Pompano action heating up

Capt. Bob Bushholz
February 6, 2011
Stuart - Saltwater Fishing Report

Yesterday I fished with locals Les Applegate and Ed Palino. We started in the St. Lucie Inlet around 8:30 am drifting and jigging live shrimp and trollrites. A mixed bag of sea bass, gag grouper, jacks, ladyfish, snook and mangrove snapper. I really wanted to head outside for the spanish mackerel but appeared to be bumpy with 2-4's. The crossroads area was loaded with big ladyfish and a few bluefish mixed in.
Next we headed up the St. Lucie fishing around Hell's Gate for a while hoping to run into a few pompano and mackerel but no takers. More jacks and ladyfish. After a few drifts we fished the dime bridge for a half hour. Ed landed a nice four lb black drum along with several undersized mangrove snappers. By this time we had a few more hours of incoming tide left so we motored over to the Stuart Causeway to check out the pompano action. Boats were spread out around the bridge and even more boats in the Sailfish Flats. Drifting south to north under the bridge we hooked up on several pompano to 14 inches and lots of leaping ladys. We were casting yellow and white Capt. Joe's pompano jigs. Nearing high tide around 11:30 with the current slacking we called it a day.

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