Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

 This past weekend saw some great surf conditions with calm surf and pretty good water color. The catch rate was not the greatest but signs of the transition from summer to fall were definitely out there. I started at Beachwalk Pasley beach access on Saturday morning fishing both long rods for pompano and pitching a short rod for whiting and croaker. The long rod bite only produced blue runners and one small jack. The short rod did produce 4 big whiting and a couple of croakers before I packed it up due to the tide dropping and the shallow conditions. The whiting and croaker bait that produced was Pink Shrimp and Yellow Crab Fishbites.I took a ride north and settled in at Blue Heron. The near shore water was brown and streaky but after 30 yards the water cleaned up beautifully. The first bite came from a nice 15 inch pompano that fell for a EZ Flea Fishbite. I was lucky enough to put another keeper pompano in the cooler but unfortunately the next two pompano hook ups were taken by sharks after getting them half way in. The next 6 fish I caught were from a school of bonefish that bit for about an hour. If you have never caught one of these great gamefish it is definitely a thrill as the initial run they make will make you think you have a substantial pompano or permit on the line. These fish are somewhat fragile so if you do hook one please return it to the water as gently and quickly as you can. EZ Flea Fishbites hooked all of the bonefish. On Sunday I fished in gin clear water at Stuart Beach and caught and released a bunch of blue runners on the long rods and had non stop action on the short rod with small croakers. I did see two small pods of mullet move down the beach and along with the number of small croaker in the first trough I thought the snook would be chasing them but I never saw one. We are certainly in a transition phase and look for bait schools to be moving along our shoreline. One tip I can give you on the pompano front is if you are fishing a beach with the calm clear water ,remove the floats from your pompano rigs and this will produce more bites. I am heading back out this morning and will post a report later today or tomorrow. We are heading into the Labor Day Weekend and the surf fishing will certainly start to pick up as we get into September with the first schools of mullet that are heading our way from the north.