Saturday, May 30, 2015

Looking Around - Port St. Lucie



"The onshore flows of easterly winds continue. Rough surf and weeds are still a deterrent to surf casting on South Hutchinson Island. But all that being said the Snook, Croaker and big Jacks are swimming our beaches. On Tuesday after looking at Tiger Shores beach first and finding it unfishable due to the mass of weeds, I went to Santa Lucia and found breaks in the weed lines along the beach. The Croakers started biting immediately one hour before high tide and continued up to the time I left which was two hours during the falling tide. Like I had thought big Jacks made their presence and after getting broken off by two Jacks that were 15 to 20 pounds, I managed to land two that were between 7 and 10 pounds. Snook were present in the trough as you could see them swimming up and down the beach. With the abundance of weeds fishing a second rod with a live Croaker was impossible. When I left with approximately 40 big Croakers in the cooler, they were still biting. Sand Flea Fish Bites, Shrimp and strips of Clam were the baits of choice. The Jacks bit on the Sand Flea Fish Bites also.
Returning to Santa Lucia on Wednesday afternoon conditions had worsened as the wind was blowing a steady 20 knots out of the southeast making the surf very rough. I did manage to get one small Croaker out on a live bait rig that was eaten within 5 minutes by a large Snook. Unfortunately due to the conditions after a brief fight the hook pulled. I did see two slot Snook landed by two surf fishermen just to the south of me and they were live bait fishing also. We only managed to land about a dozen Croakers as the wind was picking up during the afternoon.
Time is running out to catch your slot Snook for the spring season as it closes on June 1st. The forecast for this weekend are lighter easterly winds and I highly recommend fishing the beaches on South Hutchinson Island from Bryn Mar to Santa Lucia as these southern beaches seem to have breaks in the weeds that make them more fishable. Better conditions will produce plenty of bites of Croakers, large Jack and Snook. Here’s to better conditions; good luck and catch ‘em up."

Report courtesy of Dan Ziegler

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