JANUARY 1, 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
INSHORE - There has been a lot of fish reported this week starting with the sheepshead, sandperch, croakers and black drum. The sheepshead bite has been going off any where you can find a little structure. Try using a live shrimp or fiddler crabs. The area bridges are holding a lot of sandperch, croakers, black drum and sheepshead. Try a live shrimp or a piece of frozen shrimp. Starting today trout season is open again. Look for good trout action around Bear Point, the Midway Road area and up at Harbor Branch. Try a live shrimp fished under a Cajun Thunder cork or a soft plastic bait like a D.O.A. shrimp. Still a few redfish and catch and release snook around Round Island and Queen's Cove. These fish have been taking small pinfish. Look for the spanish mackerel, bluefish and plenty of jacks around the Ft. Pierce Inlet. Use a small -- #1 Drone spoon for the best results. Along the area beaches there has been a few pompano and a good number of whiting for the surf anglers.
OFFSHORE - Still pretty bumpy for the smaller boats but the bigger boats that went did report scattered sailfish action both to the north and south of the Ft. Pierce Inlet. Try trolling a ballyhoo in 90 to 140 feet of water. Not a lot of dolphin reported this week but the few fish that did come into the docks were caught in 100 to 180 feet of water and the biggest one was 18 pounds. The kingfish bite has still been over the Offshore Bar in 70 to 90 feet of water. The best results were for anglers using a live blue runner. The bottom fishing for snapper and grouper has been good around the Northeast Grounds and both live and cut baits have been working well. There is still plenty of spanish mackerel along the local beaches.
JUNIOR TEEN ANGLERS - The Treasure Coast Chapter of Junior Teen Anglers will hold their next from shore fishing tournament on Saturday -- Jan. 10th at Harbour Pointe Park in Ft. Pierce. The Junior's will fish from 9am until 11am and then we will award trophies. Junior Teen Anglers is for the 5 to 11 age group and if you would like more info you can go to the website at www.teenanglers.org or call 772-201-5773. Junior Teen Anglers and Teen Anglers are a not for profit organization and everything is done by donations or volunteers.
BRAGGING BOARD - On Monday Mr. & Mrs. Paul Tolen went out with me and they caught a limit of sheepshead. Their biggest fish was 4 & 1/2 pounds. All of the fish were caught on live shrimp. On Tuesday Donald & Jeremy Birkholz of Kenosha, Wisconsin went out with me and they also got 15 sheepshead. Jeremy age 17 caught most of the fish and they also used live shrimp. On Wednesday I had Capt. Chop Leg'e and his daughter Emily on the boat. They also caught sheepshead and Capt. Leg'e also caught a nice 23 inch redfish. Their biggest sheepshead was 4 pounds. They were also using live shrimp. Most of the fish on these 3 charters were caught to the south in the river by the power lines. I got an e-mail from Robert Kinchen stating that his son Robert Jr. caught 3 nice sheepshead that were roughly 5 pounds. They were fishing about half way between the Jensen Beach Causeway and the Stuart Bridge. He was using frozen shrimp.
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
