Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

 

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up on today’s bite and our forecast for the weekend. I took a ride up to the other side of Fort Pierce Inlet this morning and looked at a couple of beach accesses to check on the weed situation . The three beaches I looked at were relatively clean of the weeds we have been dealing with the past couple of weeks so I set up on one where I was the only angler . I started with 3 setups all with Fishbites Ez Flea Electric Chicken . One had a couple of frozen sandfleas along with the Fishbites and within 5 minutes the ladyfish and palometas started to chew . I have been down in Florida almost 14 years and I have to say I have never caught and released as many palometa as I did today . Other than 3 sharkoffs the palometa, ladyfish, bonefish , and pompano kept the activity at a level that I started fishing just 2 poles . The pompano total was probably around 15 but just 5 keepers . The palometa count had to be in the 30’s or 40’s with at least 7 or 8 doubleheaders . I do keep the bigger ones as they are great eating but the majority of these were in that 10 inch range . A couple of the bonefish were really nice and pulled some drag . It figutres with all of this life in the water we are going to lose some days to the swells that are going to be coming ashore on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday , and Wednesday according to the forecast . If you are able to fish tomorrow conditions look great . Intel says there were some keeper pompano caught today on the south end of the island also . All of my bites today were from 60 to 90 yards off . The five keepers were all nice fish too and expect the keeper ratio to keep getting better as we head towards October . I am happy to deal with the swells for the next few days as it is a lot better than the system making landfall directly in our area . Hope everyone has a great weekend . I’ll be at Bass Pro from 9-1 tomorrow if anyone has any surf fishing questions they would like help on . Good luck and catch em up .

Fishing BIG LIVE BAIT at Florida Beach | Giant Fish Feeding Frenzy

From Todd @ Juno Bait Crew-Juno Beach

 

INSHORE-  Snook fishing remains good inshore right now.  Some decent pods of mullet around and the snook are tagging close behind. Scattered tarpon and jacks will be mixed in with the snook as well.  The mullet will be most active early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and at night.  At night the snook will also be hanging around the bridges.  Outgoing tide seems to be the best bet on the snook, with a flair hawk jig remaining a top lure choice right now.  If the snook are popping mullet on top; a Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil or Yo-Zuri Mag Darter is a solid lure choice.  The toadies are biting well inshore this week.  Small pieces of fresh shrimp on a long shank hook is the way to go for the toadies.   

SURF/PIER-  Despite less than ideal looking water along the beach; the fishing has been pretty good.  A good number of mullet pods have been coming down the beach with snook and tarpon still being around in good numbers (When the bluefish show up...the snook go away!).  Some jacks and sharks have been mixed in the mullet schools as well.  A live mullet fished on the edge or under the school is a great way to go.  When you're fishing in a million baits, you have to figure out how to make yours look a little different.  The Juno Beach Pier snook bite is not red hot right now; but still a pretty  good number of fish around.  The bait situation (unless a school of mullet comes by) is a little tough at the pier.  Pompano reports were good last weekend, with a nice number of fish around.  Conditions look good to hopefully se some pompano show up again this weekend as well.  

Fishing The Mullet Run: Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil

Sebastian Inlet Report With The Snookman

 

Warm, messy water keeps the fish away 

“Snookman” Wayne Landry, our fishing guide, offers a brief report due to lackluster conditions:

“Good morning, my Sebastian Inlet fans, I hope everyone enjoyed the nice weekend. The ENE breeze kept the temperatures down to a bearable level. This report is another short one, unfortunately, because the water is still messy, dirty, silty, and receiving too much fresh water on the outgoing tide. In addtion, water temperatures remain a bit warm for this time of year — 84 degrees as of this writing when it should be in the upper to mid-70s for the fish to turn on.

The finger mullet are still around, but there are no predators after them. About the only fish I heard being caught were Spanish mackerel, lookdowns, blue runners and jacks on the north jetty; no snook, and only a couple of redfish at the tip on the incoming tide. That’s pretty much it. I heard from some of my hardcore fishing acquaintances, and they said the same of their trips to the inlet.

On the south side on the incoming tide there were a few snook caught on live pinfish, but just a few. The outgoing tide at the tip was the usual: catfish, puffers, blue runners and a couple of bluefish. The rest of the inlet was quiet as well due to the poor water quality and seaweed still around.

I don't like writing these kinds of reports, but like I always said, I tell it like it is! No fluff. Expect a nice week, though. Hurricane Gabrielle should stay away, but we might see a resulting surf swell, and the constant ENE winds persist. I wish everyone a great week!” — Snookman. 

The Mullet Run | Keep Casting Podcast #6

HOW TO FISH THE MULLET RUN USING BRIDGE SHADOW LINES 🎣🐟🐟🐟🐟🎣

Sebastian Inlet Report With The Snookman

 “Good morning, Sebastian Inlet fans; I hope everyone enjoyed the ‘cooler’ weather last weekend. It wasn't so sweltering as it had been. Breezy and nice. With that said, this report is unfortunately brief due to uncooperative water conditions: high king tides and the 3 to 4-foot swells with an occasional rogue five-footer, making it pretty tough to fish. Waves washed over the jetty, the water was rough and dirty, and sargassum weed showed up as well. The only good thing I can say is that there were a ton of finger mullet and greenies around the entire inlet, but nothing messing with them. All I saw over the weekend were Spanish mackerel mixed with blue fish and jacks. Here’s a brief summary of the action spots:

North jetty: Most of the action was on the incoming tide with the Spanish mackerel being the topic of the weekend. Many fish were caught on live greenies fished on a float rig or freelined, also on tiny white jigs and gotcha lures. Most fish were in the 12 to 15-inch range, with Sunday being the better day. A lot of fish were caught. Other species I saw caught: undersized pompano, palmettos, and a few decent whiting, all on cut shrimp. Beachside of the jetty. No action on the snook or the redfish. I saw only one redfish caught over the weekend. The outgoing tide at the tip was just as slow — catfish, jacks and a few bluefish were caught on cut baits. That wraps up this side. It was really slow.

South Jetty: Same thing here. Dirty water and an exceedingly high tide making it tough to fish because the waves were smashing on the rocks where anglers usually like to stand and fish. The only fish I saw worth mentioning over the weekend were a few decent snook I saw caught at the tip of jetty, incoming tide on live pinfish and pigfish. Not much else except for puffers and catfish on the outgoing on dead shrimp. 

 T-dock area: Back here, the water was also dirty and few fishing it. Plenty of baitfish, but no predators in pursuit. 

Surf area, both sides: The surf on both sides was an absolute mess, with the high dirty water and the sargassum around. The rip tides just made it unfishable everywhere! Nothing to report here. 

From Todd @ Juno Bait Crew-Juno Beach

 INSHORE-  Snook fishing remains the best bet inshore right now.  The snook will be following mullet schools and seem to be feeding best at first light or as the sun is going down.  A lot of freshwater in the Loxahatchee River and parts of the ICW right now, so look for the fishing to be a little better closer to the inlets.  A handful of tarpon and jacks will be mixed in with the snook as well.  A noisy topwater like a Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil is a good choice during lowlight periods of the day.  

At night the snook have been hanging around the bridges in decent numbers.  A flair hawk style jig remains a top lure choice for the snook.  

SURF/PIER:  Despite rather gross looking conditions and a fair amount of scattered seaweed, fishing along the beach and at the Juno Beach Pier has been fair this week.  The mullet run has been a bit sporadic this week, but still some decent pods coming by.  The snook, tarpon, and jacks have been following close behind the pods.  Early morning and late afternoon tends to produce the most action around the mullet schools.   The Juno Beach Pier has been producing a good number of small pompano, along with a decent number of ladyfish.  A bright colored Doc's Goofy Jig will work well for both.  

Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

 

I only had a short window time wise to throw them out this morning . Picked a beach up in the Fort Pierce area based on some intel from yesterday and although the quantity did not work out , the quality did . I looked at a couple of beaches in Jensen Beach but they were pretty weeded up and the water was streaky and off color . The positive fact about the beaches from Stuart to Normandy was that the bait seemed to be everywhere. When I got to my spot there were pelicans and terns on some bait schools also but not like there was locally. My catch list included blue runners, sand perch, catfish, and about a dozen pompano . Unfortunately out of the dozen pompano there was only 2 keepers . As it turned out I got lucky with the 2 keepers as their combined weight at NewEngland Seafood was almost exactly 5 lbs on the nose . EZFLEA Electric Chicken did it again and the pompano bites all came in that 50 yard range . The weeds were starting to become an issue but they never got bad enough to make conditions unfishable . Bottom line is these fish are on the way and they can appear on any beach access on any given day. Hopefully we can put a few days back to back with clean water and diminished weeds . This fall surf fishing is going to get good.

HOW TO FISH A BRIDGE FOR SNOOK AT NIGHT

Snook-Nook Fishing Report

 Inshore Fishing Report 

August was sure a hot one for us, both the temperature and the fishing here inshore. Anglers have found success in recent weeks catching Snook, Tarpon, plenty of Jacks, Trout, Redfish, Permit, Pompano & more. September is one of the best months to fish inshore here in our area! Our mullet run seems to be getting ready to start as we have already begun to see schools of both finger mullet and large mullet throughout the river. The run isn’t in full swing yet and it will only continue to get better as the month goes on. Fishing the mullet run can be a bit frustrating at times due to the amount of bait around, you really need to make your bait stand out to increase your chances of getting bit. If you are fishing with artificials, don’t be afraid to use bigger profiles as well as surface baits that make commotion on the surface to make your presentation stand out. Fishing your lure on the edge of the bait pods can result in more bites too. You will have plenty of opportunities for an artificial bite throughout the day if you are able to stay with the bait pods. If you are fishing with live mullet, one of the best techniques you can try out to make your bait stand out while maintaining a natural presentation would be to use a small float on your line. The float will provide enough resistance for your bait to slow it down and give it more of an injured presentation making it a much easier target to get hit. You can also fish a bait on the bottom with a lead or even a dead bait underneath a pod of mullet as a lot of times you will see lazier Snook and Tarpon cleaning up on the bottom.

Snook

• Snook season reopened on September 1st for our area, one fish per person per day in the 28”-32” slot size. The Snook fishing has been pretty steady too!  

• There have still been a few schools of Snook in the inlet, around the detached jetty, on some of the local inshore wrecks and reefs, on the beaches and at Hole in the Wall. A good bit of the schools have started to push out of those areas and move back up river as their annual summer spawn is coming to a close. Look to find them staging up on docks in both the St. Lucie & Indian River as well as around the bridges. Sea walls and canals can also be excellent areas to fish during the mullet run as the predators will push the mullet up against the seawalls to ambush them. Fishing top waters as well as swimbaits along the seawalls can both be very effective this time of year for those who are looking to throw artificials. If you are fishing the seawalls and are getting a lot of Jack bites, sometimes you will either have to get your baits up closer to the wall or go through a few Jacks before you start getting your Snook bites. For those looking to fish with live baits, mullet, croakers, threadfins and pilchards can all be effective. You will see that the bigger Snook will tend to key in a bit more on the larger mullet, typically 6” and larger. There has also been a good showing of Snook north of the power plant along the mangroves on the east side of the river as well as on the grass flats. Casting topwaters in the morning and transitioning to soft plastics when the sun gets higher such as DOA Cals, or 3” paddle tails should do the trick. 

Tarpon

• The mullet run typically provides us with some of our best Tarpon fishing of the year and they can be a great show to watch when feeding on schools of mullet. Over the past week, some of the best Tarpon reports have come from those fishing around the Roosevelt bridge with live mullet. As we start seeing more and more mullet in the river, you can look to find Tarpon in a number of areas, hot spots include all the bridges when the mullet are in the area, the crossroads, the inlet, cruising the beaches, as well as around Bear Point and Little Mud in the mornings and evenings. You should be able to see them rolling or airing out on mullet. You will see that sometimes your window of opportunity with the Tarpon can be short at times with their feeding on a school lasting only 15 minutes, but sometimes you can also stick with them and get on a really good Tarpon bite. Timing the tides can also be the key as one day, you might find that the mullet push through at a spot at a certain point in the tide, if you go back and fish the same window of the tide the next day, there’s a good chance that the action will be there again. The larger live mullet will be one of your best baits to use, if you are seeing a good flush of crabs on an outgoing tide, you can switch over to crabs. You can either free line the crab or mullet or fish it with a float. There have been plenty of the big triple digit fish around so be ready for a battle!

Jacks

• For those just looking for some action, there have been and will be plenty of Jacks cruising the river ready to feed on mullet. Look for them cruising the channel edges and sea walls as well as up on the flats. Pretty much this time of year, if you find a good school of mullet around, there’s a good chance that there will be some jacks nearby and they won’t be too picky. 

Trout 

• Surprisingly the Trout bite north of the power plant and around the power plant on the east side of the river has been really good. We’ve been seeing consistent Trout fishing in the cooler months, but with the amount of sea grass we are starting to see come back, it has really started to revive the Trout fishing. Typically if you find one Trout, you will start finding more bites as they have been found in schools. They have been caught along the mangrove edges as well as on the grass flats. Top waters in the morning and evening, MirrOlures as well as soft plastics such as 3” paddle tails and artificial shrimp have all produced for those searching for Trout. 
• We haven’t started seeing many Redfish on the flats yet, the best reports have come from the Ft. Pierce area, but there are typically a few to be found up that way. We do tend to see some Reds show up scattered around the river with the mullet run and occasionally we can find a good bite for them at the Stuart Causeway this time of year. 

Permit

• We know it sounds crazy, but there was a really good Permit bite on the east side Mosquito bridge at the Jensen Causeway for a few days to close out the month. They weren’t massive Permit, but definitely something cool to see. As of now, it seems the Permit bite has shut down, but we definitely hope these fish come back! Those who were able to get in on the action were catching them on shrimp with either a 1/8oz or 1/4oz pink jig head depending on the current. A few Pompano were caught mixed in with them and all the jacks you could want. 

Surf Fishing Report 

Whiting/Croaker/Pompano

• The swell from Hurricane Erin definitely made it tough for those looking to fish the beach with the high surf and dirty water, but it appears the ground swell is finally going away. Those who have been hitting the beach have been able to pick away at some nice sized Whiting past the breaks so we can hope for some good Whiting fishing once the surf calms down. Target your Whiting on pieces of shrimp paired with either shrimp or bloodworm Fishbites. You may expect to see some Croakers mixed in with the Whiting. Prior to the swell, Capt. Paul Sperco actually was able to pick away at some nice Pompano and even Permit from the beach. The majority of his action was 60-70yds from the shoreline and his hot bait was the Fishbites EZ Flea Electric Chicken. Surf fishing should start heating back up with nicer conditions ahead of us. 

Mullet Run

• The beach can turn into a National Geographic like scene during the mullet run and it is truly a sight to see. Tarpon, Snook, Sharks, Jacks and a variety of other predators will be feeding on schools of mullet as they work their way down the beaches. It is always wise to check the beach before hauling all your equipment because a half a mile of distance can be the difference from a lifeless beach to that National Geographic feeding frenzy. If you are able to locate the schools of mullet you will typically find the fish. Live mullet, NLBN paddle tails and straight tails, JYG Pro SWYM and Y-Tails, Hogy swimbaits, Rapala X-Raps, Yozuri Crystal Minnows and spoons are all some of the top choices for those looking to get in on the surf mullet run action. We have started to see some schools on the beaches already so it will only continue to pick up!

MULLET RUN BEACH SNOOK

Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

  Hope everyone is had a great Labor Day Holiday weekend and if you have spent anytime on the beach the past couple of days the word “hydration” has hopefully been in your vocabulary. . The westerly breezes have not given much relief and the hours from 11 to 3 have been brutal on the beach . The winds are forecast to change to a northerly direction the next couple of days and the surf is predicted to pick up a bit . That should help anyone who is trying to catch a few of the early season pompano as these calm 1 foot seas actually make things a bit difficult. My friend and fellow pompano angler Jimbo Shipes always says “First day of the west is always the best “. A series of calm flat days makes me change tactics a bit and although I did not have a banner day today with the pompano , I made my first drop off to New England Seafood this season with 5 nice pompano . The fish that we caught the week before the swell from Hurricane Erin started all ended up in my freezer . When the surf calms down and cleans up during the spring the removal of the “bling”, floats and beads , will increase your catch rate . If you are fishing a rig with a double dropper loop , you can actually remove the hook and take the floats and beads off and just thread the loop back through the eye of the hook . Keep the beads and floats to switch back to a standard rig set up when conditions call for that . That is how I fished today, bare hooks with plain Electric Chicken Ez Flea bait . . Im not really complaining about only dropping off 5 today . It’s September 1 and just catching some keepers at this time of year is great . The intel from the Daytona- Melbourne area is positive also as that area is producing keeper pompano along with lots of throwbacks. Hopefully with the predicted wind shift some of those fish to the north of us will start making their way south . I hope everyone has a great week. Good luck and catch em up .

SNOOKZILLA! Random Florida Beach Loaded with Live Bait

From Todd @ Juno Bait Crew-Juno Beach

  

The mullet have started to trickle inshore (moving around better at night) and the snook have taken notice.  Now is a great time for throwing bigger topwater plugs and swimbaits.  mixed in with the snook should be some bruiser jacks and tarpon.  Look for the snook to be staged up on ambush points with good current flow.  At night the snook have been hanging around bridge shadow lines and docklights.  As the mullet start to flow in better and better expect the fishing to really heat up.  

SURF/PIER-  This week saw a little more action along the beach and at the Juno Beach Pier.  Following the big swell last week a few pompano, including some keepers, showed up.  Along the beach a few pompano were biting sand fleas, while the Juno Beach Pier had some pomps coming over the rails on Doc's Goofy Jigs.  The snook fishing has  been good along the beach and at the Juno Beach as well this week.  The snook have been biting small swimbaits and swimming plugs along the beach; with the best bite coming early in the morning.  The Juno Beach Pier has had a good number of pilchards around, and the snook have been floating up top and biting free lined baits on the surface.  A few scattered tarpon along the beach over the past week.  Everything looks good for the mullet run to really ramp up anytime.  No big mullet schools yet; but it can't be far off!