If you want to catch something to get your mojo on, then try this spot.

It's overflow from Okeechobee. So there is freshwater constantly being dumped. And fish being dumped along with it.

You park there, then enter the park and walk onto that structure. People fish there almost all the time.

You get some freshwater fish (which I wouldn't eat as it's dirty, and that water is dirty too). But there is some saltwater fish there to feed on that freshwater fish that gets dumped over.

It's pretty much impossible not to catch something there. Might not be something you'll eat, but you'll catch some fish.

Do you get a lot of hits by catfish? Not that you would want that. Just an indicator of how deep your bait suspends.

Boat? Shore? Pier? Beach? (That decides the rest.)

How deep do you suspend your bait?

The inlet is a pretty good bet. So if you can, get out there.

Most bridges have a lot of catfish that would get to your bait before any game fish has a chance. Not to mention the water is yucky right now. So it's best to position as close to the ocean as possible. Away from the river. But people do catch plenty around the bridges.

Still, if you can, get to the inlet and/or inshore.

Here is some encouragement from last week:

https://www.fishingstage.com/t-62655-1.html

Inshore fishing right outside Stuart.

Here is a few days before that:

https://www.fishingstage.com/t-62585-1.html

Lots of bait fish to use for later. (Freeze them, and later cut them up and they work as good as shrimp.)


There is plenty here. So don't give up. Sometimes it gets to the point where you haven't finished casting and the bait hasn't even got a chance to suspend enough and you are already getting strikes.

About a mile out of St Lucie inlet in Florida.

I don't think we are allowed to cut up the fish while still on the boat. The idea is to make sure the authorities can still check the size.

Can't keep shark under 54 inches here. That one was well under the limit.

She caught four that day. They are like pests. Too small to keep. Eat the bait. Spook away other fish.

I've only tried eating shark once, maybe five years ago. And I remember that I didn't like the taste. But if we catch one we can keep, we'll try cooking it and see if I change my mind about it.

The safe answer to "with" is shrimp. Everything eats shrimp. Once you get some bait fish using the shrimp, switch to using bait fish instead. While shrimp gets more bites, it's a lot easier to lose shrimp off the hook than a piece of bait fish. So you'll lose a lot more shrimp and it's frustrating. But the starting point being shrimp is almost universally a good bet.


The safe answer to "what time" is the entire day. Sometimes fish are hungry in the morning and slow down by midday and don't resume in the afternoon. Sometimes fish are slow in the morning and still slow by midday but resume activity in the afternoon.

I find it best to fish when the fish are busy eating each other. That's when they will gobble up your bait in a hurry. Because they "know" if they don't eat this thing right in front of them right this second, someone else will. So they grab onto whatever you dangle in front of them in a frenzy.

So the task here is to figure out when the fish are hungry.

I know some people rely on lunar calendars and barometric pressure charts and cloud/sunny reports and on many other things. But I find it best to use a cooler full of beer with ice and some patience. Get to the spot and see if you get bites. If not, have some beer while casting or jerking or whatever thing you do. And wait.

Here is a recent example:

https://www.fishingstage.com/t-62655-1.html

We waited at the spot for two hours with zero bites. Went through half a case of beer. Had three other boats anchor around us and subsequently leave without much. Then, the bite started. And in about two and a half hours we pulled maybe 40 fish. Could only keep 20 of them as the rest were under the min limit.

A few days before, we had a different experience at the same exact spot. We anchored down, and started catching immediately. Caught pretty much everything we did that day within the first 20 minutes. Then, for the next three hours nothing. Because we made it just in time while the fish were still in a feeding frenzy. And then they all slowed down. Had we arrived 30 minutes later, we would have missed it and had to wait another 2-3 hours for the feeding frenzy to resume.

So rather than trying to "time the market" (as they say only fools do that), instead stay in the market for as long as you can and ride the trend once it forms.

17 Line Snappers. One Mangrove Snapper (second from the left top row).
We also caught two Mutton Snappers, but both where smaller than the min limit so had to release them.
And we got two Grouts for bait for the next time.

We used Blue Runner and Barracuda as bait. Blue Runner seems get more bites than Barracuda.
Although, Barracuda seems to attract more Black Sea Bass.

We caught maybe 20 Black Sea Bass, but every single one was under the limit. The biggest one we got was 11 inches. The min limit is 13 inches. And the rest were about 5-7 inches. Crazy how we caught so many and not one large enough to be legal. But those tiny things were gobbling up pieces of Barracuda. I guess it was revenge for all the times Barracudas eat them.

All in all, not a bad day.

P.S. You'll notice one of the Snappers has a piece of the tail missing (fifth from the right bottom row). The taxman almost got him as we were pulling him out.

And as we tried to take a picture, the shark decided it doesn't like the hook anymore and spit it out. Right at the moment I took the picture. So now we have a picture of a little flying shark that's chasing the bait above it.

I caught a barracuda today. 41 inches. Not a huge one, but not a tiny one either. Will post a pic tomorrow.

The reason I'm not targeting larger game now is I'm waiting for my amazon braid order. I got a new rod (rated for 100-200lb braid), got wire leaders, got a conventional reel (70 or 7000 size). Now waiting for the braid. Once that's all in, I'll up my game.

Otherwise, it will be like this: https://www.fishingstage.com/t-62507-1.html

That's another one from today. I would say it was a 15 (maybe 18) inch sea bass, judging by its head size. And the head was still alive and trying to tell us something.

Here is one from today. Also not a boat prop. Just a taxman that didn't bite in hard enough to bite off a chunk.

Our motor was off, we were anchored. No boats close enough to have done it. We fished directly under the boat. The line was going down almost 90 degrees vertical almost the whole time, so this fish didn't run hundreds of yards horizontally towards another boat or anything like that.

Last week went out of the inlet for about a mile to one of the reefs.

Caught over 20 Blue Runners (good bait, and actually not too bad to eat, although people here generally don't eat them).

Cut up five or so of them right there. Brought the rest, 15 blue runners, back. Put them in the freezer.
Two days later, took a few out, put them in a bucket in water to defrost, cut up, and they were amazing bait.

Also caught 12 white grunts (I think). Not sure if they are good to eat or not.

Got two sea bass. Very tasty.

And also got two snappers. We actually cut one snapper for bait. There were so many fish in a somewhat small ice-filled cooler. In a frenzy grabbed one and started chopping up for bait. Then realized it's s snapper. That was a dumb moment.

So the taxman almost ripped this little fellow in half as I was reeling him in.
This fish is under min size, so I couldn't keep it. (doesn't matter how severely injured, I guess, still can't keep it)