Christmas Report

Report Date: December 23, 2012

Stuart Fishing Report: 12-23-12

Starting north of the Jensen Causeway, look for trout, jacks and ladyfish in 3-4 feet of water on both east and west sides. Live shrimp along with gulp and DOA shrimp have been working well. We just expierenced our first real cold front the past few days which should bring in more bluefish in from the surf. Pompano remains scattered but should pick up as we enter the new year. Channel markers are holding sheephead and a few tripletail.

Just south of Four Fish Marina at the Stuart Causeway black drum to six pounds with mangrove snappers, sheephead and a few snook mixed in. For some reason the ribbonfish seem to like this bridge. I believe we caught seven last week. Ribbon fish make great cut bait for you surf fishermen or trolling baits for kingfish. My buddy Bruce who is an avid tarpon fisherman uses them on his tarpon trips. We have caught several pompano drifting and jigging Capt. Joes jigging spoons with all the pomps being keepers running 2-3 pounds but still are scattered. Hopefully this latest cold snap will bring more inside. The Sailfish Flats remains on the slow side with mostly ladyfish and few pompano. Have been seeing several boats anchored in this area bottom fishing with sand fleas or clam strips.

The St. Lucie Inlet is cleaning up nicely on the incoming with redfish, bluefish, snappers, sheephead off the north side along Sailfish Point. In the crossroads area, look for pompano, bonefish, bluerunners and jacks in twelve feet.

We made our first mackerel trip of the season last week. Many times the macs don't turn on till after 10am. This is exactly what happened on this trip so we switched over from casting mackerel spoons to bouncing shrimp and trollrited on the bottom. We caught about a dozen mackerel doing this while other boats were busy scouting around. So do yourself a favor if you plan on arriving at Pecks Lake early and bring a couple bags of frozen shrimp along. Yes you will catch some bluerunners and spots too but until the mackerel really turn on, this method works great.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone !!!!

Capt. Bob Bushholz

 

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