On Friday, I made it out with fellow Salt Strong Insider Vern. Ronald was supposed to join us but was sick, so he had to cancel. Vern and I were looking forward to a beautiful day on the water. We were both set on finding the pompano in the river.

I picked up a few dozen shrimp at Jigz Bait and Tackle and headed to the dock. Both Vern and I arrived at the dock at around 8:00 a.m. I had reserved an inshore/offshore boat in case we could get offshore; however, we were locked inshore with the day’s forecast of 10-15Kts E winds and 3-4ft seas at 5 seconds.

Vern and I made the best of the boat we had. We started fishing the wall at the waste treatment plant with the incoming tide. After about 30 minutes of no action, we switched to drifting south of the South Causeway bridge, checking the waters to see if the pompano had moved in overnight. Unfortunately, the bite was very slow.

We decided to move to the sandbar on the east side of the channel just northeast of channel marker 189. I was throwing a donkey rig with slam shady jerk baits, and Vern tossed a 5-inch topwater. This area was full of little jacks. We did three drifts here and caught so many jacks we couldn’t count. It reached the point where Vern was casting his top water and reeling it in as fast as possible to see if he could keep the fish from taking it.

After having fun catching jacks, we moved to the west shoreline to work the docks. Vern told me he saw videos of people catching pompano and permit in the area. We worked the docks and drifted for a while with little success. We mostly caught small mutton snapper; however, I caught a very nice croaker, who promptly went into the cooler.

At about 10:00 a.m., we decided to hit a spot Vern had worked the day before, where he caught some pompano. He was concerned, though, as he caught the fish at outgoing tide, and with it still being incoming tide, he wasn’t sure we could catch much.

We started working in the same area Vern was fishing the day before, but after a short while, we determined that the conditions didn’t look promising the way we set up with the current, so we repositioned on the sandbar, which paid off. I believe it was Vern’s second cast with a pink pompano jig when he landed a decent-sized pompano.

We continued to fish this spot until about noon. We landed five pompano and lost one right at the boat. Vern even hooked up with a stingray, which we had to chase down with the boat so he didn’t get spooled. Vern had a good time landing the big stingray.

We ended up back at the dock about 12:30 p.m. The weather was beautiful all day, and the wind didn’t really pick up until we were returning to the dock. Overall, we had a great day of fishing and fellowship.

Tania and I send our best wishes to all fellow anglers, hoping your fishing adventures are safe, blessed, and full of tight lines and good times! Until next time, keep casting and chasing those dreams on the water.

The Treasure Coast Chapter of Salt Strong now holds monthly meetings in Fort Pierce on the 4th Thursday of each month. These meetings are exclusive to inside members, who receive various perks, including 20% off tackle, access to Smart Fishing spots, and insider information on local trends. Monthly tournaments and guest speakers are also set to feature. To become an inside member, click the link below to receive a FREE pack of Slam Shady or a 10-Day Test-Drive of The Smart Fishing Spots App and The Salt Strong Insider Club. They ship you $35 worth of FREE Lures, an “Inshore Fishing Manifesto” Book (Physical copy), and decals – Yours to Keep Even If You Cancel!