02-18-2004, 01:27 PM
Starting outside the St. Lucie Inlet, mackerel continue to dominate the near-shore scene. A few days ago, I took an afternoon charter down to Peck’s Lake and caught a bunch simply trolling Gulfstream’s minnow jigs along with Joe’s jigging spoons. With a stiff west wind, most boats were anchored 20 feet off the beach and casting lures and tossing glass minnow chum to keep the fish in the area. I even noticed several commercial fishermen using hooks and lines. There are still plenty of fish out there and should remain here another month or so. The largest Spanish mackerel I’ve seen lately have been around Hell’s Gate. Incoming tide is best but we are still catching some nice fish on the outgoing tide up to 5 lbs.
Inside the inlet and near-shore the snook are showing up in nice numbers. The average size is only about 24” but a few barely in the slot are mixed in. These fish are hitting shrimp, jigs and soft rubber baits such as the root beer DOA CAL lure. Along with the linesiders are a mixture of sheephead, snapper, jacks, pompano and a few flounder. The crossroads area during the past few weeks has been a disappointment only producing scattered ladyfish, pompano and blue runners.
Black drum, croaker and snook have been at the 10-cent and Roosevelt bridges, but they are down deep. Bouncing a flair hawk or shrimp tipped jig should produce some nice action. Monday the water looked great on the outgoing in Hell’s Gate. I hope it stays this way for the tarpon and snook in the near future. These species don’t require clean water, but the bait schools that attract them do!
Sailfish flats the past few weeks and the flats outside Indian Riverside Park have been holding the pompano. We’ve been seeing a mixture of drum, sheephead, croaker, snapper and a few big snook down deep near area bridges.
I haven’t targeted trout in a couple of weeks. The reports I hear each morning at my “breakfast club” indicate spotty trout action. My buddy, Sonny, caught seven snook with three in the slot a few days ago. Sorry, I can’t tell you where he fishes in fear of losing his reports. All in all, things are looking pretty good out there. Water temps are rising, making snooking a bit easier. Five more degrees and look out for the tarpon and tripletail to make an appearance.
Finally, our Dry Tortugas trip February 11-13 was a blast! Seas stayed under 2 feet the entire trip making it a real pleasure. I caught mutton snapper to 18 lbs. and grouper to 14 lbs. with a few yellowtail mixed in. A few of my friends did better, with Barry (down from Jersey) catching 18 muttons and a number of black grouper. Barry is die-hard when it comes to bottom fishing. He normally fishes four trips back to back. He’s 70 years young and I don’t think I could keep that pace. If you ever fish the Yankee Capts. out of Key West and see an elderly man fishing the pulpit who’s slaying the fish, it’s probably Barry. Another buddy, Mike, did well catching two black grouper to 45 lbs. along with several muttons and grouper. The pool winner was a 250 lb. Goliath grouper caught the first night. The most interesting catch was a 50 lb. cobia, free-gaffed by one of the mates. This guy held on for dear life for about two minutes before hauling the “green monster” over the rail. Quite a sight!
Capt. Bob Bushholz
http://www.catch22fish.com
(772) 225-6436
Inside the inlet and near-shore the snook are showing up in nice numbers. The average size is only about 24” but a few barely in the slot are mixed in. These fish are hitting shrimp, jigs and soft rubber baits such as the root beer DOA CAL lure. Along with the linesiders are a mixture of sheephead, snapper, jacks, pompano and a few flounder. The crossroads area during the past few weeks has been a disappointment only producing scattered ladyfish, pompano and blue runners.
Black drum, croaker and snook have been at the 10-cent and Roosevelt bridges, but they are down deep. Bouncing a flair hawk or shrimp tipped jig should produce some nice action. Monday the water looked great on the outgoing in Hell’s Gate. I hope it stays this way for the tarpon and snook in the near future. These species don’t require clean water, but the bait schools that attract them do!
Sailfish flats the past few weeks and the flats outside Indian Riverside Park have been holding the pompano. We’ve been seeing a mixture of drum, sheephead, croaker, snapper and a few big snook down deep near area bridges.
I haven’t targeted trout in a couple of weeks. The reports I hear each morning at my “breakfast club” indicate spotty trout action. My buddy, Sonny, caught seven snook with three in the slot a few days ago. Sorry, I can’t tell you where he fishes in fear of losing his reports. All in all, things are looking pretty good out there. Water temps are rising, making snooking a bit easier. Five more degrees and look out for the tarpon and tripletail to make an appearance.
Finally, our Dry Tortugas trip February 11-13 was a blast! Seas stayed under 2 feet the entire trip making it a real pleasure. I caught mutton snapper to 18 lbs. and grouper to 14 lbs. with a few yellowtail mixed in. A few of my friends did better, with Barry (down from Jersey) catching 18 muttons and a number of black grouper. Barry is die-hard when it comes to bottom fishing. He normally fishes four trips back to back. He’s 70 years young and I don’t think I could keep that pace. If you ever fish the Yankee Capts. out of Key West and see an elderly man fishing the pulpit who’s slaying the fish, it’s probably Barry. Another buddy, Mike, did well catching two black grouper to 45 lbs. along with several muttons and grouper. The pool winner was a 250 lb. Goliath grouper caught the first night. The most interesting catch was a 50 lb. cobia, free-gaffed by one of the mates. This guy held on for dear life for about two minutes before hauling the “green monster” over the rail. Quite a sight!
Capt. Bob Bushholz
http://www.catch22fish.com
(772) 225-6436