Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

Lingering weeds and the start of a building swell from Hurricane Florence forced me to reschedule my charter this morning. I was already up at Tiger Shores so I met my son Randy and his father-in-law Barry Rashkin on the beach but the swell and lack of fish had us looking at other beaches. Disgruntled reports from other fishermen regarding the swell and a lack of anything but catfish had us heading to Middle Cove beach access to try our luck for the short time we had left to fish. I have stated in previous posts that the Labor Day weekend time period is when I start targeting early season pompano, so we decided to fish a couple of long rods to test my log book. Last season Irma short-circuited my plans in early September, and the water color today was not the optimum clarity we were looking for. But sometimes you just have to trust previous results and that worked today as we put three nice pompano in the cooler along with some whiting. The pompano favored the EZ Flea Fishbites and the whiting hit the orange clam scent. The key to catching the whiting today was to have your baits 50 - 60 yards from the edge of the surf; the pompano were in their usual spot of 70 -100 yards off the beach. Local surf regular, Clint Blackwell was fishing just north of me and he had a great catch of whiting. I also received a text and a picture from friend and expert angler, Justin Colton, whose message was " get ready, here they come". Justin is located in Vero Beach and his video contained a school of mullet getting hammered at his beach this morning. Before we left we spotted some nice schools of mullet making their way down the beach and the first spinner shark to go airborn 100 yards off the beach. We are going to have to deal with a big swell event from Florence this week but when the surf subsides, hopefully by next weekend , we could find some great surf fishing with pompano, tarpon, snook, big jacks, mackerel , and sharks as they start moving down the beach. The current forecast has Florence heading to the Carolinas, so let's keep those folks in that area in our thoughts. It looks like the Surf Fishing The Fall Mullet Run Seminar couldn't be coming at a better time, so I hope to see everyone at Bass Pro Shops in Port St Lucie next Saturday, September 15th at 3:30 pm; and 2 pm at Bass Pro Shops in Dania Beach on Sunday September 16th. Monday, Tuesday, and early Wednesday look fishable so good luck and catch em up.