Captain Bob Bushholz
Jensen Beach, Florida
(772) 225-6436
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ALL YEAR LONG!!!!' | | Fishing Report for
August 26th, 2002
"It's Better To Give"
It will be short and sweet this week with
only a few charters. Early morning trout north near Walton Road were
hitting DOA shrimp, while several tarpon in the 30 lb. range were spotted
rolling on the east side at Little Mud Creek. Unfortunately the tarpon
weren't interested in the baits presented and rolled off to
"tease" another day.
The tripletail run is almost history until the water and the weather
cools down - maybe January or February if we don't have too severe of a
winter this year. I'm still happy with the "71" number this year
and will always shoot for the "100" mark. The channel markers
are holding plenty of lane and mangrove snapper along with a few goliath
and gag grouper.
It's that time again. Snook season opens September 1st (which also
happens to be Labor Day weekend) and means the traffic will be heavy. The
regulations remain the same (26"-34" slot with a max of 2 per
person). Be sure you have a snook stamp on your fishing license because I
heard the Marine Patrol expect to "terrorize" anyone abusing the
rules. With the mullet run in full swing, surf and inlet anglers have a
great shot in the early morning. Nighttime, around area bridges and
lighted docks, will produce snook ready to ambush their prey. The best bet
on bait will be DOA glo shrimp. There will also be plenty of trout and
ladyfish that will appear around those lighted docks, so expect plenty of
action.
Last night I ran a re-con trip, fishing a few docks on the east side
of the Indian River, releasing trout to 3 lbs. and 2 short snook. Moving
under the Jensen Beach Bridge produced three snook to 12 lbs., gently
released, and some good-sized black drum (also released).
I have been hearing lots of reports about huge tarpon in the surf, so
with Sunday off I decided to run outside along the beach scouting for some
tarpon action. After getting a live well full of greenies I ran from the
St. Lucie Inlet to the Power Plant without spotting anything rolling other
than many, many dolphin (porpoise). Every time you approached a bait pod
that was getting pressure (and hoping for Mr. Tarpon), all of a sudden
Flipper showed up and that was the end of the wishful thinking. We checked
out the Power Plant "boils" and there wasn't anybody home there
either.
After a really nice cruise on beautifully blue water I decided to head
back to the St. Lucie Inlet to drift the greenies caught earlier on Sabiki
rigs. Although having a blast hooking into jack crevalle in the 20-lb.
range, it just wasn't the tarpon I was wishing for. Within 45 minutes we
boated and released 7 jacks with the largest pushing 25 lbs. These guys
are excellent sport fish and sure to test your tackle. Before finally
calling it quits at the crossroads to head home, I offered the rest of the
live greenies to a nearby boat. They had witnessed the tremendous
"jack attack" we had experienced and gladly accepted the baits.
As I was writing this report, Dr. Clark called (the nearby boat) to say
that right after we left (of course) they hooked into a 100+ tarpon and
fought it for about 10 minutes before it broke off (or was cut off by a
boat passing a little too close) as well as hooking, boating and releasing
two large jack crevalle, 18 and 25-lb. class. Dr. Clark said it "made
their day" and was extremely gracious. I hope to see him out and
about soon and maybe this time I'll have the "big silver" hooked
up.
September 1st is my first scheduled snook trip, departing at 7:00 p.m.
Sure hope to start off the season with a "bang"! Even though the
snook seem to know the calendar better than we do, I think my summer
re-con trips will prove to have been worth the effort.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Bob Bushholz
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