Scouting Around Palm Beach And Martin County

INSHORE FISHING:

In the Indian and St. Lucie Rivers, along the seawalls and at the docks and bridges, there are good numbers of snook, tarpon and jack crevalle.

For snook use live mullet or a Spooltek Mullet lure.

There are still black drum being caught on the bridges as well and that bite should get better once the cool fronts start pushing through. Use live or dead shrimp for bait.

Up by the St. Lucie Power Plant the sea trout bite has been excellent. No gators, but plenty of schoolie size fish are being taken on D.O.A. Shrimp and D.O.A. C.A.L. lures.

Along the beaches in Jensen, they are still catching pompano, bluefish and whiting using Fishbites and clam strips. Get them in quick though as there are sharks around.

Surf anglers working the beaches around Boynton are catching bluefish, jack crevalle, croaker and a few barracuda throwing two- to three-ounce Gator Spoons and using cut mullet or live shrimp.

The Boynton Inlet has been relatively quiet with mostly small mangrove snapper or spots hitting shrimp.

Anglers fishing the Intracoastal Waterway have reported catches of pompano and bluefish while working the channel edges from the Palm Beach Yacht Center south to Ocean Ridge. Use white pompano jigs tipped with shrimp and cut mullet on bluefish rigs.

At the Lantana Bridge anglers have been catching a few flounder on live shrimp and some nice black drum and sheepshead using either oysters or small crabs.

LAKE OKEECHOBEE:

With the water cooling down a little bit the fishing has also backed off some. Best bets have been swim jigs in the early mornings and then switching over to flippin’. The hot spots have been the Kings Bar area along with Buckhead Ridge down to the Indian Prairie Canal. The lake level is getting lower so boaters and anglers need to be careful and know what they’re doing.