening. FWC's Escambia and Santa Rosa fishing guide lists flounder as a spring and fall catch, red drum as year-round, spotted seatrout in spring and early winter, and Spanish and king mackerel in late spring and early fall. A Navarre seasonal fishing guide goes into more detail:
- October: redfish, flounder, pompano, black drum and sheepshead
- November: whiting, redfish, sheepshead, black drum and speckled trout
- From the pier in fall: kings, Spanish mackerel and redfish, with the odd tarpon earlier in the season
The pier's facts page notes that it sits in federally designated critical habitat for the Gulf sturgeon. Dumping fish waste, bait or monofilament line is prohibited, and recycling stations for line are posted along the rails.
Around the Pier, Recovery Is Uneven
The pier is reopening ahead of a lot of the island. Windjammers, the restaurant at the foot of the pier, had a makers' market pop-up planned for Oct. 17. NAV BCH postponed it while the restaurant and pier crew focused on recovery, so call ahead before you plan lunch there. Down the beach, Navarre Press reported that SpringHill Suites and its Beach House Social restaurant closed for roof repairs and reopened Oct. 13.
On the mainland, the Jay, Pace and Gulf Breeze libraries were set to reopen Monday, Oct. 19, with extra computers for people working through recovery paperwork. The Navarre Library stayed closed until further notice. The Milton Library is expected back Monday, Oct. 26. As of Oct. 17, Bagdad Boat Ramp, Bagdad Recreational Park and Tiger Point Park were still closed, while the county's other parks were open apart from marked caution areas.
Before the storm, the county's fall calendar had Bands on the Blackwater in Milton on Oct. 23 and 30 and Creekfest '26 on Nov. 21 and 22. That schedule was posted Sept. 17, before Isaias, so check with the organizers before you go.
The Navarre pier was out of reach for six years after Ivan. After Isaias, it was scheduled to open again within two weeks, while the county was still hauling away limbs and fallen fencing.
Our team at PHD Realty works across Santa Rosa County, from Navarre Beach up to Jay, and we've been following the recovery here along with everyone else. If the storm has you weighing questions about a property you own or are thinking about buying, Contact Us. We're glad to talk it through, even if all you need is a straight answer.
