Florida Inshore Report
By: Capt. Bob Bushholz
8-26-02

It will be short and sweet this week with only a few charters.  Early morning
trout north near Walton Road were hitting DOA shrimp, while several tarpon in
the 30 lb. range were spotted rolling on the east side at Little Mud Creek. 
Unfortunately the tarpon weren't interested in the baits presented and rolled
off to "tease" another day. 

The tripletail run is almost history until the water and the weather cools
down - maybe January or February if we don't have too severe of a winter this
year.  I'm still happy with the "71" number this year and will always shoot
for the "100" mark.  The channel markers are holding plenty of lane and
mangrove snapper along with a few goliath and gag grouper.

It's that time again.  Snook season opens September 1st (which also happens
to be Labor Day weekend) and means the traffic will be heavy.  The
regulations remain the same (26"-34" slot with a max of 2 per person).  Be
sure you have a snook stamp on your fishing license because I heard the
Marine Patrol expect to "terrorize" anyone abusing the rules.  With the
mullet run in full swing, surf and inlet anglers have a great shot in the
early morning.  Nighttime, around area bridges and lighted docks, will
produce snook ready to ambush their prey.  The best bet on bait will be DOA
glo shrimp.  There will also be plenty of trout and ladyfish that will appear
around those lighted docks, so expect plenty of action. 

Last night I ran a re-con trip, fishing a few docks on the east side of the
Indian River, releasing trout to 3 lbs. and 2 short snook.  Moving under the
Jensen Beach Bridge produced three snook to 12 lbs., gently released, and
some good-sized black drum (also released).

I have been hearing lots of reports about huge tarpon in the surf, so with
Sunday off I decided to run outside along the beach scouting for some tarpon
action.  After getting a live well full of greenies I ran from the St. Lucie
Inlet to the Power Plant without spotting anything rolling other than many,
many dolphin (porpoise).  Every time you approached a bait pod that was
getting pressure (and hoping for Mr. Tarpon), all of a sudden Flipper showed
up and that was the end of the wishful thinking.  We checked out the Power
Plant "boils" and there wasn't anybody home there either.   

After a really nice cruise on beautifully blue water I decided to head back
to the St. Lucie Inlet to drift the greenies caught earlier on Sabiki rigs.  
 Although having a blast hooking into jack crevalle in the  20-lb. range, it
just wasn't the tarpon I was wishing for.  Within 45 minutes we boated and
released 7 jacks with the largest pushing 25 lbs.  These guys are excellent
sport fish and sure to test your tackle.  Before finally calling it quits at
the crossroads to head home, I offered the rest of the live greenies to a
nearby boat.  They had witnessed the tremendous "jack attack" we had
experienced and gladly accepted the baits.  As I was writing this report, Dr.
Clark called (the nearby boat) to say that right after we left (of course)
they hooked into a 100+ tarpon and fought it for about 10 minutes before it
broke off (or was cut off by a boat passing a little too close) as well as
hooking, boating and releasing two large jack crevalle, 18 and 25-lb. class. 
  Dr. Clark said it "made their day" and was extremely gracious.   I hope to
see him out and about soon and maybe this time I'll have the "big silver"
hooked up.

September 1st is my first scheduled snook trip, departing at 7:00 p.m.  Sure
hope to start off the season with a "bang"!  Even though the snook seem to
know the calendar better than we do, I think my summer re-con trips will
prove to have been worth the effort.

                                          Capt. Bob Bushholz

                                     http://www.catch22fish.com

                                           (772) 225-6436