Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

The excellent surf action from the early part of the week has given way to 20 to 25 knot Southeast winds and 5 to 7 foot seas. The winds are forecast to back off on Friday evening and hopefully we can get back to the beach on Saturday. As far as the last couple of days, I cancelled my scheduled charter on Wednesday due to the high wind forecast. I took a ride up to the beach to hopefully rake some sandfleas and was surprised to find the beach almost fishable. The beach that I had been fishing in the middle of Hutchinson Island was too rough to fish or rake sandfleas so I took a ride north and was shocked to find the parking lot at Middle Cove empty. If anyone has fished this beach in the past couple of weeks you know the crowd it has been attracting and finding a spot to fish has been tough. I took a couple of rods and sandflea rake and headed up to the surf line. I threw a couple of rods out in a building easterly wind and I guess the pompano and whiting didn't read the marine forecast. I was lucky enough to beach 20 nice pompano and a half a dozen whiting in a couple of hours. The winds finally got too sporty and I packed it in but what a great bite. A 10 to 15 knot easterly wind will create conditions that are favorable for the pompano to feed. The surf and wave action stirs up the bottom and uncovers the crabs, clams, and sandfleas that this fish loves to feed on. The pompano hit both plain EZ Flea Fishbites and natural sandfleas tipped with small pieces of Pink Shrimp and Pink Crab Fishbites. Its anyones guess where the pompano will reappear after the wind subsides but look for clean water and that area should produce. Bluefish, mackerel, whiting, croaker, jacks, and blue runners will be in the mix also. 

From Todd &Trey @ Juno Bait -Juno Beach

                                                        
Munyan Island and the Hobe Sound Flats are starting to come to life with an assortment of species.  The sheepshead and black drum are starting to bite in better numbers, as are a few spotted seatrout and redfish.  Ladyfish and jacks are also around in good numbers.  Scattered reports of a few pompano around inshore as well.  Snook fishing has been fair, but cooler weather has slowed that down a bit.  Remember snook season is closed, so its catch and release fishing only for about another month or so.  

Surf/Pier-  Strong east winds have made surf fishing tough overall.  Bluefish action remains the main game in town.  Topwater plugs, heavy spoons, and diamond jigs are solid choices for the bluefish.  Shark action remains good on the beach for those looking for something bigger to pull on.  Pompano action has been slow south of Jupiter Inlet, and only fair to the north.  Spanish Mackerel action has been good at Peck's Lake.  

Surf Fishing. Are You Doing it WRONG?

From Capt. Joe Ward @ Capt. Joe's Bait & Tackle Ft Pierce

                          photo courtesy of Dave Hartwell @ Zombietide Fishing                                         

The inshore fishing has been good the last 3 or 4 days. Tons of sheepshead around just about any structure you can fish. Same for the black drum. The snapper have been along the channel edges and are taking small live shrimp. There are still catch and release snook around but most have been on the small side. They have gotten a few reds along the docks of North Indian River Dr. The macks and blues have been at the jetty and in the surf. In the surf there has also been whiting and pompano.

Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

(12-24-18 Report)

Bluefish, mackerel, whiting, jacks , and of course pompano have been on everyone's catch list. The pompano fishing on the weekend was hit and miss on Hutchinson Island,but it seems a new body of fish have moved into our area. I fished on Saturday and Sunday at a couple of beaches near Fort Pierce Inlet and only managed to catch a handful of keeper pompano. Today was a different story. My son Randy and I started up that way but ended up moving just South of Herman's Bay beach access and were able to put together a big catch. The highlight of the day was Randy catching and releasing a nice permit on a EZ Flea Fishbite. EZ Flea and Pink Shrimp were the two scents that were hot today. We also caught some nice pompano on frozen sand fleas that were tipped with a small piece of Fishbite. By putting a 1/2 inch piece on the hook after securing the sand flea will not only help the sand flea stay on when you cast, it will keep you in the game in the event that a crab or small fish nips the bait off of your hook. I talked to friends who fished at Normandy, Tiger Shores, and Hobe Sound beach accesses over the weekend and they all had one fish in common - bluefish. Spoons and cut bait worked equally as well and they bit all day. I have to highlight the importance of reaching the pompano if that is your targeted species. Anglers that were fishing right along side of us today kept coming over and asking what we were using for bait. I did explain to the folks that the bait wasn't the problem, they were just not reaching the area of the trough where these fish were stacked up. Long rods and LongCast spinning reels or conventional casting setups are what's needed to get the job done. Good luck this week and catch em up.

Scouting Around Palm Beach And Martin County

The beaches in the Jensen Beach area are thick with Spanish mackerel, bluefish and pompano right now.

The Spanish mackerel and blue fish have been mixed in together and are both being taken on Gulfstream Flash Minnows. Bluefish are also being caught on chunked mullet. The key to using a Flash Minnow is to move it quickly.

The pompano are more towards the north end of the area with some of the best areas being around Middle Cove.

From Jensen Beach down to Hobe Sound there has been a good bite on whiting. Anglers working the first trough and using either small pieces of frozen shrimp or shrimp-flavored Fishbites are having a blast.

                            

In the St. Lucie and Indian Rivers the drum bite has picked up. Using live or frozen shrimp and working the area bridges has been producing good results.

Anglers working the flats in the Indian River up towards Fort Pierce have been catching good numbers of flounder.

The snook bite has become extremely slow with the recent cold weather.

Along the beaches in Jupiter there has also been good numbers of pompano, Spanish mackerel and bluefish. All three are being caught using sand fleas, clams, Fishbites and Doc’s Goofy Jigs.

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

The winds have made things a bit tough on the lake the last few days. Anglers fishing for bass should look for areas shielded from the wind and use live shiners as the artificial bite has been a bit rough lately.

The bass bite should pick up as the next full moon approaches.

All

From Whites Tackle - Ft Pierce / Stuart

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Fishing in the IRL for Redfish has been really good, with plenty of clean water around. Fish have been falling for soft plastics, such as the DOA CAL jigs and Gulp baits, and fly fishers have scored with Tarantula Kwans and Shrimp Tease flies. Sea Trout fishing has been very good, with fish being caught around the spoil islands and drop offs on Live Target Shrimp, Rapala X-Rap Subwalks, and Yo-Zuri 3D Inshore Twitchbaits. Surf fishing has slowed down over the last few days, but there are still some Bluefish being caught on spoons, and the occasional Pompano caught on sand fleas. Water in the inlets has been exceptionally clear, making Snook a bit tough to fool, but there have been a few Redfish and Bluefish around. Offshore