MAY 29, 2009
INSHORE - The inshore fishing has been good this week even with the afternoon storms and the dirty water. There has been plenty of trout action reported to the north of Harbor Branch and the to shout it has been around the Midway Road area. The top bait seems to be a live shrimp fishing under a popping cork and in 2 to 4 feet of water. I am still getting reports some redfish along the docks of South Indian River Drive. They have been feeding on a gold colored D.O.A. shrimp. The snook bite has been hot for anglers fishing in the Ft. Pierce Inlet with live baits like greenie's or mullet on the bottom and drifting and anchored have both been working well. The snapper are working their way in the Ft. Pierce Inlet and along the channel edges of the Intercoastal. Your best bait will be a live shrimp or a silver jennie's fished along the channel edges.
OFFSHORE - The dolphin bite has picked back up with the fish being scattered from 80 to 400 feet of water. They have been hitting on both ballyhoo and live bait. Most of the fish coming into the docks have been from 12 to 32 pounds. There has been a lot of kingfish around in 60 feet of water and feeding live baits that are slow trolled. I am still getting reports of quite a few sailfish -- again scattered from 28 to 400 feet of water. The bottom fishing over the reefs and wrecks has anglers fighting some big AJ's to 50 pounds, a lot of cuda's and sharks. From the shallow reefs there has been a lot of black sea bass and snapper.
BRAGGING BOARD - On Tuesday of this week Suzanne Bernetti caught and released a sailfish. They were in 400 feet of water and this was only her second sailfish. Jesse Pfeiffer caught a nice 32 inch snook on Sunday morning while fishing live baits in he Ft. Pierce Inlet. Rob Ward had a 44 pound king on Tuesday while fishing in 45 feet of water and using a live bait. On Sunday Mr. Lang caught and released a 5 foot sailfish while fishing right out of the Ft. Pierce Inlet. He was using a ballyhoo. On Tuesday I had Barbara & Richard Raborn fishing with me. They caught several nice trout to 3lbs. and several mangrove snapper.
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