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

Capt. Kevin Drennan
August 21, 2004
Stuart - Saltwater Fishing Report

The fish of the week in the Stuart area has been tarpon. They have been all over the St. Lucie river from Hell’s gate to Club Med. . We saw many fish in 100lb class. I had the pleasure of fishing with my friends Mike McCarthy and Scott Rhein the other day on the river. We netted all the finger mullet we wanted and set up two dead sticks with floats and one pitch bait. The bait was exploding all around us and two of the reels screamed off line. Luckily the lines went in two different directions because we each had monster snook in the 25lb range hooked up. We gently released them and baited up again. Tarpon were rolling all around us and some were jumping clear out of the water. Our baits were one in a million with all that mullet around. Finally I pitched a bait right under ones nose and the battle was on. He took two leaps and ran and we chased with the boat. If I knew what this fish was going to put me through for the next ninety minutes I might have let him go. We went on a two mile tour of the river trying to avoid channel markers and other boats. Whenever I saw the leader knot and thought we had him, he would peel off another fifty yards. It seemed he was getting stronger and I was weakening. Finally the leader was grabbed and the fish was released. He was every bit of 100lbs. It was an experience I will never forget.

Offshore has been about the same as my last report. Plenty of bonito and kings with a decent sailfish bite. Bait is plentiful at the sand pile so it pays to hang around there and fish a while. The dolphin are scattered and you just have to get lucky. In the Indian River the trout bite is still pretty strong. Fish the west side early with top plugs and the east side near Herman’s Bay with mirro lures later.

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