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+--- Thread: Stuart Inshore Report: 01-10-03 (/showthread.php?tid=23767)
Stuart Inshore Report: 01-10-03 - catch22 - 01-10-2003
The weather this past week has been on the cold side but fishing has been just the opposite (Hot!!) On two trips, we managed to fish just outside the jetty in the St. Lucie Inlet, with a mixture of nice sheephead to 4 lbs, 10 gag grouper to 18”, small mutton and mangrove snapper, jacks, blue runners, Spanish mackerel to 4 lbs., black margate and porkfish, while also witnessing a dozen spinner sharks skyrocketing. Quite an assortment to say the least.
Inside the inlet, small jacks have dominated the scene. Scattered sheephead and pompano were caught while drifting, but nothing to write home about. The Hell’s Gate area in the St. Lucie has been hot on high outgoing tide with plenty of pompano action. If you catch 30 you may have 10 keepers, but along with the jacks, mackerel and ladyfish, there’s plenty of action.
Moving north in the Indian River, we caught our first three tripletail of the year, releasing two of them. Most tripletail this time of year run between 2-4 lbs., with the larger ones showing up after March. Last year on Catch 22, we ended up with 78, just 22 short of my 100 fish goal. My New Year’s resolution this year is to spend more time fishing for tripletail and reach the 100 mark.
In the grass, we did catch some trout and for the most part they were hitting DOA glo shrimp on 6 lb. test, in some very tough conditions with stiff winds. Last week was black drum week near the Stuart Causeway and 10 cent bridge, catching over 40 between 3 and 10 lbs. Frozen shrimp on the bottom on trollrites have been deadly. Along with the drum you can find mangrove snapper, sheephead and snook, but most of the snook were under the slot.
Hopefully this wind will settle down a bit, allowing the small boaters to have some fun with the Spanish mackerel along the shoreline.
Just returned from a Thursday morning trip with Walter Yackel and John Mayer. We did manage to run out to Peck’s Lake and had a blast with Spanish Mackerel up to 4 pounds throwing an assortment of jigs. After an hour or so we headed back inside fishing the 10 cent bridge and catching 8 black drum to 8 pounds along with mangrove snappers and jacks. The twosome from New York had a great day catching an estimated 60 fish!
Capt. Bob Bushholz
http://www.catch22fish.com
(772) 225-6436
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