Treasure Coast Beach Erosion

The full moon and super tide that came with it erased five miles of coastline this morning from Jupiter Inlet to Loggerhead Park! Expect another Beach Renovation on the horizon… To restore a beach this long requires a 30 million dollar budget. Not good for taxpayers. When the dozers show up on good flea beaches one has to cringe! Covering them with 10 ft. of dirty sand concludes their natural lives, literally killing 10,000 eggs per female flea.

Sand fleas will traverse to the secondary bar. Ghost crabs will shelter like fiddler crabs on the sides of the berm. Both these creatures attract pompano and numerous inshore fish. Ghost crabs are one of my favorite baits. They might not survive. In the evenings they slip down into the sand flea pods and feast. During a slow beach charter I throw blanched fleas proximal to their homes. Back up 50 feet as and watch them watch you and make their move!

There is a fun and easy way to catch these devils. They’re still fast in just 2″ of water. Put the net behind them on the backwash and you will score. DO NOT put more then 20 of them into your bucket. You may lose half of them in the bed of your truck. The little engineers can build crab ladders and literally escape their plastic prison.

Last Wednesday the sea temp dropped 5 degrees. For a matter of 2 degrees, pomps move offshore or further south to find comfortable water. These are resident fish but they do migrate to the upper Keys with enough cold fronts. A few days ago the shorties showed up in huge numbers with a few keepers. Our first really good pompano bite occurred yesterday. I even caught a 4.9 pounder on — wait for it — ghost crab legs! A dozen anglers secured their bag limit. Catches were from Juno Beach to Carlin Park in Jupiter. The Juno Beach Pier enjoyed a late PM bite on my jigs.

Look for these pomps to head into Palm Beach and then on to Lake Worth Pier in a few days. The biggest pomps will hit large blanched fleas. Jigs will capture keepers to 1.5 pounds.

Tight lines, folks!