Good Morning and Happy Saturday to all!! Finally the wind has subsided a bit allowing everyone the opportunity to slip out this weekend! Unfortuneately for inshore and nearshore anglers the Army Corp of Engineers has announced that they will be increasing the daily amount of water being released from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie Estuary from 1.2 billion to 1.8 billion gallons of water a day. Wow Staggering numbers and bad news for an already struggling and fragile ecosystem. Other than that the inshore bite has been red hot in some areas along the indian river lagoon. Starting with the west bank between walton road and midway road, a decent redfish bite has been reported with some trout mixed in on doa cal jerk baits in the 425 (watermelon holo) and 452 (galaxy glitter) colors rigged on a 1/4 or 3/8 oz red slayer jig head. A few small tarpon have been seen near the mouth of little mud creek, use a live mullet or doa baitbuster in the mullet pattern for those. Plenty of trout and juvenile snook were caught up towards middle cove as well as north of jensen beach causeway, throw mirrolure pop a dogs and zara spooks in the first few hours or so of day break and then switch to jerk baits or doa airheads as the sun starts to heat up. Fantastic numbers of snook have been caught in the early morning hours and in the late evening hours right at sunset around the st. lucie inlet and bathtub beach! On to the offshore report! First off Lobster mini season is next week on wednesday and thursday and Whites tackle has everything you need to catch those tasty critters! Cobia are still being reported as a daily catch and the bottom bite has picked up. Mutton , yellowtail, and lane snapper along with porgies and black sea bass have been caught down toward the loran tower. Plenty of Blackfin Tuna around and to the north of push button hill with an unusual amount of sailfish from all depth rounds out the offshore report! Red Snapper will see its first action of the year as reported by Ed Killer of TCPalm on August 23rd and will run thru that weekend and end at midnight on August 26th. Remember to renew you fishing licenses and add a lobster stamp if your planning on getting out and harverting them next week and on August 6th when the regular season begins!!
Till next time good luck and tight lines!!! Capt. Red Beard Wright