Fishing Report for Ft. Pierce, Florida
Capt. Joe Ward
June 23, 2004
Fort Pierce - Saltwater Fishing Report
June 24, 2004
Before we get to the fishing report I would like to take a minute to tell you that I am going to raffle off a 1/2 day fishing trip for two people at the Freedomfest on July 3rd in Port St. Lucie. ALL of the ticket sales will go to the Ft. Pierce Family Support Group for Battery "C" -- 2nd Battalion of the 265th Air Defense Artillery of the Florida National Guard. As many of you know our son-in-law, Jeff Parramore, was called to active duty on March 13th and about 80 members of this unit have been sent to Afghanistan. Please come out and show your support for their families.
INSHORE - Most of the action this week has been the tarpon around Big Mud Creek to the South and the Moorings to the North. But, unless you are an early bird you are not going to hook up on one. For the most part the bite has been from daylight until about 8am.
The trout action has been good everywhere along the West side of the river. Try using a live pigfish or a big live shrimp. The anglers that have been wading early in the morning have been landing trout to 8 pounds.
The catch and release snook action has been good around the area's bridges at night. Live mullet or big greenies are the baits of choice. Remember to handle the snook as little as possible and practice C.P.R. -- catch - picture - release.
The bigger snapper are starting to work their way into the Intercoastal. Try along the channel edges to the north of the North Bridge in Ft. Pierce. A live shrimp fished on the bottom is hard to beat.
Look for the flounder bite to improve with good catches being reported this week from the wall behind the Public Library and off the surf side of the South Jetty in Ft. Pierce. If it is redfish you are looking for try the docks along Indian River Drive. The fish are moving fast and only feeding a little.
The reports from the Stuart area that the bottom fishing is good for black drum, sheepshead and a lot of jacks. At night the catch and release snook action has been steady around the Roosevelt Bridge. Up in the St. Lucie River the tarpon and snook are rolling at first light and there are plenty of big jacks.
OFFSHORE - It's summer and that means the fishing can be on one day and off the next. A few boats are reporting good dolphin action in 80 to 130 feet of water to the north of the Ft. Pierce Inlet and just off the Six Mile Reef out of the St. Lucie Inlet.
There has been a lot of kingfish this week around the bait pods from 30 to 80 feet of water. I did have several nice cobia to 50 pounds come in on Monday. They were caught in 50 feet just north of the Ft. Pierce Inlet. I did get an e-mail about 6 big cobia around the 10-A Buoy. Also, smaller cobia in 65 feet of water out of the Ft. Pierce Inlet and one that was 54 pounds in 55 feet of water. On Tuesday I got a report of two wahoo weighing 28 and 31 pounds being caught in 160 feet of water out of the St. Lucie Inlet. I did get several reports of sailfish just playing with the baits and only two hookups were reported.
The bottom fishing for snapper and grouper has been the best thing going if you have some good numbers. The charter boats have been doing good in 90 to 180 feet of water. Both live and frozen baits have been working well. The snapper were to 12 pounds and the grouper went to 21 pounds.
If you would like to report a catch, call me at 772-201-5770 or e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also reach me on the web at www.captjoeward.com
Capt. Joe Ward
Capt. Joe's River Charters
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