Stuart Area Offshore and Inshore

Cold water had once again returned to the near shore off of Stuart, shutting down the live bait except for hornbellies. With water temperatures in the high sixties near the beach, we ventured out to Push Button Hill to look for blackfin tuna. We hit the jackpot as three out of four rods went off at the same time. The fish were in the five to eight pound size and are great for pan searing. After an hour and a half we had fifteen in the box and released several small ones. On our next trip to the same spot, we saw tuna jumping all around us and could barely get them to bite. When cleaning one of them we saw that its stomach was loaded with squid. The slow dolphin bite is beginning to pick up a bit as the water temps pick up. The action was in deeper water but is gradually pushing in. The king bite has been spotty but should get better each day. Sails have been fairly steady and are being caught in various depths. We also had a great porgy bite in seventy feet off of the Loran Tower and released several under sized grouper. Catch and release snook are all over the bridges at night and we caught several in the St. Lucie River on the seawalls where the mullet are plentiful. The tarpon bite has slacked off a bit but it should pick up again as the water warms up again. More later.