To the angler who loves to fish the beaches, shores, jetties, bridges and piers of Florida.
Monday, November 30, 2020
Friday, November 27, 2020
From Todd, Trey & Nick @ Juno Bait -Juno Beach
INSHORE- Still a little time to invite a snook home for dinner before the season closes. The shrimp jig bite at the bridges has really started to fire up over the past week. Look for outgoing tide to be the most productive. Other wintertime species (Sheepshead and Black Drum primarily) are beginning to show up inshore in fair numbers. Hard to beat live shrimp for them.
SURF/PIER- Conditions look right for the surf fishing to go off this weekend. Reports over the past week have been slow due to dirty water and rough conditions. The small window of nicer conditions earlier in the week (Largely a few hours of cleaner water) saw a decent little pompano bite, along with a fair number of Spanish Mackerel. Expect a good number of bluefish, Spanish Macs, and Pompano to be around. The blacktip sharks should also be in the mix.
From Whites Tackle - Ft Pierce / Stuart / Vero Beach
The Indian River is beginning to clear up, and patches of cleaner water are providing some sight fishing opportunities. Redfish and Snook have been available on the flats, and the still off color water has made them more cooperative, with soft plastics and live bait working the best. Seatrout have been pretty active along the shorelines and docks as well. The surf is beginning to calm down a bit, with some Bluefish being caught, but it may take a little more time before things really kick in. The calmer winds of the next several days should help.
Friday, November 20, 2020
Thursday, November 19, 2020
From Whites Tackle - Ft Pierce / Stuart / Vero Beach
Scouting Around Palm Beach And Martin County
Inshore fishing
Looking for bonefish? The Sailfish Flats area (between Sewell's Point and Sailfish Point) has been good lately using shrimp on a jighead.
Most of the bridges along, and channel markers in, the St. Lucie and Indian Rivers have been holding black drum, tripletail and flounder. Shrimp on a jighead is working well for them too.
Looking for seatrout? Just north of Fort Pierce, anglers working the east side of the Intracoastal Waterway, during high tide, along the mangroves are having good luck using Gulp! shrimp as well as shrimp on a popping cork.
In the Lake Worth Inlet, anglers are still reporting a good snook bite.
Also in the Lake Worth Inlet and around the Blue Heron Bridge the mutton snapper bite remains sold.
Live shrimp and flarehawk jigs have been the top picks for both the past week.
From the Jupiter Inlet down to the Juno Pier, surf anglers are having a blast catching bluefish, Spanish mackerel and jack crevalle. They are being caught on spoons. The bite was so good on Wednesday several anglers said they were getting hits on every cast.
In the Loxahatchee River, there is still a decent snook bite. Working the bridges and dock lights at night and using shrimp on a jighead has been effective.
Along the beaches from the Lake Worth Pier down to the Boynton Inlet there has been good action for pompano and Spanish mackerel.
Though sandfleas are best, goofy jigs are also working for the pompano.
For the Spanish mackerel, cast a Krocodile spoon out as far as you can and reel it in fast.
In the ICW from Ocean Avenue in Boynton beach all the way up to the Lake Worth bridge there have been redfish around the docks on the west side. Jigs, gold spoons and top water lures are working. Gold colors have been tops.
In the same areas, around the bridge pilings there have been lots of sheepshead. Try Chasebait fiddler crabs or live shrimp.
Lake Okeechobee
There is still a good spec bite on jigs in front of the pier, around Buckhead Ridge and down towards Nubbin Slough.
The bass bite has been fantastic on shiners. If going with an artificial, though, speed worms have been good. With the high water level, the bite has been good a bit further back into the grass. Hot spots have been Tin House Cove and King's Bar.
Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area
This past weekend started out pretty promising on Friday with some clean water and a few pompano starting to show but unfortunately some off colored water made its way to our beaches. Some whiting, croaker, blue runners, and jacks were in a lot of anglers catch lists but the pompano were far and few between. I got a text from veteran surf angler Barry Richards Friday night and he managed to put a few nice pompano in the cooler late Friday afternoon . Barry was fishing at Tiger Shores and a couple of my commercial friends caught a few from the same spot on Friday morning. I decided to try the Normandy Beach area on Saturday morning and was greeted with some pretty sporty wind gusts and less than ideal water color. I went south to Stuart Beach where the water was somewhat better and fished there . I fished with friend Chuck Frith from Jensen Beach and we managed to put around 20 whiting in the cooler along with a couple of croaker and bluefish. EZ Flea , Pink Shrimp, and Yellow Crab Fishbites were the baits that produced. On Sunday I fished with son Randy, Chris Battjer, and Chuck again and we did manage to catch 3 pompano along with 6 or 7 whiting and lots of catfish in brown streaky water. Pretty tough fishing in less than favorable conditions . I am looking forward to presenting the Surf Fishing for Pompano Seminar at The Snook Nook this Thursday at 530. If you are one of the folks that signed up early enough to get a seat I will see you there. The folks at the Snook Nook will be calling everyone to confirm they are attending and if there are any cancellations the anglers on the waiting list will get a call to say a spot opened up for you. Freddy will also be streaming the Seminar on Facebook Live. The weather looks pretty bad again this week and I hope conditions improve for next weekend.
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Friday, November 13, 2020
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Friday, November 6, 2020
Scouting Around Palm Beach And Martin County
Inshore fishing:
In the Indian River, near the mouth of the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant, there has been good action for seatrout and some massive tarpon.
The best bet is to head up to that area and after cutting the engine, work the banks for seatrout using topwater lures early then switching to a search bait like a D.O.A. C.A.L. jighead. After catching a few seatrout, or just trying, the tarpon should start showing up. Have a live mullet ready and let them drift across the deep hole that is there. Then hold on tight as fish from 30 up to 150 pounds have been caught recently.
In both the St. Lucie and Indian Rivers, from Fort Pierce to the Stuart Causeway, the bridge pilings have been holding some nice redfish. Use shrimp on a jighead during the incoming tide for the best results.
With the hard north winds the past few days, there could be some excellent snook action in the both the rivers. They'll be staying closer to the bottom so use a Gulfstream Flarehawk or a big swimbait.
Along the beaches in Jupiter and at the Juno Pier, there have been bluefish, Spanish mackerel and some pompano caught.
For the bluefish and Spanish mackerel use a spoon and for the pompano sandfleas or sandfleas in combination with sandflea-flavored Fishbites are working well.
On the north side of the Jupiter Inlet on Wednesday morning there were lots of birds diving on schools of fish during the incoming tide. This could indicate an influx of bluefish into the Intracoastal Waterway and Loxahatchee River. Keep in mind the limit on bluefish recently changed from 10 per person to three.
Looking for a fight? Up in the Loxahatchee River there have been good numbers of jack crevalle ready to go.
Along the rocks at the Lake Worth Inlet there has been a good snook bite in the late afternoon and early evening. The large swells, however, have made it tough to fish them.
Jack crevalle and bluefish have been biting on the topwater in the Lake Worth Inlet and along the area beaches. Be ready though as blacktip and spinner sharks have been right behind the bluefish so toss a fresh chunk of bluefish at them.
In the IWC around Manalapan and down to Ocean Ridge there has been some very good snook action. Two hours before sunrise until one hour after and from dusk into the evening has been excellent using live finger mullet and live shrimp. Work the docks or bump troll around the back wall of the inlet. Anglers working the spillway at the C-51 canal are also having good luck using Chasebait Mudbugs.
There have been some nice tripletail caught around the channel markers and crab trap buoys from Southern Boulevard Bridge down to the George Bush Boulevard Bridge. Though most have been around five pounds, one angler caught a 20 pounder under the Lantana Bridge on a live shrimp.
Small blacktip sharks are being caught on cut bait on the flats around Beer Can island.
Flounder up to eight pounds are being taken on live finger mullet around the IWC.
Lake Okeechobee:
Despite the winds there is still a good early morning bass bite. Though shiners are working best, anglers using speed worms and flukes are also having some good luck. Top spots the past few days have been the Tin House Cove area over to Buckhead Ridge. To get out of the wind more, Henry Creek has been good as well.
The spec bite has been good using jigs around Little Grassy.
More freshwater:
In many of the area canals and private lakes in Palm Beach County and on Lake Osbourne, there has been a good bite for largemouth and peacock bass. In the early mornings, use topwater lures and spinner baits then switch to worms in blue or purple or football jigs with crawfish attached in the afternoon. Also, Chasebait Mudbugs have working well in grape, natural or pumpkin colors
From Todd, Trey & Nick @ Juno Bait -Juno Beach
SURF/PIER- Looks like a blowout this weekend on the surf/pier side of things this weekend. The water had been holding out and looking pretty good this week, but over the last few days has went muddy and pretty much shut down everything. Bluefish action has been pretty good overall, although that shut down over the past few days. Needs to calm back down a little before we see any real change in the surf fishing.
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area
Another tough week on tap for all of us surf anglers as seas to 12 feet are forecast for the next couple of days. These conditions just do not want to quit. On a more positive not I just got off of the phone with good friend and owner of the Snook Nook ,Fred Caimotto. Plans are in the works for a Surf Fishing for Pompano Seminar at the Snook Nook this month. We are going to have to make it a limited number venue so we can keep it safe and adhere to the guidelines of social distancing. The seminar will be outside and seating will be limited. The plans are to have anyone who wants to attend to register at the Snook Nook and when the venue is filled , that's it. Tackle , techniques, baits, locations, and other species will all be covered. There will be free handouts for all attendees. Once everything is finalized I will post it on this page and further information will be available on the Snook Nook website also. Hang in there this week and keep an eye on the wind and weather.