Inshore:
Springtime weather has invaded the Treasure Coast, bringing warm temperatures, much needed rain and a few windy days this week. It was a great time to be fishing the area. A cool front went through over the weekend and cooled the water a little, but it warmed back up quick enough to keep the trout happy most days. We should continue to see nicer weather each week.
I had some very good anglers on board this week and we found trout most days. I had Adrian from Jensen Beach and his brother. They caught trout up to 24" this week. John and his dad, Bill were out with me and caught a good number of nice trout up to 28". We found most in two to four feet of water. Using live shrimp, jerk baits and twitch baits mostly this week, we fished most days north of the bridges in Fort Pierce. The east shore is still pretty clean on most of the river. We fished from the Moorings south. Look for grassy flats with sandy areas scattered around.
We found a number of redfish around the river and Mark Amorello boated a nice 22" redfish. They have been skittish of late, but the way Mark's redfish hit....they are getting more active. Look on the shallow flats during the heat of the day for them to be sunning and feeding themselves. We have found lots of bait on the flats. I have several reports of redfish caught on the east side from Bear Point south to the Power Plant.
Snook fishing has been mostly at night, but we are finding lots of them on the edges of the flats chasing bait. Weather and winds permitting, look around the docks early in the mornings also. Live baits have been working best and some of the night anglers are catching shorts, slots and a few oversized ones.
Bridges have been holding sheephead, sand perch and black drum. There have been catches of croakers, but I haven't had many reports of them as yet. Pompano turned on for some anglers along the beaches this week. I received a number of reports of nice pompano catches by those using shrimp or sand fleas in the surf. Bluefish, Spanish mackerel and jacks have been hanging around the inlet and surf. Grouper have been hitting around the turning basin for us a couple of days this week. Ladyfish and jacks are everywhere!
Tip of the Week: Size and bag limits on fish in our area have been set over the years to help keep our fish population healthy and increasing each year. Slot sizes on snook, trout and redfish are in place to keep the larger female fish out there to breed for the future generations of anglers. I had the misfortune of watching a family catch and kill a 40" snook and pretend to revive it until everyone had left. As I left, I watched them scurry to get it loaded and out of there before any law enforcement could have arrived. It was sad to see a beautiful specimen taken out of the spawning population.
As always, remember, fishing is not just another hobby....it's an ADVENTURE!!
Good Fishing and Be Safe,
Captain Charlie Conner
www.fishtalescharter.com
email: captaincharlie@fishtalescharter.com
772-284-3852
