snook

Robert with a beautiful mangrove snook he caught in the Fort Pierce Inlet!

I made it out five days this past week, three of which were scouting endeavors. Monday, my wife Kim joined me as we scouted an area I haven’t visited in many years. The area was alive with fingerling mullet, but was absent of activity. Even though conditions looked absolutely perfect we only managed a few jacks and a couple of catfish. Yes, the catfish ate our Z-man soft plastics!

Tuesday I was joined by an old friend from my Coastal Angler Magazine days. Charlie and I stayed busy catching jacks by the dozens with a few ladyfish mixed in. While they eagerly ate most everything we tossed at them they were especially happy with the Tsunami Tidal Pro twitch bait and the Z-man mini Chatterbait!

Thursday, I joined John on a trip to the inshore reefs between the Fort Pierce Inlet and Vero Beach. We left the inlet in a small, but tight ground swell from the North East and by the time we anchored and set out the chum block the swell increased in size and we were forced to head in before it became too rough for his little bay boat. No fish were harmed on this very short trip.

Friday brought us to the Fort Pierce Inlet to target snook. With the livewell full of threadfins we hunted and pecked our way around the crowded inlet. Robert managed one snook and a Dog snapper at the jetty and two snook and a juvenile Goliath grouper from the mangroves. Oddly, we caught no jacks this day.

Saturday, Jean and Tommy joined me for an inshore trip. We tossed Tsunami hard plastic baits and Z-man soft plastics at the mangroves and schooling finger mullet. While the bite was a bit slow the guys did catch a mixed bag, including snook, redfish, grouper, mangrove snapper, jacks and more.

It’s satisfying to see plenty of fingerling mullet in the river along with schools of glass minnows and lots of “fry” fish, too small to identify!