Spring officially begins March 20 and brings with it some great opportunities for fishing the Treasure Coast. We should start seeing baitfish along Gilbert’s Shoal, the Sandpile, and Bull Shark Barge. So have your sabiki rods ready and look for birds. The cobia should start showing up under the sharks at those same spots and we attract them with a menhaden chum while chunking bonito. Then, get some live baitfish under the sharks with a weighted rig.
March is my favorite month for pompano fishing and there are many different techniques. By boat, we jig the Sailfish flats while drifting in three-to five-foot depths. We also drop anchor 200-to-400 yards inside the St. Lucie Inlet in 8-to-12-foot depths to drop sandflea bait rigs while casting half-ounce pompano jigs up-current and bouncing the bottom. The east end of the Stuart Causeway Bridge is a very popular spot to jig for pompano without a boat. But my favorite is surf-casting from the beach with a pompano rig using sandflea bait along with FishGum or Fishbites. We always do best with incoming tide at the small beach accesses points.
The snook bite has been turning on as the river-water warms up. Pitching baits under docks and along seawalls is always a great method. For artificials, we use topwater plugs early morning and soft swimbaits once the sun is up, such as Savage Mullet, Live Target Mullet, and D.O.A. TerrorEyz. The water has cleared up a lot back in both the North and South Forks and its loaded with snook and big jacks. There’s also occasional trout and redfish back there along the mangrove shorelines.
For meat fishing, the causeway bridges have been producing lots of sheepshead, black drum, croakers. We use double hook drop rigs with live shrimp. The Spanish mackerel are also still around at Peck Reef for catching dinner with the family.
FORECAST BY: Capt. Giles Murphy
Stuart Angler Bait & Tackle
(772) 288–1219
www.stuartangler.com
giles@stuartangler.com
Fishing Charters: (772) 475–4857
