From the land to the deep sea, Stuart’s inshore and offshore waters offer an abundance and variety of different catches. We’re proud to team with the Coastal Angler to bring you the latest fishing reports to help put you on the fish and keep your lines tight
Spring fishing is finally in full effect here on the Treasure Coast! Bait fishing in the Indian River has been very productive this week for larger snook and jack crevalle’s. We are getting a few trout, redfish, and the occasional bluefish mixed in as well. White baits, mullet, and croakers have been working great this week for steady action both inshore and nearshore. Shrimp fishing has been hit or miss for black drum, sheepshead, snapper, flounder, and pompano. Bottom fishing with shrimp will produce the most bites. If you like live lining a shrimp, I suggest using a shrimp walker hook with a medium/large size shrimp for wary snook, redfish, and sea trout this time of year. Larger sea trout are common this month if you know where to look and are stealthy with your approach.
Nearshore fishing has been great for large jacks, cobia, permit, kingfish, sharks, snapper, and goliath grouper. Big schools of jacks commonly migrate down the beaches this month so be prepared with an 8000-size Quantum Strive combo and a large Rapala topwater for instant hookups! Spanish mackerel fishing is pretty much over but it never hurts to check nearshore reefs on clear calm days even as late as April. Shiny mackerel jigs with a fast retrieve will get the bites if the mackerel are still around. Expect some good bluefish action this month on nearshore reefs as well. Again, cast anything shiny at the blues, retrieve your lure quickly and hold on! Snapper fishing has been great for muttons, lanes, and grey snapper on nearshore reefs. Reel them in very quickly otherwise they will quickly become goliath grouper bait. Goliaths have been a real nuisance over the past few years and are quite common as we approach the late spring/summer goliath grouper spawn on the Treasure Coast. They are a blast to catch but be sure to have very heavy tackle if you plan to get one boatside for a picture. It’s a must to use 400 lb. test leaders and 16/0 3x strong hooks if you want to catch a 300-to 500 lb. goliath grouper.
Tight Lines!
Golden April rays of Florida sunshine will illuminate a near coastal ocean that will play host to some of the most prized saltwater grocery trophies in the world. Cobia, snapper, mahi, and king mackerel will top this briny hit list and will be found around and atop the renowned reef system, east of our St. Lucie Inlet. The offshore fish hunters of April will delight in engaging in strategies that involve both surface and bottom fishing during open, user-friendly, weather windows this month. April can still be a windy month that produces rough sea conditions, so anglers (as always) will need to continue to monitor daily offshore forecasts.
Cobia typically make a strong showing during the golden days of April and will be found in many dynamic scenarios of the local, liquid playing field. Hungry packs of cobia will be attracted to all types of reef structures, both naturally occurring and artificial, and will fall to live and dead baits presented throughout the water column. Live baits are especially effective and will prove to be irresistible to a cobe in the right mood. Besides being found around bottom structures, cobes tend to follow and swim along with larger sea animals, like manta rays and southern stingrays, turtles, and sharks.
Casting to a cobia towing behind a larger sea creature is best achieved using three- to four-ounce jigs, tipped with a long ribbon of squid. Bottom fishing for the many species of the snapper family will continue to be a go-to strategy for Treasure Coast meat hunters in April. Large mutton and mangrove snapper will be available in good numbers along the reef line in 70 to 90 feet of water and allow fishermen to test their angling finesse while attempting to capture these fish athletes of the ocean floor. Wrestling a large snapper to the surface can be a full contact and exhilarating moment, made more satisfying as the filets hit the frying pan.
With this in mind, pack the cooler with plenty of dead bait, catch some “live-ies” if you can, and have an assortment of jigs standing by. And don`t forget to pull out some local coastal recipes to fully enjoy the salty grocery trophies of April.
Every year I find myself looking more and more forward to April. It might just be my personal opinion, but calmer waters, better fishing, and longer days is a trifecta hard to beat in my book. Sailfish, blackfin tuna, dolphin, wahoo, kings and little tunny stage in the waters along our migratory highway paralleling the six- and 8-mile reef systems making the Treasure Coast home for the next eight months.
This time of year, for all around productiveness it’s going to be hard to beat live bait, although trolling for target specific species (wahoo, mahi and backfin) can be beneficial at times. But for your best bet at a little of everything and consistent action, dangling threadfin herrings, goggle eyes, sardines, and blue runners from Tigress kites is the way to go this time of year.
Look for a color change, a little bit of extra current, or something as obvious as a weed line, to set out on and drift to the north in a depth between 75 and 200 feet of water. I’d say the perfect set up for around here would be Blackfin Rods OTC circle hook rod 6’3 -6’6 for 15-25 lb. test with Shimano BFC reels. I do use a little stiffer rod with braid for the down bait. Cobia, mutton snapper and amberjacks are also likely encounters if you decide to drop a bait down while moving along the reef.
When you do get bit on a downrod there’s no time to waste though, speed is the name of the game to get these fish up. The shark depredation problem continues to exist, taxing most everything being brought to the surface and deterring many people from even trying these mid water and bottom fishing techniques because they know how bad it is inshore.
April is a great time to target swordfish out in the deep or take advantage of the calmer weather making a Bahamas trip if you can. Yellowfin tuna, big dolphin, wahoo, and both blue and white marlin make great showings in the early spring months over there as do incredible numbers of big mutton snapper.
If I was only going to choose one month out of the year to fish, April might be it.
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