Tween the Storms
The water is badly stained and we are watching the weather but fishing must go on .This all being said we had some reasonable success as we approach the Snook opener.I fished Monday with Mike Roberts from RI and we caught a fair number of of Jacks ,Blues and Ladyfish as well as some Trout and Shark bites.We also found some Snook but missed them. On Tue with Bob and Doriano and Jim Archer we caught a Tarpon on a 3 d minnow ,Doriano caught a Bull Shark and we caught 1/2 dozen or so small Snook on DOA Shrimp and 3D Minnows.In addition we caught some Jacks,Ladys and Blues. On friday we had a fair day with some Trout and the usual Jacks,Ladys and Blues as well as a few Juvenile Grouper and a bunch a sailcats. All the fish were caught on DOA Shrimp and 3D Minnows. This next week looks like the weather may create some problems but we will keep on trying .
SW FL-Bonita Beach: Tropical Storm Fay, then a good day of fishing
Monday, 8/18, as Tropical Storm Fay approached and the meteorologists speculated as to her course and strength, the winds began to pick up and the seas churned in that angry way that they do just before a storm. It was time to batten down the hatches…literally. We secured the boats and turned our attention toward securing our property. Fay passed over us in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, with some pretty hefty wind-gusts of up to 65 mph. We were fortunate to maintain electrical power but thousands in our county and neighboring counties did not. Fay was a rainmaker too and flooding was reported in many areas. Lee County schools closed Tuesday, one day after beginning their new school-year, and Collier County, due to begin school Tuesday, deferred its opening. Needless to say, fishing was the last thing on anyone’s mind and Fay’s effects precluded fishing all of that week. Even the trip we had scheduled for Monday, 8/25, deferred until Tuesday, in order to allow the Gulf waters additional time to calm. Still, we feel blessed, fortunate to have dodged another potential bullet during this hurricane season.
On Tuesday, 8/26, first day offshore after the storm, I fished with Reiner and Lisa Neumann, their son, Steven, and uncle, Dennis Hill. We had a good morning of fishing with live shrimp in 35 feet out of New Pass, where we caught twenty keeper mangrove snapper (four limits) ranging in size from 12 to 15 inches, one keeper yellowtail snapper, a 14 inch keeper triggerfish, two Spanish mackerel keepers at 23 inches and 25 inches, and a keeper red grouper at 21 inches. We released two mutton snapper to 15 ¾ inches, just a quarter inch shy of keeper-size.
The photo shown is of angler, Robert Dulberg, with a 28 ½ inch bull red, caught on shrimp and released on a recent inshore trip.
South Indian River Fishing Report
August 28, 2008
INSHORE:
Don’t expect that ground to dry up just yet…..looks like another storm is out there brewin’ and could very well head this way again. The river is stained brown with all the runoff freshwater flooding all through the Treasure Coast. Finding clean water will be difficult for a while longer, but the fish have to eat and if you try different areas you can still be successful out on the river. In spite of water conditions, we enjoyed some great catching this week!
I had R J Swinford, Joe Senneville and Cory Sullivan on the boat this week and we went out in search of some fishing action in the Fort Pierce area. After trying several usually good areas, we finally found fish gathered along the mangroves in a deep cut of water. We never had to look for another spot that day. They guys caught twenty some short snook up to 24″, four slot redfish up to 26″ and a number of snapper to make for a great day of fishing. It was steady action once we found where the fish were lurking.
Cory caught three of the redfish himself, while R J boated the other one. They all shared in the snook and snapper action. Live pinfish and shrimp on popping corks helped locate our fishing spot and we finally called it a day when we used up all our bait and an afternoon storm was working towards us. Try around the islands and along the channel edges. Live shrimp and pinfish are working great for now. DOA TerrorEyz has also been good for artificials. Top water lures will be the choice lures at first light.
Snapper action continues to be good along the channel edges. Some up to 13 pounds have been reported this week north of Fort Pierce. Snook action around the spillways of Taylor Creek have been producing some good sized fish. The jetties have also been a good spot to fish for linesiders. Snook season will re-open on September 1st, so get prepared for a lot of anglers out at midnight Sunday night into Monday.
Tip of the Week:
Take a quick minute and check out your navigation light on the boat along with your trailer lights. A lot of anglers will be heading for the ramps Sunday night for the opening of snook season and the Labor Day Weekend. Make sure all your lights are in good working order to keep yourself and others safe with the additional boating traffic this weekend. Keep safe this weekend and good luck fishing!
As always, remember, fishing is not just another hobby….it’s an ADVENTURE!!
Good Fishing and Be Safe,
Captain Charlie Conner
www.fishtalescharter.com
email: captaincharlie@fishtalescharter.com
772-284-3852
Ft. Pierce Inshore - Offshore Report
AUGUST 28, 2008
INSHORE - There is a lot of dirty water to report about both to the north and south in the river. This is due to all the fresh water run off from tropical storm Fay. Look for the conditions to continue for some time. Most of the fish reported are coming from pockets of cleaner water on the high tides. Most of the pockets have been found to the north of the North Bridge. Most of the reports are about trout, snook for catch and release and redfish. These fish have been taking live shrimp or pinfish. Still a few catch and release snook around the North Bridge and in the Ft. Pierce Inlet at night. Snook anglers only have a few more nights to wait until the season opens on September 1st. I did have a few anglers reporting some big snook up in Taylor Creek and they were feeding on mullet.
OFFSHORE - Same conditions offshore as inshore — dirty water coming out of the Ft. Pierce Inlet and this is making fishing tuff. I had reports this week that the water is dirty out as far as 150 feet. The only reports about offshore fish this week were about a few kingfish in 80 feet of water and they were taking live baits. In that same area there were plenty of bonita and sharks. On Wednesday I did have one boat report several nice dolphin, 1 wahoo and they raised a marlin in 1200 feet of water. The bottom fishing remains slow due to the water conditions but, the head boats are reporting a mix of bottom fish coming from the north in 50 to 80 feet of water.
BRAGGING BOARD - I got an e-mail from Josh Kersey about recent trip that he and his crew took to the Bahamas’. They were doing a little deep dropping with squid in 1100 feet of water and wound up with a few NICE size grouper. The biggest one was 76 pounds. The crew on the boat was Hal Kersey, Dave Tindall, Everett Jones and Josh.
If you would like to report a catch you n e-mail me at cward11605@aol.com or call me at 772-201-5770. You can also reach me on the web at www.captjoeward.com
Capt. Joe Ward
Capt. Joe’s River Charters
Rain !!!!!!!!!
George Vogel one of my long time clients and a good buddy came down from Mass for his annual August trip and we had some good fishing From the 11th to the 18th with good catches of Shark and Bonita plus some decent Trout and Snook as well as we jumped some nice Tarpon but no luck boating them. The ladys and the blues and the Jacks filled our slow times and the only thing that stopped us this past week was Fay.
Ft. Pierce Inshore - Offshore Report
AUGUST 22, 2008
INSHORE - Not too much to report thanks to Tropical Storm Fay. Last weekend we did have a good run on mangrove snapper along the channel edges of the Intercoastal. A live shrimp or a small white bait was the way to go. The catch and release snook action was still strong on the out going tide in the Ft. Pierce Inlet. The bait of choice was a pinfish and fish it in the bottom. We saw a small school of redfish but nothing could get their attention and, we tried everything. The tarpon have been rolling in the Ft. Pierce Inlet but I haven’t had any hook-ups reported. There were still a good number of sheepshead, black drum and sand perch around the South Bridge and a live shrimp was the way to go.
OFFSHORE - Over the weekend we had a couple of cobia - 1 was 28 pounds and the other 34 pounds come into the docks. They were caught in 50 feet of water — 1 on a live greenie and the other on a chartreuse jig. The kingfish bite was still red hot as all of the boats that went out came back with kings. They were caught between 25 and 60 feet of water and a live bait was the way to go. Only 1 sailfish reported to the south of the Ft. Pierce Inlet in 120 feet of water and it was caught on a naked ballyhoo.
BRAGGING BOARD - I got an e-mail from Robert Kinchen about the 1st dolphin his daughter and son caught last weekend. He said that they went out of the St. Lucie Inlet on Sunday morning and headed towards the Six Mile Reef. They came upon a weed line and decided to troll it before bottom fishing. They headed north with no results and turned to head out to the reef. Within 5 minutes they had on 2 dolphin and a sailfish. Helen Kinchen - age 12 & Robert Kinchen Jr - age 9 had just caught their very 1st dolphin. Their dad went on to say that after that they went on out to Six Mile Reef and loaded up on the vermilion snapper. He did say that all the snapper were over 14 inches.
If you would like to report a catch you can e-mail me at cward11605@aol.com or call me at 772-201-5770. You can also reach me on the web at www.captjoeward.com.
Capt. Joe Ward
Capt. Joe’s River Charters
Ft. Pierce Inshore - Offshore Report
AUGUST 14, 2008
INSHORE - The reports about the redfish and trout have been good with both fish coming from the area between the North Bridge and Queens’ Cove when fishing the spoil islands on the east side of the river on the start of the falling tide. A live shrimp or a soft plastic baits will do the job. Try fishing in 1 to 3 feet of water of water. The snapper and sheepshead bite has been good along the channel edges and around the area bridges. Again, a live shrimp has been hard to beat. The catch and release snook action has been good in the Ft. Pierce Inlet but, the bait of choice is anyone’s guess as it changes from day to day. A small live shrimp, a pinfish, a pigfish, a big mullet to small white jigs — it’s just a guessing game right now.
OFFSHORE - There are still plenty of kingfish in 30 to 50 feet of water and they have been feeding on live baits that are slow trolled. And, as always there is plenty of bonita, sharks, and cuda’s steal your baits. I did have reports of several cobia in the 30 to 40 pound range and they were caught in 50 feet of water by anglers who were bottom fishing. Their are still a few sailfish hanging around. I got reports on Monday about several that were to the south of the Ft. Pierce Inlet. The bottom fishing has been good over the reefs and wrecks. Fish either live or dead baits — it has not made much difference. Along the beaches the tarpon have been active as well as the spanish mackerel, and the big jacks. These fish have been following the bait schools.
BRAGGING BOARD - On Monday on a family fishing trip our youngest granddaughter — Kaitlyn Ward - age 3 started her kingfish career when she caught her very first king and it weighed in at 15 pounds. I am sure that she will be following her big sister –Savannah - age 8 and their dad - Rob into the SKA fishing tournaments. Our daughter in law - Tammy had a nice sailfish on but as the fish made a run for the boat it jumped across the bow of the boat and the line caught on a cleat and the line snapped. Last Wednesday afternoon Danny Maness & Rob Ward caught a nice pair of kings. Danny’s fish weighed in at 44.4 pounds and Rob’s weighed in at 39.8 pounds. Both were caught in live baits in 40 feet of water. Last week I had the results of the CENTRAL FLORIDA OFFSHORE FISHING CLUB in my report but had a problem with the pic. Hal Kersey caught the 38.5 king. The anglers in the photo are L to R - Hal Kersey, Hazel & Jimmie Brichetto and John Hooten. They were fishing on the REEL PARTY.
If you would like to report a catch you can e-mail me at cward11605@aol.com or you can call me at 772-201-5770. You can also reach me on the web at www.captjoeward.com
Capt. Joe Ward
Capt. Joe’s River Charters
SW FL-Bonita Beach: Nice Redfish Bite; Snapper, Flounder, Spanish
The first part of the week brought lots of rain, and not just the familiar afternoon thunderstorms; it rained early mornings, into late evenings. It was mid-week before I got out fishing. Wednesday, 8/13, I fished Estero Bay with Robert & Roberta Dulberg and their children, Daniel, ten, and Rebecca, six. Rebecca was a little leery of boats in general, but quickly adapted and had a great time–especially when she got to see a porpoise and a manatee close-up. The group caught two keeper mangrove snapper and released smaller snapper, sheepshead, cravalle jack, trout and ladyfish. Robert caught two nice redfish–one, a bull at 28 1/2 inches, was released, and the other at 25 1/2 inches went home for dinner! Robert and Daniel fished again with me Thursday, joined by Robert’s brother, Mark, and his children. This time we headed near-shore to the reefs and fished there as long as we could, but it was a little sloppy out there and more than Daniel could handle after a while. So we eventually moved in to fish off the channel. We ended up with a flounder and five keeper mangrove snapper and we released smaller snapper.
Kevin Port, son Jake, and friends Dave and John fished with me 18 miles west of New Pass, on Friday morning. Using live shrimp, we caught over a hundred mangrove snapper that were just short of keeper size for federal waters so we had to release those, along with some big ladyfish. But we did catch five keeper mangrove snapper, three keeper yellowtail snapper, three Spanish mackerel to 24 inches and porgies. http://fishbustercharters.com
The photo shown is of mother-daughter anglers Kay and Julia Ware with a red grouper caught on shrimp and released on a recent near-shore trip to the artificial reefs.
South Indian River Fishing Report
August 14, 2008
INSHORE:
It’s great to live and fish along the Treasure Coast! Fishing was a little on the slow side this week, but we had fun out there on the water anyway. Early mornings continue to hold the best opportunities for fishing. The weather has been fantastic if you get out and back before the afternoon storms roll into the area. Continued summer patterns will give you the opportunity to have some great fishing weather.
Fishing was on the slow side out there this week. Redfish were on the flats one day and disappeared the next. Trout fishing has remained on the slow side. The summer doldrums have really kicked in! We did manage some short snook on several days around the mangroves and docks. Kimberly Kolz caught hers from under a dock in Fort Pierce, while Adrian Lusardi lost a couple nice hits at the same dock. There was a definite lack of bait around the flats. Most of the anglers fishing this week were after snapper along the channel edges. I had several good reports of nice sized snapper from under some of the docks and north along the channel at Harbor Branch. The southerly winds kept us from enjoying fishing south of Fort Pierce on some of the days we were out this week.
Bridges have had some snapper, sheephead and a few reports of flounder. The jetties at night have continued to hold snook, jacks and tarpon. I had a few good reports of pompano along some of the beach areas on shrimp or sand fleas. Brennan Smith was out one day and caught several nice kingfish right along the beach. Live bait is the best way to catch them right now.
Tip of the Week: Snook season is fast approaching! It’s that time of year to break out the trusty ol’ snook gear and make sure it is armed and ready for action. Checking line, rods and reels are essential to being prepared for that opening night. It pays to get things ready now so you won’t be running around crazily trying to get prepared. Oh….and it’s also a good idea to check that snook permit and make sure it’s still good. Have fun this snook season!
As always, remember, fishing is not just another hobby….it’s an ADVENTURE!!
Good Fishing and Be Safe,
Captain Charlie Conner
www.fishtalescharter.com
email: captaincharlie@fishtalescharter.com
772-284-3852
Fishing is Great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Busy week and good results with Bonita in the ocean and lots of Jacks, Blues and Ladys in the lagoon as well as a smattering of Pompano and Trout.On Monday with Bill Wright we caught quite a few Blues Ladys and Jacks on the fly while we had some chances at big Reds.On Wed with Alan Julier we had similiar action plus a couple of Pompano and Bonita. Then on Thusday with James and Ian we caught about 1oo Ladys blues and Jacks as well as a 80# BT Shark and some Boneheads. Fianally today with Rob Harris we did the same except early in the AM we caught a double header with 2 Tarpon on MirroLures at the same time. Unfortunatley for the smaller one a Bull Shark had a meal so we boated 1 !/2 Poons and had a memorable day !
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