Inshore Fishing Report
Our summertime Snook fishing is in full swing here on the Treasure Coast. If you’re looking to try to catch a trophy sized Snook, this is a great time of the year to give it a shot! There have still been good numbers of Snook schooled up in the inlet. Look for the schools around the south detached jetty, along the beach by the Hole in the Wall, in the Crossroads as well as on the beaches to the north and south of the inlet. Fishing live baits such as Croakers, Pilchards and Threadfins have been the most effective baits in the inlet. Some of the schools haven’t been as cooperative when it comes to getting bites from them, but if you find yourself in that situation, it is best to move onto trying to find the next school. We’ve been getting a steady supply of Croakers here at the shop and should have a steady supply throughout the summer weather permitting. Don’t be afraid to shoot out the inlet to fish some of the nearshore wrecks and reefs this time of year as they will commonly be found out there. Fishing bridges and docks in both the St. Lucie and the Indian River should result in a few fish as well. The concrete blocks underneath the causeways have been holding some big Snook, be sure to have some heavy tackle if you plan on going to battle there! There are also a lot of Goliath Groupers and you will occasionally find a Black or Gag Grouper mixed in with the Goliaths underneath those concrete blocks (keep in mind Gag Grouper season closed On 6/14). When we get the high afternoon temperatures, the water will heat up a good bit as well. When that water heats up you will want to focus on areas with deeper water and moving current as the fish will tend to move to those areas. If you’re looking to fish in the evening into the night, the dock light fishing has been pretty good. You will see that the fish may feed more at night in the lights due to the water temperatures cooling down after the sun sets. Anglers fishing from shore can look to get in on some Snook action on the beaches, at the Jensen Causeway, at Indian Riverside Park, the Ft. Pierce jetty and wading north of the power plant in the mornings and evenings. At the causeway they have been feeding pretty consistently on shrimp and crabs that have been flowing through on the outgoing tides in the evenings. Free lining crabs or shrimp as well as fishing a shrimp on a jighead will give you a good shot at hooking up. If you are looking to fish artificials; NLBN paddle tails, Vudu or Thumper Shrimp and Yozuri Crystal Minnows have all been solid choices.
With the crabs starting to flow through at the causeways, the Tarpon bite has really started to turn on. You will want to focus on fishing the outgoing tides if you’re looking to find them there. The Tarpon have been around during the daytime, evening and night outgoing tides at both the Jensen and Stuart causeways. You can free line a crab or free line a larger live mullet to give you the best chance at hooking up. Adding a float on your line isn’t a bad idea either to keep your bait up on the surface where the Tarpon have been feeding. There has been some steady Tarpon fishing just north of the inlet, primarily on the stretch from Bathtub Beach to Stuart Beach in the mornings and evenings. Fishing live mullet or threadfins have been the best options there. The North Fork of the river has been holding some Tarpon as well, if you’re looking to throw artificials, they love to eat a DOA Terror Eyz up that way! If you’re just looking to hook into a drag screamer, there have been plenty of big Jacks around too!
There have been a few Redfish around mixed in with the schools of Snook at the inlet as well as at the causeways. Anglers fishing live shrimp have been able to pick away at Mangrove Snappers around structure here inshore. If you’re looking to weed through some of the smaller ones, fishing a small pilchard or pinfish on a jighead is a great strategy to catch some of the bigger ones mixed in when they’re around. We typically see our biggest Snapper here inshore during the summer months. Those fishing live shrimp have also run into Flounder, Sheepshead, Black Drum and a variety of other species. Keep in mind that July is typically the toughest time of the year to get live shrimp. The water heats up in the gulf and the shrimp will bury themselves in the mud to stay cool, when that happens our shrimpers aren’t able to catch them. The few shrimp that are caught are very small and face higher chances of die off on the ride over due to the warm water. Please be patient with us when it comes to the live shrimp as we are at the shrimper’s mercy, feel free to call the shop for updates when the shrimp supply becomes difficult.
Offshore Fishing Report
The offshore bite has been productive for anglers both fishing the bottom and on the surface. The surface bite has consisted of Sailfish, Kingfish, Mahis, Blackfin Tuna and a few Wahoo. The majority of the action has come from the Sails and Kings as of late. The Sailfish have been caught in as close as 60’ and scattered all the way out to 400’. Finding the proper conditions to fish will greatly increase your chances of finding them when they are spread out, it isn’t always about how deep the bite has been because it can change on a daily basis. Those conditions can be things as little as clean water breaks, current changes, weedlines or water temperature changes. Typically areas with those conditions will hold some sort of life which could be the fish you’re targeting or a school of bait that may bring that fish you are looking for in. Our summer Sailfish bite has been pretty good over the past few years and it is looking like this will be another good year as several boats have managed days with over ten hookups on Sails over the past few weeks. The Kingfish bite has been pretty good at the Six Mile as well as down to the south off the Loran Tower. You can expect to find them scattered in the 60’-90’ range both to the north and south of the inlet but expect to find them in better numbers around the reefs. The Mahi fishing has slowed down a good bit which is typical for this time of year with a lot of the Mahis that have been caught have been in the ‘peanut’ or schoolie sized class. There have been a few gaffers around and you can’t ever rule out a big bull being around when you’re out there though! Looking for signs of life and the proper conditions will be the key to catching them if you’re on the Mahi hunt, also don’t be afraid to run out deep as there have been some nice fish caught by those on the swordfishing grounds and by those running to the Bahamas. Typically if you can find a piece of floating structure even as small as a piece of wood out in the 1000ft range there will usually be some Mahis around it. There have been some Blackfins caught out on Pushbutton Hill in the morning as well as some mixed in the 120’-160’ range. There haven’t been crazy numbers of Blackfins like we had in the spring, but there are definitely some around. Fishing live baits this time of year typically out produces trolling. Bait has been pretty consistent to the north of the inlet, but it has also been tough at times. If you don’t want to stress about bait, reserve your baits with Stuart Live Bait the night before, they do tend to sell out so preordering is definitely not a bad idea, 772-985-0425. Bryan and Mike have been right in front of Sandsprit on the water in the mornings typically with Threadfins, Pilchards and Goggle Eyes. For those live bait fishing; kite fishing, bump trolling baits or just drifting have all been effective strategies. It’s also never a bad idea to stagger your baits and fish them at different depths especially when the sun gets up higher to cover more water.
For those bottom fishing, Gag Grouper season closed for us here on June 14th so they will all unfortunately have to be catch and release going forward until the season reopens next year. The Snowy Grouper season also closed on June 30th. If you are looking to bring home some Grouper for dinner, Red, Black, Scamp and Yellowedge Grouper are all still open. Our Red Snapper ‘mini season’ sadly got even shorter this year. Red Snapper will be open for recreational anglers for one day only on Friday, July 12th and anglers will be permitted one fish per person. Remember to have a descending device and venting tool on board if you are planning on bottom fishing especially during our Red Snapper day as they are required and FWC will be checking boats. We have both available here at the shop. The Mangrove Snapper bite has been really good on structure in the 80’-110’ range and that action should continue to heat up. They tend to prefer concrete structure on the bottom, but will also be found on some of the natural reefs. You can target them fishing live baits, typically Pilchards will be your best option and they can also be caught using chicken rigs with chunks of sardines. All the Mangroves caught in the picture below on the DayMaker were caught using chicken rigs, they wouldn’t touch the live baits that day. The Mutton Snapper bite was definitely off to a slower start this year but appears to be picking up. Fishing long leaders on reefs in the 70’-90’ range with grunt plugs, larger dead baits or live baits will be your best approach for them. A few guys have been Snapper fishing at night and have been doing really well. We’ve had steady numbers of Vermillion Snapper caught out around Pushbutton Hill, there have also been plenty of Amberjacks on the bottom at PushButton too.
Surf Fishing Report
The Whiting and Croaker fishing was hot to start the month out and the bite stayed pretty good up until the middle of the month when it started to slow down a bit for us. It started to slow down after we had a few periods of windy days which made the water pretty dirty, typically when the water is dirty the bite shuts down for the Whiting and Croakers. The winds have died down and we’ve gotten back to our summertime conditions to end the month and the bite appears to be picking back up for us off the beaches. The fish that have been caught have all been up in the first trough so you don’t want to cast out too far. Sometimes you will need to move around to different beaches to find the fish, but it still seems that the best window to catch them is an hour before the high tide mark and into the high tide. The hot baits have been the Chartreuse Shine Shrimp and Bloodworm FishBites tipped with pieces of shrimp if you’re looking to get a nice cooler full of Whiting and Croaker. The Snook have still been out on the beaches for those looking to get in on that action. Typically your better fishing for them will be around the high tides and in the morning or evening. The morning and evening windows will give you a better chance to get bit on artificials. White paddle tails, Yozuri Crystal Minnows and twitch baits are all solid choices if you’re going the artificial route. It’s always a good idea to have a rod with a sabiki tied on in the event of some bait moving down the beach. You can catch the threadfins or pilchards with the sabiki and free line them right in the first trough, live Croakers are also a great choice to free line. There have been some Tarpon cruising the beaches, but the majority of them have been out of casting range. We do tend to start seeing them come a little closer when the bait schools get up close to the beach.
Lake Okeechobee Fishing Report – Capt. Angie Douthit
Lake Okeechobee water levels have been slowly coming down and is currently around 12.50
mark so use extreme caution running your boat especially when getting on/off plane. With
levels getting lower, it’s a great time to fish the canal system and Kissimmee River for bass,
bream and crappie around the river pilings early in the mornings. You’ll find the bream beds
along the river’s edge as well as bass chasing/feeding on the spawning bream. When I fish the
River this time of year for bass it’s a great time to use deep diving crank baits around ledges and
drop-offs in colors crawdad; shad and bream and Carolina rigs rigged with creature-style baits;
big worms; senkos and flukes in colors Junebug; red bug; black/blue; white and tilapia. This
time of year I like to start early in the morning and get my 6 hours of fishing in before the heat
of the mid-day and/or before possible afternoon t-storms or heavy rain. If you’re fishing the
lake for bass and bream, an area that’s produced steady bites has been around Tin House and
Kings Bar if you’re launching from Scott Driver or Okeetantie ramp located on the Kissimmee
River. If you’re coming from the West, launch at Harney Pond canal but be sure to stop by Big
Water Bait & Tackle for all your tackle needs before heading out to fish around Dyess Ditch;
Monkey Box and Horse Island. Some areas in/around the Shoal have been producing bass and
bream bites around the more grassier/maiden cane areas. Other bass lures that are catching
are swim baits/jigs; some top water worked slowly like Zara spooks and a devil horse; spinner
baits worked on/near the outside grass edges; flipping/pitching creature-style lures; big worms
and senkos. Remember, this is a good time of year to fish deeper water areas and avoid
running the lake and possible lower unit issues if you’re unsure. The canal system such as the
J&S area; the River and canal down around South Bay and Slims fish camp holds quality fish and
produces a lot of fun action..keep an eye out for schooling fish. To book you’re next fun and
educational day fishing Lake Okeechobee call me at 863-228-7263 or log onto my website at
www.southfloridabassfishing.com where you’ll find up-to-date customer pics and their catches;
past fishing reports; pricing and etc. I am currently taking deposits for the upcoming season so
book early to get your preferred date(s). Thanks to my sponsors: Toho Marine in St. Cloud,
Florida; Gill; Bullet Weights; BnM Poles; Mercury; G-Loomis; Lews; Pradco Brands; Gene Larew;
Mid South Tackle and Megastrike.
