To the angler who loves to fish the beaches, shores, jetties, bridges and piers of Florida.
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Friday, October 30, 2020
From Todd, Trey & Nick @ Juno Bait -Juno Beach
INSHORE- Snook fishing will remain the main game in town on the inshore side of things. The late season mullet are still rolling around inshore a bit and the snook are keyed in on them nicely. Fish docks and seawalls with good current flow for best luck with the snook. Also, look for the snook to be active around the bridges at night, especially on a good outgoing tide. If the flair hawk isn't getting bites, consider giving the shrimp jig a shot as well...it's about that time! The spillways have been open, and the snook bite remains pretty good at most of them. A flair hawk or heavy swimbait is a good choice for the spillway. Should be a few tarpon around with the snook, as well as some jacks. Flats action (Hobe Sound and McArthur) are still a bit slow, need some cool fronts to help fire that up!
SURF/PIER- Bluefish have started to show up in pretty good numbers, and will provide the most action for those trying the surf or pier this weekend. GT Ice Cream, "Pelicans", Spoons, and cut mullet will be the best bet for the bluefish. Look for low light periods to be the best for the blues. No great pompano reports this week, but a few are around. FishBites remain the bait of choice for the pompano, outfishing even sand fleas and clams. Sharks made a very nice showing along the beach this week, and provide a lot of drag pulling fun for those looking to pull on something a little bigger! There's been a few Permit hanging around the pier.
From Whites Tackle - Ft Pierce / Stuart / Vero Beach
With the improving weather we’re experiencing is translating into some better angling experiences. In the surf, calmer, cleaner conditions have led to better catches of Pompano, Bluefish, Snook, Spanish Mackerel, Jack Crevalle, and the occasional Tarpon. There have been quite a few sand fleas around, always a good bet for the Pompano, and finger mullet have been prevalent, so spoons, DOA Bait Busters, Hogy Paddle Tails, and plugs have all been productive for the other species. The inlets have been yielding good catches of Snook, both on live mullet and flare jigs, as well as some Tarpon on outgoing tide. Flounder are also starting to show up, mostly to those fishing live finger mullet on the bottom. Inshore, good catches of decent Seatrout as well as Snook are being had to those finding the mullet, with a fair number of the Seatrout reaching 5 pounds plus, and slot sized Snook also being produced. Redfish continue to be caught in the area from Round Island to Fort Pierce.
Scouting Around Palm Beach And Martin County
Inshore fishing:
Along the beaches just to the north of Jensen Beach Park, there has been an excellent pompano bite the past week. Not the barely-legal size variety either. Fish 17 to 18 inches are being caught. Like the last few weeks they are out in the second trough so bring the big rods. For bait, live sandfleas are tops, but sandflea- and crab-flavored Fishbites are working well too.
There have also been some nice whiting caught along the St. Lucie and Martin County beaches.
Though the bait is a bit scattered off those beaches right now, if you do happen on any schools chances are you'll find some good bluefish action as well.
In the St. Lucie and Indian Rivers the black drum bite has been good the past week. Work the bridge pilings and deep docks with live shrimp on a jighead.
In those same areas there have been some six- to eight-pound sheepshead caught. Fish during the slower tide periods and use live shrimp or fiddler crabs.
Also in the rivers, there are still some tripletail being found around the stone crab markers.
Up by the powerplant, the seatrout bite is still happening and should only get better. Use live shrimp or Gulp! shrimp on a jighead.
The bite for snook, tarpon, jack crevalle and bluefish has been good throughout the Palm Beach County area the past week.
There are still mullet around and working a live mullet or mullet-sized lure has been very effective for all four species. The bottom of the outgoing tide has been the most productive at both the jetties and bridges.
During the day throwing noisy topwater plugs have been excellent for getting hooked up with some big jack crevalle.
Lake Okeechobee:
With the high level of the lake the bass have been a bit scattered the past week. Still best in the early morning anglers are trolling around from Buckhead Ridge to Horse Island looking for fish. Working moving baits around submerged eel grass or other vegetation has been providing excellent results. Once that morning bite cools down, switch to flippin' creature-style baits in the round reeds. The crappie bite has picked up a bite more. In the Kissimmee River, anglers using minnows and fishing at night are having good luck. The jig bite for crappie is working best in areas where the water is moving. Use chartreuse or chartreuse/white jigs.
Most of the area canals have a good cichlid bite. Red worms and wigglers are best.
TCPalm fishing report: Time change, plus trout and hogfish off limits to harvest
This weekend will be all about change for area anglers.
First, the clocks turn back one hour the night of Oct. 31, so don't forget to adjust those alarms for early morning fishing trips the next day.
Second, four changes to fishing regulations go into effect Nov. 1. They are:
- Spotted seatrout — Will be closed to recreational harvest Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 in the central east seatrout management zone, which includes all state and federal waters from Palm Beach through Volusia counties, including the entire Indian River Lagoon system. Spotted seatrout, as well as red drum and snook, also remain catch-and-release only through May 31, 2021, in Gulf coast waters from the Hernando/Pasco county line south through Gordon Pass in Collier County.
- Hogfish — Recreational harvest will close in state and federal waters off the east coast of Florida and Florida Keys Nov. 1. This closure includes all state waters south of Cape Sable, which is on the Gulf side of Florida, and up the Atlantic coast. The Keys/east Florida hogfish season will re-open May 1, 2021. Recreational harvest remains open in state and federal waters north of Cape Sable in the Gulf.
- Bluefish — Beginning Oct. 26, the recreational daily bag limit will be three fish per person along the Atlantic coast from Nassau through Miami-Dade counties. The minimum size limit is still 12 inches fork length statewide. State regulations for bluefish do not extend into federal waters of the Atlantic.
- King mackerel — The recreational bag limit for king mackerel has been increased to four fish per person per day through March 16, 2021, in all Atlantic state and federal waters from Miami-Dade through Nassau counties. This change is consistent with recent changes in Atlantic federal waters to address forgone fishing opportunities to the recreational fishing community.
Indian River County
Freshwater: The full moon Oct. 31 should have bass on the beds ready to spawn. Flip and pitch the shorelines to get reaction bites from fish defending their territory. Lipless crank baits and swim baits will also get plenty of bites along drop-offs and the edges of the vegetation.
St. Lucie County
Inshore: Dirty water conditions in the area of Taylor Creek and the surrounding grass flats will persist until the rains eventually let up. Snook won't mind however. They can be caught on mullet, shrimp, swim baits that mimic mullet and artificial lures that mimic shrimp.
Martin County
Inshore: Surf fishing was decent the past week, and should be until Nov. 1 when seas build again to 5-6 feet. Some pompano, whiting, bluefish and mackerel were caught by surf casters.
Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area
The best phrase I can use to describe todays surf fishing is " at least its a start". After almost two weeks of unfishable conditions it was nice to see a rod bend and put a few fish in the cooler. Randy and I caught, pompano, whiting, bluefish, jacks, and ladyfish but unfortunately not in any big numbers. The pompano catch consisted of 9 total but only 3 keepers. The throwbacks were all measurable so there are some bigger pompano moving into the area. Ten nice whiting and one small bluefish rounded out the take home part of the day while the jacks and ladyfish were all released. The water color was less than desirable and I received from calls from friends that fished as far south as Hobe Sound and a few that were up by Fort Pierce and everyone had the same off colored green water. Looking at the forecast for the rest of the week it looks fishable through Saturday and but it starts building again on Sunday to 6 feet and 9 feet on Monday. Lets hope the weather people are wrong and we can put 5 or 6 days of fishable conditions together. EZ Flea, Yellow Crab, and Pink Shrimp Fishbites all produced today and we caught a few pompano on salted clam strips tipped with Orange Clam Fishbites. The bites all came on the long rods fished 70 to 80 yards off of the beach.