12-30-2002, 02:24 PM
Fishing remains strong considering we haven’t targeted the grass flats for almost two months. Area bridges have been the main focus with mangrove snapper, snook, jacks and plenty of black drum (30 last week) running 4-8 lbs. Trollrites with live or frozen shrimp on 12 lb. test works great. Several sheephead, a mixed batch of grouper, snapper and yes, a tripletail, have been caught on area channel markers. Joe Hoy from Englewood, Florida caught his first tripletail that weighed in at 6.6 lbs. which brought the total for Catch 22 to 77 for the year.
Farther south, the “pompano brigade” continues jigging on the quarter bridge bouncing nylure jigs along the bottom. I guess they are catching a few pomps, but I haven’t seen much action the last four times I ran down there on my bike. Most of the action seems to be small jacks, blue runners and ladyfish on the South side with scattered sheephead on the North.
Last week we did catch a few pomps in the inlet area in the 2-4 lb. range, but mostly jacks. Skimmer jigs like a Gulfstream redfish or shrimp jigs tipped with a small piece of shrimp produce the best results. There are a few “secret” spots holding nice mangrove snapper and grouper near the inlet. This is the time of year to anchor up in rocky areas in the inlet near slack tide for sheephead. Dead high tide is best, but both tides produce. I use small 1/0 ¼ ounce trollrites tipped with a small piece of shrimp. Each tide has about an hour to fish while the current is slow. A catch of 20-30 sheephead on each tide is a definite possibility, but don’t be greedy, keep only what you can eat.
Haven’t gone after mackerel this week with choppy conditions outside the rocks, but I’m sure they are stacked up. In the St. Lucie River, around Hell’s Gate, there’s plenty of action on the high outgoing tide.
Remember, January 1st trout season re-opens. Don’t be surprised to run into schools of pompano or scattered flounder near drop-offs. DOA’s rootbeer and glo shrimp are hard to beat while drifting a few live shrimp on bobbers.
Capt. Bob Bushholz
http://www.catch22fish.com
(772) 225-6436
[reply]
Farther south, the “pompano brigade” continues jigging on the quarter bridge bouncing nylure jigs along the bottom. I guess they are catching a few pomps, but I haven’t seen much action the last four times I ran down there on my bike. Most of the action seems to be small jacks, blue runners and ladyfish on the South side with scattered sheephead on the North.
Last week we did catch a few pomps in the inlet area in the 2-4 lb. range, but mostly jacks. Skimmer jigs like a Gulfstream redfish or shrimp jigs tipped with a small piece of shrimp produce the best results. There are a few “secret” spots holding nice mangrove snapper and grouper near the inlet. This is the time of year to anchor up in rocky areas in the inlet near slack tide for sheephead. Dead high tide is best, but both tides produce. I use small 1/0 ¼ ounce trollrites tipped with a small piece of shrimp. Each tide has about an hour to fish while the current is slow. A catch of 20-30 sheephead on each tide is a definite possibility, but don’t be greedy, keep only what you can eat.
Haven’t gone after mackerel this week with choppy conditions outside the rocks, but I’m sure they are stacked up. In the St. Lucie River, around Hell’s Gate, there’s plenty of action on the high outgoing tide.
Remember, January 1st trout season re-opens. Don’t be surprised to run into schools of pompano or scattered flounder near drop-offs. DOA’s rootbeer and glo shrimp are hard to beat while drifting a few live shrimp on bobbers.
Capt. Bob Bushholz
http://www.catch22fish.com
(772) 225-6436
[reply]