Fishing Report
Fort Pierce - Port St Lucie - Vero Beach - Jensen Beach
INSHORE:
We enjoyed some great fishing weather this week. A few cool and windy days to keep you home, but overall spring has arrived here on the Treasure Coast. Look for nicer weather as May nears and fishing to continue to improve for trout and redfish on the flats. We had some great fun out there and look forward to much more in the coming weeks!
We fished for a variety of fish this week from grouper to trout. While we got busted by some nice grouper, finally Lawson Taylor muscled in a 27″ gag grouper from around the seawalls in Fort Pierce. Both 14 year old Megan Lundy and 10 year old Rachel Taylor had big grouper bites only to lose the battle with them. We used live pinfish for our action this week.
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Posted in Fish Reports
The Fort Pierce City Marina Manager, Dean Kubitschek, ejected the charter service “Smokin’ Em” charters after only 19 days. The service, ran by a local husband and wife team was asked to leave to keep from damaging the reputation of the marina as a family environment. The charter service has been running for about 3 years out of Stuart, Florida as strictly fishing charters but about 3 months ago they began offering a service they call bikini charters. For $100 a girl they will have one of the girls from their service be a mate on the boat in a bikini, bringing you food and drink, baiting hooks and putting lines in the water.
According to Kubitschek, this isn’t why the charter service was ejected from the marina. Soon after the 44′ Trojan began operating out of the marina, flyers for the bikini service began showing up in the Tiki Bar & Restuarant, which is on the same city owned land that the marina is on. The problem is the flyer featured nude women which is not in line with the image of the Tiki Bar or the City Marina. According to the charter service website, you can pay the girls an extra $50 to do the trip topless. The site features photos of the women, measurements and bust sizes along with hobbies, likes and dislikes. To be honest it reads more like an adult dating service rather than a charter service.
The owners of Smokin’ Em charters have stated their intentions to add a second boat to their fleet in Fort Pierce running out of another marina and a third boat operating out of Stuart, Florida. After being removed from the Fort Pierce City Marina, the owners have stated that they would discontinue the bikini charter service if allowed to return. That’s not going to happen, according to Kubitschek, “They had their one shot. I gave them an opportunity and they came in here under false pretenses; and then 17 days later the brochures showed up”, he said.
Personally, I support Kubitschek and what he is trying to do. I feel that the owners of Smokin’ Em not only tarnished the image of the city but gave the entire fishing industry a bad wrap. This is not the kind of thing I want my kids to be exposed to and I’m sure most of you would agree. Now I know they have operated their charter service out of Stuart for years and I don’t care personally if they continue to do so. But I for one don’t want them to run this kind of service out of our city, that’s not what Stuart is known for.
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Saint Lucie County marine resource coordinate Jim Oppenborn tried to secure a 563 foot decommissioned Navy destroyer for the counties planned artificial reef, but the price tag of $3 million dollars was just to high. Instead, they will be sinking a 48.8 foot retired tug boat, the Lee, donated by a Martin County marine transport company.
The Lee is being sank roughly 12 nautical miles SouthEast of the Fort Pierce inlet in about 90 feet of water. Local volunteer divers are preparing the boat to become an artificial reef by cleaning it out and sealing it up. The artificial reef is designated to be a dive attraction as well as a fish attraction. This area is already attracts visitors from around the world to experience the great sportfishing in our waters, this project and others like it are designed to attract divers as well. The far offshore location will provide for better visibility than if the reef were created closer to the often murkier waters near the shore, which will present more dive oppurtunities for visitors.
“We’re hoping this will build up more of a dive industry here in the county,” Oppenborn said. “Just like we attract fisherman and anglers from all over the state and country, we’d like to get divers (too).”
Oppenborn and his team of local dive volunteers and anglers planned to clean the ship Friday, removing oil, some bunks and cabinets along with marine batteries to be recycled. Fort Pierce based McCulley Marine Services, which has been the county’s contractor to sink other reefs, donated oil soak pads to clean the bilges.
Once it’s sunk, the ship is expected to draw a plethora of fish and people alike.
“This one has toilets so you could sit down there on the toilet had have someone take a picture,” Oppenborn joked. “This one has a good profile so it will attract a lot of fish.”
See the locations of sunken attractions and learn more information about St. Lucie County’s at www.stlucieco.gov/public_works/reefs.htm
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