The summer continues as we see different bait schooling up along the coast bringing with it lots of hungry fish! The silverside minnows are one of my favorite baits to find schooled up along the beaches and inlet jetties getting gulped by snook, tarpon, and big jacks. We mostly use artificials such as YoZuri 2.75-inch Crystal Minnows and D.O.A. Jerk Baits. The tarpon bite continues back in the St. Lucie River with juvenile 20-to-50 pounders rolling near docks and oyster beds 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. For the juveniles, live finger mullet or D.O.A. Rootbeer TerrorEyz are your best bet. The summer snapper bite has been great with muttons, lanes, and nice mangroves caught on shallow wrecks 3-to-6 miles out with live bait and chunks. The Spanish sardines started showing up at Bull Shark Barge, and they work great for fresh cut bait.
Thereâs also countless bonito at the shallow wrecks that provide a fun opportunity for fly-fishermen to use a sinking line to get their fly down 30-to-50 feet deep, and then quickly double-hand strip to hook into these solid-muscle-fish.
The âmullet runâ can begin towards the end of August as we start seeing lots of 8-to-10-inch silver mullet schooling up on the flats and around bridges. This makes for a great opportunity to target tarpon near the âcrossroads,â St. Lucie Inlet, and causeways early in the morning. We use 7/0 Gamakatsu circle hooks with these 8-to-10-inch mullet with 50-pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon leader. As the mullet run continues into September, big schools of 4âto-6-inch finger mullet start to work their way down the beaches and Indian River. The best times to fish the mullet run is early morning 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. before the fish fill up and get lazy.
The big female snook are spawning at the inlet and the season is closed until September 1, so make sure to use circle hooks and be gentle with them to preserve our fishery.
FORECAST BY: Capt. Giles Murphy
Stuart Angler Bait & Tackle
(772) 288â1219
www.stuartangler.com
giles@stuartangler.com
Fishing Charters: (772) 475â4857
