Tania started back to school on Thursday, so on Friday I went fishing with my buddies Tony and Chris. We all met at the dock about 6:30am. The marine forecast looked good, about 2ft seas with a SE wind at 5-10kts; However, the weather was questionable. As we headed out the inlet, we were one of two boats heading out, which was unusual.

It was a bit rough heading out the inlet, but we could tell that it smoothed out once you were out. The plan today was to head north to Vero Cove and see if we could put some decent snapper in the cooler. The run to Vero Cove was a bit rough. The seas might have only been 2 feet but they were close together.

We arrived at the first spot, which was just south of Vero Cove, about 7:15 am and it didn’t take us long to wet some lines. With the current conditions our drift was northwestward. It took about 10 minutes for the first bite. Tony landed a small lane snapper. It was the right species; however, it was too small to keep.

We spent about 20 minutes on the first drift and we all caught fish. Tony caught three fish one being a 11 ¾ inch mangrove snapper which went into the cooler. I caught a grunt which we used for bait and Chris caught a small black margate.

We did a second drift in the same area and unfortunately it was no better than the first drift. Only a handful of small fish were caught. So, I decided to go further into Vero Cove so see if we could find where the bigger snapper were hanging out.

This spot turned out to be as productive as the first two spots. We had been watching the storm out at sea and it looked like it was dissipating, so we decided to go out to deeper waters. At this point the wind and seas picked up. We were probably 2-3ft seas at maybe 4 seconds. It was going to be a long rough ride in the boat I had today. About 10 minutes into the ride, we saw lightning in the direction we were heading.

Seeing the lightning and the sporty conditions made me rethink going to deeper waters. I turned the boat towards the inlet and told Tony and Chris we would hit a few other shallow reefs and if they didn’t produce, we would head back in the inlet and see what we could come up with.

Once again none of the shallow reefs produced anything so we just ran back into the inlet. With the outgoing tide I pulled up along the north rocks and drifted east to the point. We didn’t have much action, but right as we go to the point Chris hooked up with something large. His rod was doubled over. Unfortunately, the fight was short lived as he broke off a few minutes into the fight. Good thing Chris had lots of the Diamond jig he lost.

While we were at the end of the inlet, we saw lots of life but nothing was really biting what we were throwing. We still had lots of live bait so we moved back to the river and went to South Causeway bridge. We fished the bridge for about 30 minutes before I made the call to call it a day. The sky was getting dark and I really didn’t feel like getting stuck in a storm on the boat.

All in all, we had a good day on the water with some great company. The fishing wasn’t great but the conversation and fellowship was good. Tania and I pray all who made it out over the weekend had safe and blessed trips. And those of you going out this week may you have tight lines and good times!

The Treasure Coast Chapter of Salt Strong is now holding monthly meetings in Fort Pierce. The meetings are being held on the 4^th Thursday of the month. The next meeting will be August 24^th. These club meeting are for inside members only. If you would like to become an inside member here is what the membership includes: access to the in-person meetings as well as all the other perks such as 20% off all tackle, Smart Fishing spots, and insider information on trends in your area. We will also have guest speakers at our meetings and we will be holding monthly tournaments. Click the link below to get a FREE pack of slam shady or a 10-Day Test-Drive of The Smart Fishing Spots App and The Salt Strong Insider Club . . . And We’ll Ship You $35 Worth of FREE Lures, an “Inshore Fishing Manifesto” Book (Physical copy) & Decals – Yours to Keep Even If You Cancel!