Jean got an early morning trout to eat his Super Spook Jr he expertly retrieved along a backwater mangrove shoreline!
Fishing continues to be steady to good in Fort Pierce with the exception of the low tide time frame. Starting at first (safe) light will get you bit using top-water plugs like walkers or poppers and unweighted or very lightly weighted Z-Man Jerk Shadz. Unfortunately, if it’s the last two hours of the ebb tide or very early in the flood tide this bite is likely to end quickly.
Consider either starting when the tides are more favorable or up your odds by using natural bait. Live shrimp are greedily eaten right now by Lane and Mangrove snappers on most structures. The rocks around the city marina are often loaded with snappers and other bottom dwellers as well as jacks which are passing through.
Mangrove shorelines are still producing good sized spotted seatrout and mostly small snook with an occasional monster in the mix. Lately the monsters have been winning the battles by throwing our top-water plugs or breaking us off in the mangrove roots!
Baitfish are becoming more abundant by the week and it’s now possible to gather finger mullet as well as pilchards in many areas. Acquiring some will certainly up your odds at catching slot and oversized snook or big trout when fishing prime real estate in the forms of spoil islands, sandbars, docks or mangroves. I typically nose hook the baitfish and gently toss them up-current and let them swim/drift freely past the structure I’m targeting. Hook size depends on the size of the baitfish, not the size of the predator, while the size of the split shot (or not) by the strength of the current.
It’s tarpon time gang and they’re moving along the beaches with the bait pods. We’re even finding a few in the IRL along the channels when pogie pods are present. I hope to start targeting these fish in the near future.
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