04-01-2003, 01:30 AM
On a scale from 1 to 10, fishing south of the Stuart Causeway has gone from a 10 to a 0 within a week. Three factors have contributed to our water’s demise. (1) Strong north winds on Monday stirred up the ICW, (2) water releases from the spillways making our water look like old Maxwell House coffee and (3) bright green slimy grass, so thick in the inlet it was virtually impossible to fish. It may be an algae bloom or that foreign algae everyone’s talking about that’s invading our waterways, but something really needs to be done. I sure hope Riverkeepers stays on top of this one.
This morning I decided to fish north of the Stuart Causeway to the Power Plant where the water is 100% better. A few trout made an appearance right off the bat along with jacks to 5 lbs. On the markers, four tripletail to 12 lbs., a 5 lb. gag grouper and more jacks in the 5-lb. range couldn’t wait to take the bait. Needless to say, I’m probably fishing north most of the month of April.
Prior to Monday, we caught 18 snook with 6 in the slot taken from bridges and the St. Lucie Inlet. Outside the rocks, nice sheepshead to 4 lbs. and scattered schools of large jack crevalles to 25 lbs. provided some great rod-pulling action. The black drum action since January has been fast and furious, with too many to count in the 12 lbs. and under range. There’s been great ladyfish action in the Sailfish flats with scattered pompano skipping in the area until Monday, March 24 when the water quality went sour. My advice for a while is to head north. Maybe in a few weeks the water will clean up and the big tarpon will magically appear. Remember, even a bad day fishing (even though there’s no such thing as a “bad” day fishing) is better than the best day working. (I guess I can consider myself lucky since fishing is my “work”!)
Capt. Bob Bushholz
http://www.catch22fish.com
(772) 225-6436
[signature]
This morning I decided to fish north of the Stuart Causeway to the Power Plant where the water is 100% better. A few trout made an appearance right off the bat along with jacks to 5 lbs. On the markers, four tripletail to 12 lbs., a 5 lb. gag grouper and more jacks in the 5-lb. range couldn’t wait to take the bait. Needless to say, I’m probably fishing north most of the month of April.
Prior to Monday, we caught 18 snook with 6 in the slot taken from bridges and the St. Lucie Inlet. Outside the rocks, nice sheepshead to 4 lbs. and scattered schools of large jack crevalles to 25 lbs. provided some great rod-pulling action. The black drum action since January has been fast and furious, with too many to count in the 12 lbs. and under range. There’s been great ladyfish action in the Sailfish flats with scattered pompano skipping in the area until Monday, March 24 when the water quality went sour. My advice for a while is to head north. Maybe in a few weeks the water will clean up and the big tarpon will magically appear. Remember, even a bad day fishing (even though there’s no such thing as a “bad” day fishing) is better than the best day working. (I guess I can consider myself lucky since fishing is my “work”!)
Capt. Bob Bushholz
http://www.catch22fish.com
(772) 225-6436
[signature]