Stuart, Florida Inshore Report: 07-15-02

[Capt. Bob Bushholz]

What’s that bright yellow ball that’s been overhead the past few days? That’s right, it’s the sun! After weeks of torrential rains, we’re finally returning to the Sunshine State and just in time. This area definitely needs a break judging by the water quality we’ve been subjected to lately. A few more days will work wonders allowing some of the nasty water to flush itself out into the big pond (Atlantic Ocean).<br /><br />On Catch 22 last week I again focused on fishing zones away from the “toilet” water. Channel markers have been hot so far this summer, holding a variety of species. We hit the “51” mark on tripletail, with 8 caught last week. No monsters, but all between 6 and 16 lbs. and releasing half of them. DOA rootbeer shrimp or live shrimp on trollrites using 12 lb. test with 20-lb. leader works best on the bottom. Frank Jodice of Port St. Lucie caught his first tripletail, weighing in at 9 lb. 2 oz. The McKays, on vacation from the U.K., had 3 running 6, 11 and 16 lbs (all released). These fish will be around until the mullet run in the fall, so that gives me a few more months to reach my goal of 100. Many of these markers are loaded with 7” lane, 12” mutton and 8” mangrove snapper, which sometimes makes it difficult to get the bait to the bottom. There have also been scattered jacks and flounder, and the dreaded channel cats are hugging the pilings.<br /><br />The Jensen Beach Causeway is still holding snook to 24” and black drum to 7 lbs. These fish are close to structure and deep. We hooked several snook bouncing a rootbeer terrorize along the bottom. The black drum are scattered, but I manage to find 1 or 2 each trip.<br /><br />Last week I didn’t hit the shallow grass since all morning charters departed at 8:00 a.m. and by then the fish have moved to deeper, cooler water. Monday morning’s charter is an early departure and I look forward to some trout action. DOA shrimp, Gag’s mini-mambo and live shrimp will be used until 8:00 a.m., then moving to deeper water at the channel markers and Bridges. I sure hope St. Lucie Inlet cleans up soon so I can return to that area for some drift fishing, which has always proven very productive. By late July the snook should be finished with their spawn, which then opens another species to target. I think I’ve made myself pretty clear on how I feel about pounding spawning snook. The whole purpose of establishing a snook season was so those girls could get a rest during their spawn so the next “season” could be an excellent one.<br /><br />I actually had a day off on Sunday and imagine what I did?! That’s right, it was a busman’s holiday. Nancy and I headed out the St. Lucie Inlet around 7:00 a.m. in search of live bait for some offshore action. About 100 boats were just northeast of the Inlet but the bait was scarce so we motored a few miles north near the Holiday Inn off Jensen Beach and loaded up on greenies in about 10 minutes. I ran out to 100’ and started drifting the live baits after hearing reports of dolphin and wahoo in that depth. There was plenty of action with 7 bonitas to 15 lbs. released and two very sore wrists. Pound for pound those “boneheads” put up a fantastic fight. About 11:00 a.m. we had a triple header going which proved to be very interesting since there were only 2 anglers. There was a lot of chit-chat on the radio about lots of bonita and kingfish, but that’s typical summer offshore angling. There were a lot of boats anchored up on the Six-Mile Reef bottom fishing for snapper and grouper, but didn’t see much being boated. Later, I had planned on hugging the beach in search of tarpon, but those bonitas put a hurtin’ on me. Guess I’m just getting old. Even though we didn’t catch that dolphin I was hoping for, it was a terrific day being offshore with bent rods. Look forward to more of the same.<br /><br /> Capt. Bob Bushholz<br /><br /> http://www.catch22fish.com <br /><br /> (772) 225-6436