South Florida surf fishing has been spotty but is steadily improving. Bluefish and jack crevalle bit steady at most beaches in the early AM and late afternoon. Top water splash style lures and chunking has been working to catch the muscle heads with ease! Totally visual and viably consistent. The light early west winds portray the evidence at dim light.

Now diving into pompano futures. It’s too early for consistent predictions but with fronts stacking up for the next two weeks we begin with where they are. Both Hobe Sound Beaches have early and late bites, but it’s too early for clamming it up because these are resident fish. Blanched fleas and a fish bite (preferably in shrimp or sand flea scent). With the calicos tearing the baits up in a matter of minutes, the strips are the steadfast backup ammo. Once the schoolfish bite is on, the calicos disappear!

Juno Beach, south of the Juno Beach Pier, has been steady with 2 or 3 pomps a day per angler, with some weighing in neighborhood of two pounds. There’s also a ton of bonefish up to 4 lbs. Man they love those fleas. There are times when the pomps are visible but all you catch are grey speedsters — then just enjoy the bite.

Ever notice how newspaper fishing reports are late or not accurate? Yesterday a major paper in Palm Beach reported numerous pomps and croakers in Jensen Beach! Ah, not so… Isn’t it strange that there is someone conveying this message that is actually fishing 7 miles north of this area and catching plenty of the targeted species. Oh by the way I called my pal that was fishing right next to him. — in Fort Pierce!

So where are they going? Probably (best I can do) south. As the the water clears up they will move into the next patch reefed archive. Pt. St. Lucie… Prefrontal prime bite will be Sat. 11/11 in the am somewhere between Normandy and Stuart Public Beaches. Hobe Sound could be the “HOTTEST SPOT” in lieu of a large school of keeper pomps just north of Bath Tub Reef. Two commercial boats are jigging them good.

Exciting news came for me this morning — an explosion of spinners and blacktips nailing snake mackeral near Blowing Rocks. Sharks outside the second bar with pomps in the trough on a 2 to 4 ft. swell on low tid — these are the ingredients I look for! Just cast 70 to 100 yds to reach that protective inside curl on the second bar. Try Trey Waller’s Blacktip “go to” top water plug, The Tsunami Talking Popper, with rattles!

Tight Lines my friends!

Congratulations goes out to these Anglers scoring big on Pompano!

It looks like the bite is on! For the beach fisherman, the Pompano have started out snapping, the black drum have showed up and large catches of Blues have also been reported — and let’s not forget about those tasty Whiting and Margate that are just waiting to jump into the frying pan. For the Pompano, fresh dead shrimp, sand fleas, live or frozen clams appears to be the bait of choice. For the drum shrimp and clams.

The river fisherman are having a ball with the large schools of Pompano around the bridges using Pompano jigs tipped with shrimp and don’t forget about the schools of redfish in the flats that are really testing the Anglers drags. The canals are still holding a lot of mangrove snapper and small snook along with some nice trout using live shrimp.

From all of us at Man Overboard we would like to say have a great rest of your week and let’s go fishing.

I went out to do a little mullet run fishing a couple days before Halloween. From all the reports I’ve read, mainly on this site, the mullet run was delayed getting to us (central fl) due to east and southeast winds. However, there were a couple of days of north winds preceding this day so I went out for a bit of night fishing out of the port.

Looking for signs of life, I heard what sounded like rain in a cove and pointed my Gheenoe Highsider towards the rain. When I got there, WHOA, something(s) were corralling mullet by the thousands against the rocks and they were the ones making the noise. I’m not the greatest saltwater fishermen, but I knew something was a happening.

Earlier in the day I caught a couple of blue crabs that I still had in my bait bucket so after striking out on live mullet, I hooked one through its swimming leg on a 5/0 circle hook and chucked it about 10 feet from the rocks. It wasn’t more than a minute later that I thought I got it stuck on a submerged rock so I gave it tug to loosen it. To my surprise the rock it was stuck on moved, with a vengance, the reel humming in protest. Wait, rocks don’t move, I gotta fish I thought! Little did I know at the time it would be a monsta like this!

That thing’s first run was a good 15-20 seconds, the line, rod, and reel pushed to almost breaking point. After the line quit running out of the reel I thought I had it… nope that was only the first run. I reeled it to within about 30 feet of the boat, then it takes off again; drag as tight as I dare without breaking the fish off. Little did I know it was just he beginning. That thing drug me to and fro at will. It went from the deepest part of the channel, to the channel markers, back by the rocks and every time I thought I had it close it would run like a madman; rod bent almost in half. I gotta fight now, heck yeah! After the fight was lasted 10-15 minutes I started thinking I must have a shark. Nothing else could fight this long for this long. After fighting it for about 45 minutes it finally gave up and let me horse it to the top and get it into the boat. I was alone so I couldn’t get pic with it.

It wouldn’t fit in that part of my gheenoe straight so I had to place it a bit sideways to take the pic. When I got home, I measured the distance in that part of my Gheenoe; it is 37″. I estimate the bull read to be about 40″, maybe an inch either way.

Not going to lie, this is my first bull red and it was not fun getting pulled around for so long. My arms were spent. My hands hurt from keeping pressure on the rod. I had to rest the rod in my armpit more than a few times. Glad I got one, but that was a bit much.

Went out for a bit of late night Friday, early Saturday port fishing.

A friend an I did a bit of mullet chasing for the famed mullet run- my first. We didn’t see the numbers that had been there just days before, but we did find a few we were able to cast net and use as bait. Along with the finger mullet, we also got quite a bit of pilchards. We used both at first but the fish didn’t seem interested in the pilchards so we let them go.

The mullet we kept were prayed upon by Jacks, Bluefish, Catfish, Ladyfish and even an upper slot red my friend caught; pic attached. We did also see some bigger Snook too and could have sworn we hooked a couple but were broken off before we could get them in or near the boat to verify.

The gear used consisted of spinning reels spooled with 20 – 30 lb. braid with 40 or 60 lb. leader on M or MH 7 ft. + rods.

Dirty water has been the ticket! This week has been some really great fishing and the fish are finally getting into their fall patterns. We really can’t complain about the bite this week, the redfish and trout bite has been pretty fantastic to say the least! Several 20+ days on redfish with some nice trout mixed in as well. Oddly enough, the pattern this week has been finding dirty water with a good amount of black mullet.

The flats of Mosquito Lagoon have been hot and should continue to be good until we get a significant weather change. With the fish being in dirtier water this week we have changed up a few tactics, I find the best bite has been between 9 and 12 which is typical for this time of year with the slightly cooler weather. The artificial bite has been slightly tougher but still productive, most fish this week were caught on a Slayer Inc. SST in chicken off the chain pattern rigged on a 1/8 oz. Mission Fishin weedless jerk bait hook. I find with the water being dirty, I prefer a bait with a little brighter color and lots of action, a 5 inch Gulp jerk bait in nuclear chicken or pearl white is pretty irresistible as well.

The absolute best bite has been fishing cut bait, pinfish, mullet, and ladyfish have all been getting the job done and have without a doubt been the best bite. Find the mullet with the combination of dirty water, toss out a smaller chunk on a 4/0 circle hook and hang on. Most fish have been in the slot with some slightly over.

As usual, please try to catch and release for future generations as much as possible!

John had to weed through the catfish in order to score on this over-slot Mosquito Lagoon redfish!

We took part in a couple of multi-boat corporate charters this week. Between hiding from the wind and running from the rain I’m surprised at our catches. Spotted seatrout (mostly schoolie fish), redfish and lots of odds and ends were caught. Of course the ever abundant catfish were particularly obnoxious this week!

While the number of pinfish have certainly lessened on the flats in recent weeks they are far from gone. A chunk of cut mullet or ladyfish seldom lasts very long, though at times it lasts long enough for a redfish to gobble it up.

I’m back to using live shrimp on a regular basis, though I’m not sure why. The wee critters are consuming them quickly and other than a few small trout and an occasional stingray, catfish are the only thing focusing on them. It’s my hope I can offer a live shrimp to some tailing reds soon.

Three and four inch minnow imitations were the clear winner for soft plastic lures this week and you know I’m throwing the Minnowz and Diezel Minnowz by Z-Man. Affixed to an EZ Keeperz keel weighted hook these lures not only catch fish, but are easily fished by anglers of all skill levels!

Water clarity is still not fantastic in the Mosquito Lagoon but I’m expecting it to improve soon as water temperatures continue to drop. Water levels are also varying greatly as strong northerly winds drive the water out only to have it flow back as the winds either die or shift south or east. I’m sure this yo-yoing of the water column is confusing the fish and keeping them in motion.

Our bite in the Indian River and Banana River has TURNED ON this week. The approaching new moon phase seems to be bringing these fish into the shallows despite the dirty water conditions that we have in some parts of the lagoon. Our best catches are coming around areas where mullet are congregating on the flats. Soft plastic jerk baits like the Salt Water Assassin 4″ Sea Shad in the avocado green with red flake Houdini and Mama’s 14 K color patterns have been getting great results when rigged on a 1/8 oz. jig head or weedless weighted worm hook.

During the midday, we are switching over to cut baits like mullet, ladyfish or pinfish and having excellent results on slot-size redfish and over slot trout in these same areas. Once Capt. Justin or I find a school of fish, doubles and even triple hookups are not uncommon.

Once the ocean calms down we are looking forward to getting back out there to try for tripletail, flounder, cobia, bull redfish, bluefish, ladyfish, snook and a few other species. Hopefully, next week’s report will show some of our catches from our upcoming fishing adventures in that area. Book your next excursion with us at captainjimross.com if you would like to go chase some of these species with us.

Red tide is gone and the fish are biting, so get outside and enjoy the fresh air! Mackerel have been thick with bluefish, ladyfish, and jacks. The redfish bite has been good all over the place and the snook bite finally turned back on at Sebastian Inlet. All of these fish will eat shrimp during the winter time. Oh, and the Black Drum have started to show up in numbers. Clam, shrimp or sand fleas all work well for them. I also had the pleasure of fishing next to Jett and I learned how to catch moon fish, which are also excellent table fair.

With 15-20mph winds and generally inclement weather, we stuck to inshore fishing this past week. We did well with a lot of Pompano, trout, jacks and ladyfish, and also some redfish and flounder mixed in. The fish were on the move with the red tide but the further you could get away from Sebastian Inlet, the better the fishing was. While the bait schools scattered and moved a bit, the fish were still in with the mullet and feeding well on Storm 360GT Coastal soft plastic baits along with live shrimp and mullet.

The red tide scattered the mullet schools and slowed the daytime inlet bite but the nearshore bite was pretty good. Plenty of Mutton Snapper, most were small around 12-16″ and Lane Snapper to 14″ and also, legal size Triggerfish were along the nearshore reefs outside the inlet. Live shrimp and Native Salt Clams were the best baits.