MAY 21, 2009
INSHORE - The weather patterns this week has made inshore fishing not that great. Lots of anglers are just not going but, for the ones that didn't mind the wind and rain they reported some trout to 4 pounds up around the Harbor Branch area to the north and down around the Midway road area to the south. Most of the fish were caught on soft plastic baits like a D.O.A. Glow Shrimp. Reports of redfish are slim this week but a few fish are being caught in the Ft. Pierce Inlet by anglers who were snook fishing. However, most of the fish were over the slot. With snook season almost over there is a rush to catch that last snook before June 1st. I have been getting good reports about the snook action around the bridges for the anglers putting their time in and fishing live baits like greenie's or mullet.
OFFSHORE - Not much to talk about since the weekend with the sea conditions not very fishable. I did have boats bringing back dolphin over the weekend that went up to 30 pounds. They were hitting ballyhoo in 120 to 300 feet of water and the anglers said that they took a beating to get these fish. One boat from Tampa had 4 dolphin and thy were all around 30 pounds. Another boat had 8 dolphin last Saturday with the heaviest one going 29 pounds. The kingfish are here and very active in 30 to 70 feet of water and they are feeding on live baits that were slow trolled. All of the offshore anglers over the weekend reported seeing a good number of sailfish jumping and also 2 hook ups. Not much else is going on except for a few cobia caught over the weekend and also a few aj's.
BRAGGING BOARD - Last Friday Greg Kirk went offshore and was rewarded with a nice 25 pound dolphin. They were in 120 feet of water and trolling ballyhoo. Mark Johnston & Joel Williams went out on Saturday and got a 25 pound cobia and 2 dolphin to 15 pounds. They were fishing in 180 feet for the dolphin and caught the cobia on their way back in.
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