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Jupiter & Palm Beach Offshore Saltwater Fishing Report
Capt. Rob Mazzei
July 3, 2005
Jupiter - Saltwater Fishing Report
Tarpon Time!
Late June through July is prime time for chasing Tarpon along the beaches. Over the last few days, large schools of Tarpon have been cruising just north of Jupiter Inlet in 10-30 Ft. of water. The object is to anticipate their direction, get ahead of them, shut the motor off and pitch out a live bait. A little bit of live chum will excite them and get them competitive against other school members, creating explosive light tackle action.
Our greatest dilemna as of late has been securing live bait. Threadfin herring, A.K.A. "greenies" have been playing hide and seek around the Juno pier. Lately they have been hiding in unknown locales. Good news is the spanish sardines have taken their place in large schools are cruising from Jupiter inlet south to the Juno pier. Early morning has been most productive.
Snook at the inlet has been productive predominently on the outgoing tide at the north jetty. Greenies and sardines will produce although live croakers seem to be the preference for larger fish.
Shark Central!
Sharks and bonitos have by far been most abundant fish along the reef.. From 75 to 220 feet of water the bonito(False Albacore) have so voracious that they become a nuisance when trying to catch dolphin, wahoo or sailfish. They have been eating up our live bait almost as soon as it hits the water.
One way to discourage them is to use a medium size blue runner, they typically won't mess with them and your chances of catching one of the "glamour species"
will improve.
By no means am I bashing the bonitos, they are fun to catch on light tackle and exceptional sport on appropriate size fly tackle. And when live bait is tough to acquire they will readily eat dead bait.
Bull sharks, I mean large bull sharks have been so abundant lately that there have been times when fighting a fish it's nearly impossible to get a fish near the boat without a shark grabbing it. One day we counted 9 sharks around us and had one biting the propeller on the outboard.
We've inadvertently hooks several only to have the reel spooled in seconds.
One morning while netting bait at the Jupiter Island Bridge I saw an 8 footer swimming in 4 feet of water.
I believe the commercial shark season has just opened so anticipate a sharp drop off in shark activity.
Nice Snapper!
Mutton, mangrove and yellowtail snapper have been biting fairly well from 40-110 feet. The bite always seems best when the current is running to the north. There have been many days when the top half of the water column is running hard to the north but the current near the bottom is not moving or even pushing to the south. These conditions make is very difficult to reach the bottom effectively without excessive lead weights and makes for an unnatural presentation. It can be difficult to detect subtle strikes when there is to great of a bow in the line caused by opposing currents. Thin diameter line aids in condition.
There generally enough King Mackerel willing to cooperate using the similar technique for snapper only using less weight.
Dolphin Doldrums
Although we have caught many dolphin this season most have been barely larger than the new 20" at-the-fork size limit. We did manage to catch a couple near 20lbs. By carrying several 10lbs spinning outfits and lots of cut bait we had quite a bit of fun fishing for the smaller dolphin around fishy looking weed patches offshore. An 8 weight fly outfit with will slay these determined fighters
Sailfish are around and may improve now that the sardines are showing up.
We've had our best wahoo bites in July and August around the full moon periods. High-speed trolling is very effective but with gas prices too high I prefer to slow troll bullet bonitos we've caught on small jigs or cut bait.
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