I attended the DOA/River Palm Cottages Outdoor Writers Festival in Stuart, FL from Monday through Thursday of last week. Held on the shores of the beautiful Indian River at River Palm Cottages and Fish Camp in Jensen Beach, FL, a group of DOA pro staff guides, outdoor writers and other sponsors from around the country gathered to fish the fertile waters of the Indian and St. Lucie Rivers. Action Craft Boats, Shimano, Power Pro fishing line, Seaguar fluorocarbon leader, Minnkota and Gerber Knives also participated in the event. Numerous quality trout, including 6 or 8 trout in the 6 to 9-pound class, redfish, snook to 23-pounds and tarpon to 100-pounds were caught on a variety of DOA lures. The best action was near the Ft. Pierce Inlet for trout and in the St. Lucie Inlet for snook.
Outdoor writer, Rusty Chinnis from Longboat Key, FL, and I fished the Indian River near Ft. Pierce on Monday. There was lots of action at first light around the numerous sand bars in the area. After catching several trout and losing a nice snook, the action slowed. The best fish of the trip came later in the morning. While working a drop off along a sand bar at the tip of a spoil island, a “gator” trout came up and inhaled my CAL jig with a jerk worm. We saw her eat the lure and my heart was racing when I realized it was the biggest trout I’d ever hooked. After some head shaking, wallowing and several respectable runs, we brought her to the net. The big girl measured 29” and weighed 8 ½-pounds, my best trout ever!
The following day, Florida Sportsman magazine outdoor writer Robin Smillie, from Tampa, FL, joined me to fish the Indian River near the St. Lucie Inlet. We waded a flat where we caught and released several trout and a snook on DOA shallow-running Baitbusters before moving to the Inlet. Although there were plenty of big snook in the inlet, the tide wasn’t right and the heat of the day was on us, so we headed for River Palm Cottages.
Outdoor writer, Bink Grimes from Bay City, Texas, fished with me on Wednesday and I opted to head north in the Indian River to the area where I caught my big trout on Monday. We caught and released several trout to 3 ½-pounds, a bluefish and a couple of jacks on weedless-rigged CAL jerk worms and the new DOA Deadly Combination before the sun started to bake us. The Deadly Combination combines a DOA lure with a Cajun Thunder float. It’ll be a winner!
After a short siesta, Rusty Chinnis and I headed back to the inlet for the afternoon bite. Conditions were good, with an outgoing tide and an overcast sky it was very comfortable. We managed several snook to 10-pounds, including several fat snook caught on DOA TerrorEyz. The technique used in the inlet, drifting with the tide and bouncing a TerrorEyz or Baitbuster along the bottom, is referred to as “dogging the inlet”. The “brown dog”, rootbeer DOA TerrorEyz, is my top choice.
With the DOA event officially over on Wednesday afternoon, Rusty and I wanted to test the waters with a fly before heading back to Sarasota. We spent Thursday morning wading and casting poppers, Skitterbugs, Clousers and Enrico Puglisi flies in the Indian River near the Stuart Causeway. The action was slow, but we did catch and release several trout and ladyfish before calling it a day.
Pompano and trout fishing should continue to be reliable in Sarasota Bay next week. Reds are beginning to school in north Sarasota Bay and should become more plentiful as we head into August.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
(941) 923-7799
E-mail [email protected]
www.snookfin-addict.com and www.flyfishingflorida.net
