Port Fierce Inlet Fishing....3/19-3/24

[TimM]

The kidlet was on spring break last week so I took him with me to S FL where I had to work for a few days  so we could play a little and he could visit the FIT campus as a prospective student.  It was a good week. Instead of staying in my usual spot I put us in a decent little place right on the Fort Pierce (Port Fierce...a  self described quiet little drinking town with a fishing problem  )  that has several illuminated docks for guests to fish from.  We fished the incoming tide each evening and managed to catch fish every day...generally landing 15-20 each in a couple of hours fishing. They were mostly jack crevalle ( for those that haven't caught them before..imagine a 5 lb bream in heavy current and you're not far off ) but Chris also caught a small goliath grouper and almost an over slot redfish. He fought the fish a long time and while we were trying to figure out how to get it up onto the pier it managed to get the braided line around a piling and was *ping* gone...oh well....he got the best out of it. Looked to be at least 36" if not over 40".  Here are a few shots from the week. The bird pics are all Chris's.   










Chris fighting his "sea monster" size redfish....



A jack typical of what we caught last week....



It took all of two hours or so of catching to turn a jig like the one on the bottom into one like the jig on the top.. 




It was a great Dad-Son trip that was even partially subsidized by my client.  Hard to beat that!

[TWiles]

That place happens to be one of my favorite fishing spots.  My grandparents live in Pt. St Lucie, and my brother and I have made about 3 trips down that way, often putting in the boat at Ft Pierce.  Last June we bank fished on the bay side of Mosquito bridge and started finding snook at night.  We took the boat out the next night casting jigs by the bridges in strong current and found some big boys.  I'm hoping to get back there before my grandparents sell their house----it's truly some great fishing.
Travis

Here's some pics from last summer.

[RonS]

Wow! Tell Chris I said nice pics and fish.  Nice afterwork activity.  I have a couple of those same jigs in my striper box. Always thought they looked good but haven't caught a striper on them. Guess they only work in FLORIDA!!

TWiles-Cool snookin.  I'll bet it's hard for you salt guys to come back here and have to settle for catchin bait. 

[TimM]

  I'll bet it's hard for you salt guys to come back here and have to settle for catchin bait. 

:-)

Not that I started out a salt guy but as we've probably talked about at some point that's exactly what lead to my current case of water zebra madness....just had to have something at home that could make my reel sing like the toothy critters do. 

I agree TWiles...while we do have a lot of piscatorial diversity in middle TN the general area of Vero Beach to Port St Lucie is probably the fishiest area I've ever seen. We've been making at least one trip/year for most years since 98 other than right after they got pounded by the hurricanes (04?).  Between the river, near shore and offshore species combined with seasonal migrations there's always something you can catch.

Here are some shots of some of our other Ft Pierce area catches over the years....you can generally judge how recent they are by Chris's height and the size of my ever increasing gut... 

























Good times for sure.