Jupiter’s Beachfront Bounty

By Jan S. Maizler
Article & Travel Editor
Photos By Jan S. Maizler

As far as I'm concerned – from an angling point of view – the stretch of surf and shallow ocean waters from Jupiter Inlet to St. Lucie Inlet is the real Treasure Coast of Florida. These incredibly fertile waters yield a marvelous abundance and variety of gamefish that can be found right from the surf's edge to about a mile or two offshore. I love an oceanic habitat that smiles on all manner of anglers, be they ankle deep "in the salt", perched on top of kayaks, or hands wrapped around the steering wheel of a sturdy center console vessel.

While this magic area yields up plenty of snook, loads of bonito, and roaming schools of permit in the summer, the fall and winter season offers a more stunning (and the largest) cornucopia of gamefish.

The peak season goes off with a bang as the mullet and baitfish migration pulses southward in late September and early October, although this time bracket can vary based on adjacent weather systems. This is a wonderful time to "fish to" aggregates of gamesters that are strictly there to dine on the rippling schools of frantic mullet. Light tacklers can get their seasonally-whetted appetites satisfied with crashing snook, tarpon, jacks, and sharks.

After the "fall run" tapers off and winter settles in, anglers can set their sights on vast schools of mackerel and bluefish, pompano to four pounds, crevalle jacks ranging up to forty pounds, spinner sharks, packs of cobia, as well as the welcome appearance of smoker kingfish from time to time. This is my favorite time of year and it's certain that I'm fishing these fish-rich waters as much as possible during the winter season…and that means often, since this Mecca is a mere two-hour drive from my home base in Miami.

Timing the Weather is Everything

During the winter season, consideration of the weather conditions on this beachfront fishery is crucial. This means that the optimal fishing windows are BETWEEN certain phases of cold fronts as well as strong high-pressure cells that create brisk onshore winds with resultant rough inshore sea and surf. The churned-up waters (of these bad weather-times) rupture the sighting of the above-mentioned gamefish as well as their movement patterns. The optimal weather conditions along this magic habitat are calm winds or mild winds out of the west.

Story assignments had kept me away from Jupiter – but yearning for it – until my schedule opened up in mid-February 2009. With a small stretch of good weather in store, I called Jupiter guide extraordinaire Butch Constable to see if he could make one fishing day available: when he said he was able to, I was delighted.

Tricked-Out Rigging Helps Tripped-Out Fishing

While we spoke on the phone, Butch told me that he had acquired a brand-new vessel for this fishery. After selling his old 25-foot deep vee-hulled Beehive, he obtained a brand-new 29-foot Twin Vee Catamaran.

The first thing he did with this fine and incredibly stable vessel was to add a fully rigged flying bridge atop of the center console. This would give him an enhanced ability to spot the cruising, breaking, and jumping movements of all the gamefish he pursues. For our trip, I knew the added height would turbocharge our sighting of cruising and/or breaking mackerel, bluefish, sharks, jacks, pompano and cobia.

Since success on these grounds often means loads of differently rigged outfits at the ready and lots of live bait, Butch installed flush and rocket style rod holders for 20 outfits all around the boat and a "you-can-swim-in-it" – sized livewell in the stern of his vessel.

Since this kind of fishery is a sight-casting proposition, Butch had added 2- huge Mercury Verados to his rig because of their incredibly quiet operation. A stealth approach indeed was often necessary when approaching cruising schools of cobia or laid up schools of permit in water often no deeper than eight feet.

New Roads and a New Berth

Those folks that have traveled I-95 up Florida's east coast in the past were burdened by cumbersome roadwork. Now that this work is about over, the improvement in traffic flow is excellent. I made the run in my SUV with my friend Don Eichin in an incredibly short span, allowing us plenty of time to have a leisurely quality breakfast at the Einstein Brothers at Indiantown Road near U.S. #1.

After that, we headed to Butch's new docking headquarters, Black Pearl Marina, near the intersection of County Line Road and U.S.#1. We were impressed with this facility's obviously upscale quality as well its' close proximity to Jupiter Inlet.

Time for Action

I loaded two of my customary 12-pound plug rods - Ambassador 5600C4 reels, Evolution rods - aboard as well as bag of ½ ounce white Spro bucktail jigs. Don brought along an 8-pound Shimano spinning outfit to use. I've always been a proponent of retaining your own tackle on a fishing trip when it's appropriate.

Butch outfitted our trip with about 15 assorted fishing outfits and three bags of frozen glass minnows. After he fired up his engines, he motored over to a floating live bait tub and netted 20 cigar minnows and 6 crabs for his livewell.

As we eased into Jupiter Inlet, Butch idled into a rocky cove on the south side. He pointed to a spot where baitfish dimpled in the distance and rushed for one of his nets that was neatly stored in a hatched compartment under his deck. After three throws, he had a load of live glass minnows swimming in the livewell atop the other baitfish. Butch seemed more content and said," now we can turn on those really big mackerel with the live stuff." From our history together, I knew that Butch often live chums any Spanish or king mackerels that show any reluctance.

All those "moves" having been made, Butch pushed down the throttles and off we sped out of Jupiter Inlet and turned to the north.

After we cleared Blowing Rocks to our left, Butch idled down and eased his boat inside of a long shallow reef and put the engines in neutral. He then rigged Don and me up with 40-pound fluorocarbon leaders and popping plugs. I knew the moves by then and started fan-casting the area. My plug had not gone ten feet before the plug was engulfed in a big explosion and up through the surface came a big thrashing bluefish. It took about two minutes before I landed a nice five-pounder. I then noticed Don was hooked up as well. We both enjoyed solid action until we'd had our fill after about after about ten fish.

Butch said, "let's head for Peck's Lake". For those that don't know, the name is merely a reference for a massive mackerel schooling area in the shallow ocean off Hobe Sound.

Fields of Fish

Once clear of the reef, he pointed his bow to the north and gunned his engines. In another 30 minutes we were outside of the well-known mackerel fleet. Though none of the boats were hooked up, Butch smiled and said, "watch this" as he dip netted some live minnows and tossed them off the stern.

We instantly had loads of fish boiling as close as his idling engines. Don and I were hooked up immediately to good-sized fish. This drill continued until we were sated with constant action and lost count of how many big mackerel we had boated.

Butch noticed our happy exhaustion and baited up one of his big spinning rods with a live cigar minnow. He handed the rod to Don and told him to slack it back for 100 feet. Butch began a northward trolling pattern outside of the fleet. No more than a minute went by before the live bait disappeared in a huge frothy explosion. Butch said, "big jack." After a strenuous battle of 30 minutes, Don's steady pressure brought "color" up from the depths to confirm that his fish was a huge jack. Butch tailed the fish and put it on his Boga Grip-it weighed in at a healthy 27 pounds.

We were both totally spoiled, but wanted new action with a captain whose veteran skills could almost surely deliver it! Again, the bow pointed north and the engines were gunned. In this case they did not stop until we reached a massive area of feeding gamefish just south of St. Lucie Inlet.

I had never beheld such a large field of striking and leaping fish- the action had to stretch for over a mile! Don was stunned as he saw skyrocketing mackerel everywhere. Butch pointed to the explosions inshore of us and said, "that huge black cloud in the water are bluefish" Again, Don and I hooked up instantly and had our rods bent merely at will. After an hour, we both cried "Uncle" and admitted endlessly happy exhaustion.

Butch was pleased with the results and said, "let's head back south and do something different." We racked our rods and I joined him on his gamefish search atop the flying bridge while Don relaxed below.

As we came abreast of Blowing Rocks, Butch spotted a school of big cobia following a ray. We scampered down from the bridge after he threw the engines into idle. He quickly rigged three big outfits with live bait and we idled towards the fish. I got off the first cast and quickly hooked up to one of the lead fish which looked around 30 pounds. For some reason, neither Butch nor Don hooked up. During the next moments of the battle, the cobia school sounded. I landed my fish in 10 minutes by using maximum pressure.

Butch quickly resumed the search for the cobia school, yet they seemed to have vanished. But I really didn't care, which, I guess, is the mark of a truly satisfying fishing day with a great guide.

Contact Data

Captain Butch Constable
1-561- 74 SNOOK

See all the photos from the outing in Jan Maizler's Photo Gallery.