Fishing Report for Ft. Pierce, Florida

May 24, 2006 INSHORE - The inshore fishing has been up and down this week with the only bite that has been steady was the trout taking top water baits just after daylight in 1 to 3 feet of water and a live shrimp (if you were lucky enough to find them) fished under a popping cork after about 9:00am. The snook bite at night has slowed but a fair number of them have been coming from up on the flats and in the Ft. Pierce Inlet during the day. Live mullet has been the best bet. The redfish have been moody and feeding at different times each day. Try a cut up ladyfish or soft plastics. The bottom fishing for snapper along the channel edges is improving with a good number of fish over 1 pound. I did have reports of some tripletail down south of the power lines and they were feeding around midday on small crabs. OFFSHORE - The offshore action has been good for most of the boats with plenty of dolphin in the 15 to 30 pound range and a few fish were over 40 and 50 pounds. The dolphin have been caught in as close as 90 feet and out as deep as 400 feet. The bite was good on Friday and slowed on Saturday. It picked back up on Sunday and has been good all week except for Wednesday. There are plenty of kings being reported along the beaches of the Treasure Coast in 20 to 40 feet of water and they are taking slow trolled live baits. There have been quite a few sailfish seen free jumping this week by anglers who were dolphin fishing. The bottom fishing for snapper and grouper has also been good this week when fishing over the reefs and wrecks. BRAGGING BOARD - On Sunday T.J. Garrard caught a 50 plus pound dolphin while fishing southeast of the Ft. Pierce Inlet in 385 feet of water. It took 40 minutes to get the fish in the boat. When he weighed the fish it bottomed out his 50 pound scale. On Sunday Brock Lawson caught a 35 pound dolphin and his sister, Jessie caught a 40 pound dolphin. Also on Sunday Capt. Danny Barrow caught a 22 pound snook at sunset near the Lantana Bridge. He caught it on a Super Spook Jr. On Tuesday Mr. Hudnall caught a 58 pound dolphin while fishing out of the Ft. Pierce Inlet. If you would like to report a catch, call me at 772-201-5770 or e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also reach me on the web at www.captjoeward.com. Capt. Joe Ward Capt. Joe's River Charters