Stuart Area Offshore and Inshore

Cobia have moved into the area and are being caught on live baits and jigs. Last week we saw several boated while we were catching sardines at the Evans Crary Bridge rubble. Later in the day we ran into schools of manta rays in a hundred feet of water. Many casts under them only yielded remora but a few other boats were lucky enough to pull out cobia. The sailfishing has been hot and cold but picks up when the wind blows out of the north. The dolphin bite is slow but the bottom bite has been yielding trigger fish and porgies. Peck's Lake is still holding Spanish mackerel but the fish have been hugging the bottom which makes them harder to catch. Blue fish are everywhere. We trolled a bunch up south of the inlet in twenty feet of water as they chase schools of hornbellies. We had a bunch of pompano in Hell' Gate the other day but since the last cold front dropped the water temperature into the low sixties, the fish have scattered. The weather is starting to warm up so look for the pompano to be back by the end of the week as the water temps rise. More later.