Pat Ogletree, one of Salt Strong’s fishing coaches, came into town to speak at the Treasure Coast Chapter meeting, and Tania and I invited him to go fishing in the Fort Pierce area before the meeting. This year, Salt Strong has been having the fishing coaches take insider members fishing to teach them in person in their area. They are calling this initiative Member Makeover. Because of this initiative, Pat agreed to go out with us. Pat only fishes with artificial baits, so we planned to go out without any bait. Tania was not very happy but was a trooper and agreed to go with us.

Thursday looked like it would be a great day fishing. The weather was just about perfect, and the forecast showed light winds. The boat club had just gotten a brand-new bay boat with a trolling motor, and I was able to book it for our trip. The only thing we had working against us was the full moon we had a few days prior.

We planned on meeting Pat at the dock at 7:00 am. Tania and I arrived at the dock at about 6:35 am. I hoped to have the boat all loaded and ready to go by the time Pat arrived; however, the dockhands arrived late, and we didn’t get on until after 7:00 am. Once the boat arrived, we loaded up and headed out.

Pat suggested starting around Old Inlet, so we headed north out of Fort Pierce Marina. Unfortunately, it’s manatee season until May 1st, so we had to go slow until we passed the North Cause Way Bridge. We finally arrived at the Old Inlet and started fishing. Tania started throwing a Live Target Mullet, I was throwing a Brazilian Power Prawn on a ¼ oz hoss weedless jig, and Pat started with the Moonwalker topwater bait.

When we pulled up to the Old Inlet, we noticed some bait, birds, and a few boils, so we were hopeful we would catch some fish. Unfortunately, even though we had all the signs of fish, we didn’t get any bites. We kept moving north, trying to find the 10% zone. Pat also changed to the slam shady tweaker, as he said it is a lure he can cast far and retrieve quickly, so it was good search bait. While searching, we came up to what we thought was a manatee, but it turned out to be a pretty big spotted eagle ray in the shallows.

Once we got to the north side of Spoil Island 10, Pat finally hooked up with a 19 ¼inch trout. We dropped the power pole and continued fishing the oyster bed, hoping for a few more trout. I was hoping to bring one home. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch more trout, just a few ladyfish and a catfish.

We continue to work the Spoil Island north with little luck. At Spoil Island 6, as we came up to the southwest corner, we spooked a decent snook by coming in too close. We worked this island for a bit to see if there were any other snook there but came up empty-handed. At this point, we decided to make a big move, and I took us to Round Island.

When we got to Round Island, the water was crystal clear. We watched a bunch of small fish as we slowly made our way to where we would start fishing. Round Island showed many signs of life, and bait was everywhere! We hoped to catch some nice fish in this area, but today was not our day. We saw a school of seven huge snook, but right behind them was a guy on a kayak who had been chasing them all morning, so the fish were being pressured and were not feeding. With this knowledge, we decided to move to Harbor Branch.

Harbor Branch was much like the other areas today; there was bait, birds, and boils. We fished from the east point to the west corner on the south side with no bites. We did see a few redfish, but nothing was biting this morning. It was about 11:00 am when we finished working Harbor Island, so we decided to run south to Snapper Cut and try our luck.

While we ran south, we slowly pulled up to Spoil Island 6, where we spooked up the snook to see if it had returned. To our dismay, it had not. So, we continued south. Since it was around lunchtime, we decided to stop in at Little Jim’s for lunch.

After lunch, we made our way to Snapper Cut. We started fishing at the big oyster bar on the eastern side of Snapper Cut. This oyster bar looked very promising with the current between the two bars. We all got bites here, but nothing committed to our baits. We continued to work the north side of Snapper Cut because that is where we saw the bait. We had tons of puffer fish chasing or baits, and I caught a small goliath grouper, but that was the only fish caught in this area.

As we were moving to another area, we noticed it was already after 3:00 pm, so we decided to call it a day. Tania was disappointed as she didn’t like fishing this way, so she hoped she would at least catch a decent fish. I am really blessed to have a wife like Tania, as she loves to fish and is willing to spend a day fishing in a way she doesn’t like just for me!

Even though we did not catch many fish, we had a great day of fellowship and learning. We gained a lot of valuable knowledge from Coach Pat, as we could pick his brain all day. It was great getting to know Pat, and hopefully, we will get to fish again in the future!

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 hosts monthly meetings in Fort Pierce on the 4th Thursday of each month. These meetings offer a range of benefits to members, including a 20% discount on tackle, access to Smart Fishing spots, and insider information on local trends. Additionally, there will be monthly tournaments and guest speakers featured. If you’re interested in learning more about Salt Strong, click the links below to receive a FREE pack of Slam Shady or a 30-day test drive.