Fishing Report for Indian River & St. Lucie River - Offshore

Capt. Kevin Drennan
August 4, 2004
Stuart - Saltwater Fishing Report

Fishing in the past week has been a carbon copy of the previous one. Bonito, bonito, and more bonito. On one trip, we loaded up on bait at the sandpile. The sandpile is in 55 ft. of water two miles northeast of the St. Lucie inlet. It was created two years ago by dumping the sand that was dredged from the inlet and rises from the bottom up to 20 ft. below the surface. We had just left there and started heading east when we spotted a large fish in the water feeding on a small bait pod. I throttled down and slowly headed for it while my buddy rigged a live bait. He tossed the bait in front of it and the reel screamed. He waited a few seconds and set the hook. A six foot sailfish exploded out of the water and the battle was on. We turned the pole over to my best friend and his son and they teamed up to fight their first sail. After several leaps by the fish and a few trips around the boat for the anglers, the fish was brought to the side of the boat and released. The joy on their faces was something I will not forget. We proceeded to one of my favorite wrecks and trolled up several nice amberjacks and a king.

On our next trip we stayed in close and slow trolled around acres of bait pods. The rods bent as schools of bonito pounced on every bait we put in. There was an occasional king and barracuda mixed in as well as porpoise trying to grab any thing we hooked.

I fished the Indian River near the St. Lucie power plant with my good friend Capt. Bill Sproule. Bill fishes the river almost every day and knows where the snook and trout are. We were on the river before dawn and you could hear the bait being pushed by hungry predators. We fished gold mirro lures and it was not long before the trout turned on and started to bite. Most were throwbacks but we managed to get a couple of four pounders for dinner. Bill also hooked a nice 28 inch snook which was promptly released. He just missed the inshore slam when a redfish shook off the hook near the boat.

The dolphin bite is still scattered but the sailfish are making up for it. The Indian River trout bite is hot but you have to get out early. Kings and bonito are near the bait pods just offshore and there are still plenty of snook around the inlet rocks. More later.

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