Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

I hope everyone who has been waiting for conditions to improve took advantage of the light west winds, sunny skies, and reduced wave heights that we had along our beaches yesterday. The water color was not the best along south Hutchinson Island at beaches like Tiger Shores, Bob Graham, Stuart, and Santa Lucea and the beast combination of small surf and cleaner water seemed to be north of the Fort Pierce Inlet. I received a call Saturday night about the clean green water in that area and headed that way in the dark yesterday morning. My first stop was the beach access adjacent to the Navy Seal Museum in Fort Pierce and conditions looked great. I set my pompano rods out but weedy conditions within the first half an hour chased me from that spot. I moved a little further north on A1A to Round Island Park and found that water very clean and no weeds. I set up on the south end of that area feeling confident that the pompano were going to provide some great action. 

After 20 minutes simultaneous hits on two rods turned out to be rod benders as '' the men in the gray suits'' (blacktip sharks) bit off both of my rigs. Unfortunately for those of us that were fishing that area, these bites continued on almost every cast and one by one the pompano seekers left the beach. I will say the show that these great game fish was spectacular and if you have never hooked a spinner or blacktip from the beach they are spectacular. They jump, leap, and twist as they go airborne and anyone who likes to target these sharks can find them right now at that location. Gear up your tackle because 25-pound pompano leaders rigged with number 1 circle hooks are no match. Use gear and tackle that are heavy enough to get them to the beach in a reasonable amount of time so you can release them to swim away without any chance of damage to the fish. The large concentration of the sharks usually signals conditions and water temperature that are favorable for schools of mackerel and pompano to be in the same area but yesterday if you were a spanish mackerel, or a pompano, you would not have stood a chance the unbelievable numbers of these sharks would have chased you from that beach. The winds are forecast to ramp up on Monday and Tuesday this week, but starting Wednesday and into Thanksgiving weekend things look good. It might get a little damp but the surf should be ok to wet a line. I will be fishing Wednesday and Thursday and will post the results and beach conditions those evenings. Have a great Thanksgiving and try to get out and catch a fish. Good luck and catch em up.