To the angler who loves to fish the beaches, shores, jetties, bridges and piers of Florida.
Friday, February 4, 2022
Thursday, February 3, 2022
From Todd & Eddy @ Juno Bait -Juno Beach
SURF/PIER- This week saw some much better fishing along the beach and at the Juno Beach Pier. Surf conditions early in the week made the beach tough to fish; but the pier fired off pretty good. Decent number of both Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish around early in the week, along with a decent number of pompano. The Spanish Mackerel have been biting white crappie jigs and small swimming plugs the best. The bluefish were quick to bite spoon, swimming plugs, and in lowlight conditions topwater lures. Good number of jacks cruising the beach as well. A GT Ice Cream has been a killer on the jacks! The Pompano on the pier have been biting Doc's Goofy Jigs the best. A 1/2 oz Goofy Jig in orange, yellow, or pink (with an opposing color quill/teaser) has been a good choice. From the beach the pompano have been biting the usual baits of Sandfleas, clams, shrimp, and Fishbites or FishGum. A handful of snook were caught at the pier this week with season opening. Best bet for the snook this time of year is a dead sardine fished on the bottom and a LOT of patience. Hard to say what will happen on the beach over the weekend...calming conditions will make it much more fishable, just hoping the south winds don't push the fish back north too fast. If Juno/Jupiter don't produce; look for the fishing to fire off in Hobe Sound or Jensen Beach. Lastly...the blacktip/spinner sharks are here!
Tourney Time
2nd Annual Indian Riverkeeper Sandspike Shootout
This two-day fishing tournament will be held Feb. 26 and 27, and will test surf anglers to see who can bring the biggest pompano and whiting. Though they are free to fish anywhere along the southeast coast, all anglers must return to Dollman Beach (9200 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach) for the 4:30 p.m. weigh-in deadline on both days. Registration is $40 to $60 for the tournament with the top five anglers in the pompano and whiting categories winning prizes.
Scouting Around Palm Beach And Martin County
Inshore
With the water temperatures down some in the St. Lucie River, the pompano bite has come up just a bit. Anglers are catching a few more than last week on the Sailfish Flats and that bite is expected to continue picking up.
The sheepshead bite has been solid along the St. Lucie River around most structure including bridges and docks and has been best using shrimp on a jighead.
Black drum are being caught with some consistency at the Roosevelt and 10-cent bridges using live shrimp and crabs.
Waders up at Middle Cove are getting sea trout using top water plugs as well as using Monster 3X artificial shrimp.
Snook season opened on Tuesday and they are being found in multiple areas including up around the power plant, at the causeways and up deeper into the St. Lucie River. Flarehawk jigs and artificial shrimp are working well as are live pilchards and croakers.
Along the beaches in Martin and St. Lucie County, more pompano have shown up recently. They are being caught 70 to 100 yards off the beach so bring the big rods.
Anglers targeting pompano are catching some nice whiting as bycatch.
With the extremely cold weather and rough seas over the past four or five days, Capt. Bruce said they had not been heading out on the ocean.
He said it was even too rough and cold for the 2nd Annual American Academy Youth Fishing Tournament to head offshore last Saturday.
Instead, he took the kids trolling and drift fishing in the Intracoastal Waterway from Boynton Beach up to Lake Worth Beach.
Trolling with planers and spoons and then drifting high/low rigs with shrimp and squid, the kids caught jack crevalle, croakers, sailcats and even one huge rabbit fish.
In addition to the thrill of going fishing, the children got to hang out with UFC superstar Rashad Evans.
Coming out of retirement, Evans had fought the night before and defeated Gabriel Checco.
The mixed martial artist and Boca Raton resident is a board member at American Academy.
Lake Okeechobee
Capt. Larry Wright said the fishing has been really tough with the cold weather the past few days and that he'd had several charters cancel. He also mentioned that he advised a few clients against going out because it just wouldn't be worth it.
He did say the water, which in certain areas dropped into the 50s, would warm up quickly and that the fishing would quickly bounce back.
He said he had charters lined up for the rest of the week.
He said the spec bite, which was also slowed by the cold, had already bounced back on Tuesday. Guys working around the reeds and bullrush, in water around five feet deep with minnows, were doing well and that the anglers using jigs were doing better in the shallower areas.
report courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
Sebastian Inlet Report
Not much to report due to cold weather, but temperatures will creep up....
Our resilient fishing guide, “Snookman” Wayne Landry says he doesn’t have much to report for the past week, thanks to “high winds, dirty water, huge surf and very cold water temps along the coast that are now at 62 degrees.”
“Throughout the entire inlet yesterday, hardly anything was going on, except for anglers catching many small Spanish mackerel and bluefish on small silver spoons and jigs,” Wayne says. “Fishermen using live and bead baits were catching plenty of catfish and large stingrays. I haven't heard anything on the flounder either. The black drum and sheepshead present a week ago have been hard to target because the large swells on the north side make fishing difficult on the north side of the jetty.”
Although warmer temperatures are on the way, the pending east-southeast winds will help keep the water murky and fishing will remain poor, Wayne predicts.
“On a good note, the snook season will open back up Tuesday (Feb. 1), but the cold water will help keep them kind of in a ‘shut-down’ mode since snook prefer water than 62 degrees,” he says. “They are a tropical species and temps above 73 will make them turn on better. They’re around, but you’ll have to work hard to get one to bite. Live bait, such as shrimp, will almost always get you a snook if they’re in the area. Remember, one fish per person per day with a slot of 28 to 32 inches.”