This morning I woke up and checked the weather. The forecast still looked questionable but once again looked fishable. Tania still hasn’t fully recovered from strep throat, so she decided to stay home and told me to go fishing with Gil. I am so blessed to have her as my wife!

I arrived at the dock about 6:45am, which was pretty early as we can’t go out before sunrise; however, Gil arrived before me. While we waited for the dock hands to arrive and get our boat, I tossed out the Moonwalker, a top water bait. I did end up hooking up with a decent size lady fish but lost a lot of fish. I was getting multiple hits, but I wasn’t hooking anything. Later in the morning, when the sun came out, I found out why. The ring holding the midbody hook broke, so there was only the bottom hook. 

My plans for the weekend changed a bit this morning as I was unable to get a boat with a trolling motor. The first spot we started was the Ft. Pierce Yacht yard. Since we didn’t have a trolling motor, we had to anchor because the wind and current were moving at a pretty good clip. Gil landed the first fish on the boat, a Jack Crevalle. I also caught a few Jacks, but this is when I noticed my hook had broken off my lure. I changed it up and started fishing bottom in hopes of getting a sheepshead or snapper. Gil and I both caught some short mutton snapper but nothing worth keeping. We fished here for about 30 minutes before we moved. 

The second spot we moved to was the Day Marker heading out the inlet. We anchored up and got our lines wet. Gil hooked up with a short mutton snapper and then I noticed with the increased wind the anchor broke free. We attempted four more times to set the anchor to fish the Day Marker, but we were unsuccessful, so we moved to another spot. 

The third spot was one of Gil’s favorite spots. We had a hard time setting the anchor with the wind and current at this spot also, but finally got it. We fished here for about 30 minutes. I caught several puffer fish and a decent size mutton, about 14 inches, but still too short to keep. Gil landed a keeper sheepshead and some puffer fish. All in all, it was slow fishing, so we moved to the North Bridge. 

We fished the North Bridge for about 30 minutes with very little luck. I did land a keeper Schoolmaster Snapper, but other than that we didn’t catch anything else. At this point we moved to drift south of the South Causeway bridge. While we were running south the sky opened up on us and we got soaked. 

Once we got south of the bridge we started to drift and jig. It didn’t take long to start catching fish. The fish were hitting the top of the water all around us. Gil hooked up with the first fish and it was fighting well. I was hopeful they were pompano, unfortunately it turned out to be a blue runner. We ended up catching quit a few of them while drifting and watching the fish hitting the top of the water and the birds dive bombing. We each caught a few mutton snappers while jigging but once again nothing to bring home. 

The blue runners were fun to catch but they were not a targeted species, so we moved to another spot. We fished the concrete pillars at the waste treatment plant. Once again hoping for some snapper or even sheepshead. We both caught a few short Mutton Snapper, but that was it. We ended up running out of bait about 11:30am so we headed back to the dock.

It was great getting out with my buddy Gil. It’s been months since we have fished together. At the end of the day, we came home with a few fish and tired arms from the Blue Runners. I pray everyone who made it out over the weekend had a great trip!