Fishing Report for Indian River & St. Lucie River - Offshore

Fishing offshore of Stuart has been hit and miss the past couple of weeks but it is gradually getting better. After trolling ballyhoo for a couple of hours the other day, we came across a 2 by 4 floating in some scattered weed. Two lines screamed off as school size dolphin flew out of the water with our baits. After putting our dinner in the fish box we decided to cut the motor and drift around the board as my buddy broke out his fly rod. On his first cast his fly was taken by a two footer which eventually shook off the hook. I grabbed a light rod with a green glass minnow lure and hooked up immediately. I then cut up a ballyhoo and sent a piece out on a small hook and had another little mahi on. The school was all around us and we had a blast playing with them. We only kept enough for dinner and moved on. The sailfish bite is gradually getting better and some were caught between 200 to 260 feet south of the inlet the other day. Small sharks and bonita took most of the baits though. The St. Lucie inlet has pompano on the beginning of both tides. Shrimp tipped redfish jigs are working great. The Indian River is loaded with mullet and good numbers of catch and release trout are being caught, along with some nice keeper snook. The good news is that the mullet are moving back up the St. Lucie river. Snook and even some redfish are being caught near the Roosevelt Bridge and Mangrove snapper are back in the canals. More later.