VILANO BEACH, Fla. – Darkness can be a prime time for anglers to catch some keepers because of the tides. One hot spot in St. Augustine has been too dark to hook the big ones, though. The lights have been out at the Vilano Beach pier at least since Hurricane Matthew.
It’s so dark that you can barely see the hand in front of your face in the predawn hours at the pier. Anglers said it’s been like this for months, and the St. Johns County officials said it will be even longer until the lights are back on at the Vilano Beach Pier.
IMAGES: See the darkness of the pier
"I don't understand why there's no lights whether they have a pier shut down for over eight months doing repairs," said Mil Dumore, who fished from the pier until the lights went out. "They should have at least put lights in, that's what I think.
"The pier shut down for a long time and they were doing repairs on it. When I first started fishing at night,there were lights. Now there's no lights on the pier. It's a safety hazard. I work here at beaches and a lot of times people walking back-and-forth, you can't even see them on the pier and it's less in just a few feet away."
Another angler said the county should fix the problem for safety reasons.
"I probably wouldn't come out. I wouldn't push it at night," said Nikki Austin. "I've been to a couple of piers in other states and it's nice, keeps you feeling safe. It's too dark out here to walk out here at night. You can't see what you're doing. I should bring a little lantern, even then, it's not enough. It's just going to be too difficult to do all the things you need to do to fish at night if it's too dark. I just wouldn't come out here. I would fish somewhere else."
The county said it is planning to light up the pier again, but it may take another 6 months. The officials were already doing work on the pier before Hurricane Matthew, and plan to finish the project with federal money.
Officials said they are waiting for a FEMA reimbursement, which is why it’s taking so long, they say. Matthew left significant damage in the area, some of which is still evident at the dock connected to the beach.