Sailfish City - Stuart Florida Community Site

Stuart, FL - That’s the idea behind the future restoration project to the St Lucie Inlet North jetty.  The county is planning a $5.4 million project to help reduce the year to year costs of maintaining the jetty and the navigational waterway.  The thought behind the restoration is that the increased size of the seawall will block waves out of the Northeast and prevent excess sand from getting into the waterway, instead funneling it into a basin to make future dredging projects easier and less costly.

Besides the obvious tax savings benefits to the county there will be significant benefits to your average boater.  The upgrades to the North jetty seawall will help to make the inlet calm which will make navigating the inlet safer and easier.  Another proposition from county engineers is to install navigational aide lights to the ends of the inlets which will make entering and exiting the inlet after dark much safer.  This could be called a win, win….win situation.  Add to that the cost to Martin County taxpayers right now is $675,000 for the upgrade, the rest of the $5.4 million bill is being picked up by the state of Florida and the Army Core of Engineers, the brunt of which is from the engineers.  On top of that, Martin County officials have put in for a grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District which, if accepted, will reduce the costs to Martin County even further to only $375,000.  If that goes through, you can add another win to my list.

Inlet photo courtesy of www.StLucieInlet.com

The offshore dolphin bite was beginning to heat up, when the wind and high seas kicked in and turned us back to river fishermen. Our last couple of trips produced mostly school sized dolphin, but last Friday one of the rods went off and a big bull catapulted out of the water and screamed off about a hundred yards of line. We knew we had to concentrate on this one fish so we quickly pulled in our other lines and gave chase. We took our time tiring out the fish which jumped every time he saw the boat. In the meantime, every boat near us had a fish or two on but none were near the size of this one. After about thirty minutes, the gaff went in and the fish was flopping on the deck. We threw a towel over his head to calm him down  and minimize damage to the boat and the passengers. After a little bit of persuasion with a billy club, we were able to place him in the fish box. The fish measured fifty six inches and weighed well over forty pounds. The grilled fillets were great. There are plenty  of bonita and kings are starting to show up between sixty and eighty feet. There are some amberjacks on the wrecks along with an occasional cobia. Sailfish are scattered, but being caught in decent numbers for this time of year. Near the beach there are schools of bluefish and a couple of pompano. We saw a couple of boats hooked up to tarpon in schools of threadfins near the Jensen Beach Holiday Inn. Around the inlet, look for bluefish on the incoming tide. There are plenty of lady fish and small blues near Willoughby Creek. The pelicans will let you know when they are there. Look for snook at the Roosevelt Bridge on flair hawks or live mullet. Topwater around the docks and seawalls will also produce some fish. Look for the dolphin and king bites to improve as the spring pattern takes over and more fish move through the area. More later.

Florida’s F.I.N. has posted up a good look at how the offshore fishing is shaping up out of the Sebastian Inlet.  Fish report by Captain Sherrie Stovall on April 3rd.

Offshore Sebastian Inlet

Blue water trolling days are here again! The dolphin run is starting and several huge Bulls have already been caught. A few dolphins in the 50 lb range have been reported by boaters out trolling close to the Gulf Stream and along weed lines.

Strong east winds have pushed in a lot of weeds and debris from the Gulf Stream and trade currents. Sargasso weed houses colonies of small bait fish and will keep most of the dolphin close by. Pick a direction on the weed line and begin dragging some rigged or naked ballyhoo up the cleanest side of the weed line. Turn around and work back down the other side of the weed line if nothing is happening. Throughout the day a rip or surface current may form, these are great places to look for fish. Most of the fish are on the clean side of the rips but if the temperature is right they might be swimming on the dirty side to help camouflage themselves. Look for dolphin, sailfish and Wahoo coming by to take a swipe at your baits.

Click here for the full report