Stuart Area Offshore and Inshore

It is that time of the year when we have to get out early and head back early due to afternoon thunderstorms occurring almost every day. The fishing has been somewhat sporadic but once in a while it really turns on. Live bait has also been spotty but if you have alternate spots to check you will find it. If it is not in close check out the wrecks and rubble piles such as the Evans Crary in sixty five feet. We were there the other day and it held acres of sardines and cigar minnows. We fished around it for a while and had multiple hookups of bonita until our arms were tired. We picked up and went south to the Loran Tower Ledges and boated some porgy and vermillion snapper. In the meantime a couple of cobia and some dolphin were caught in the area we had left but that is the way it goes sometimes. We fished over the Inlet Barge which was loaded with bait fish. It is in fifty feet of water, one mile northeast of the sand pile. We had several bite offs by toothy critters and had a mystery fish spool off three hundred yards of braided line before we could turn the boat around. On our last pass we hooked into a nice gaffer dolphin and decided to call it a day. Look for blackfin on Push Button Hill and dolphin on edges and bait pods even if they are in close. A friend of mine had four gaffers in forty eight feet slow trolling livies near a lot of bait. There have been some nice kingfish caught anywhere from forty to one hundred and twenty feet. Plenty of snook are at the inlet and around the bridges at night. Look for tarpon at the Crossroads an up into the St. Lucie River. More later.