Hi,
I apologize for not posting - it's not like I haven't been fishing :) just not writing about it. The snook fishing has been good. It got cold and for a week or so in March the snook were trying to keep warm. Then the water really started warming up and the bite was on. I've been catching one or two snook on bad days and 5 or 6 on good ones. They have been hanging around piers and cruising the shoreline chasing bait.
In my snook contest for March (Stuart Rod and Reel Club) I caught 20 snook but the meeting in March was cancelled because it was merged with another event. So I'm not sure how I would have done-- 20 snook in a month isn't very good for me.
Still I haven't had a big fish for quite some time and the biggest snook have have been in the 34-36" range. My neighbor Jim, who I fish with most of the time has had 3 monster snook on but all three have either broken his line or in once case broken his hooks. He was throwing a plug with a rusted treble hook and a big snook hit it and broke off two off his three treble hooks!!! That was a shocker.
There is still no grass in the lagoon- the grass died off in the high water of late August and September when it couldn't get any light. I'm sure pollution and water quality didn't help. Hopefully with warm water and conservation efforts: we (SRRC and other organizations) are dumping oyster shells and planting grass- the grass will come back.
Because there's no grass the trout are very hard to find. Look for them in shallow water 4'-5' maximum depth with access to shallower water. I caught a 24" trout (4 1/2 pounds) two days ago and have been catching one or two trout a trip. Last year it was 6 or 7 trout per trip this time of year and I averaged 15 trout a day in early summer. I know Jim Bohrer has been catching some big trout and I'm not sure of the numbers which I'm sure are less than last year-- he fishes Round Island in Vero.
I've seen some Redfish now that the water clarity is better and they're dumping less water from Okeechobee. But I've only caught three redfish this year and all were small. My neighbor caught a nice redfish at Bear Point a few days ago. He's also caught more redfish, possibly because he fishes slower.
I've been fishing Walton; Walton Scrub, and on the east side -Herman's both North and South and have fished Bear Point once. For a while I was catching some big jack a few around 8-10 pounds. I even caught a 10 pounder that was hit by a shark on the way in. It was cut up but lived to swim away. We don't see many sharks but when we do my neighbor starts heading for shallow water!!!
Right now the deep bite on the other side of the sand bar in all areas has been horrible. You can fish deep and for 30 minutes not get a bite. There are ladyfish and an occasional jack but no trout deep. No grass beds to protect the trout.
The spring mullet run is on!! Most of the mullet are too big for small jack, trout and snook but perfect for bigger fish. I've had good luck fishing shallow around bait and fishing piers. I haven't been fishing the bridges but they are probably getting to be good. Some of the snook will head out to the inlet to spawn soon.
I may upgrade my line from 8 lb to 20lb since I've been fishing piers and got broken off twice. 8lb is good for trout or anything in open water but a big snook around a pier is a different matter. I still fish primarily a 1/16 oz jighead with CAL 4" paddletail or fork tails usually white but I change colors. I have fished the larger paddletail and caught trout and bluefish on them.
I have some pics I'll put up someday and will do fishing reports,
Tight lines and true lies,
Richard
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