Great day with a marginal weather forecast

Capt. Mark Rosen
September 3, 2017
Port St. Lucie - Saltwater Fishing Report

I took 3 members of the Port ST Lucie Anglers club out to the snapper hole. The ramp area was virtually empty. The forecast was one that required accurate interpretation the seas were listed at 3 to 4 feet generally above my comfort level. But the winds were predicted at only 10 Knots. The estimated period was 10 seconds with the dominate period of 11 seconds. I checked the weather buoy 41114 which lies half way between the snapper hole and Ft Pierce inlet and the buoy indicated that the seas were not wind driven waves but long period ground swells. When we got to the inlet on our way out the waves were breaking over the rocks on the north side. But the ocean and inlet appeared flat. I was able to run out at 24 knots. It was a gorgeous day out there. If you looked as the swells passed our boat you could see the height and they were every bit of 4 feet but so gentle you didn't even feel them pass us.
The fishing was interesting as well Lots of grunts as usual and plenty of short vermilion snapper. We also had a lot of trigger fish around 13". We caught a lot of short sea bass but one of the members did land a sea bass over 14" We also caught 3 cobia the first one was 35" the other two measured out at 27" and 28" both released. I caught a nurse shark that was around 9 feet we also caught a red snapper at around 20" that was released. We also caught 4 octopuses all released. We returned home around 1 pm and had a nice smooth ride back with the following sea.

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Mark Rosen
• Port St. Lucie Fishing Reports
• East Florida (Jupiter to Canaveral) Reports
• Florida Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports