12-30-2011 Port Saint Lucie Offshore Fishing Report:

Fin Addict Joined: May 12, 2009 Posts: 180

Taken Chuck out today in hopes of catching anything that bites...First thing on his list is BFT... We exit the Pocket @ 4:30am as Shoeless is getting ready for his crew. We arrive at our bait spot to 70 degree water temps so I knew it would take some time to load up the wells this morning.

When the water is this cold they tend not to bite until sunrise. We did manage 1 or 2 per drift and had a dozen in the well by daylight then the bite was on. Got a shout out from JohnAlki exiting the inlet and called him over. Here’s John catching some baits.

Heres this mornings sunrise...

By 7:30am we had enough baits and headed to the Hill... Chuck hooks up immediately on a BFT...

We continue the troll around the Hill and picked up 5 more BFT before going Fin hunting...

We opted to run offshore in search of a temp break around 600ft that I spotted on the SST maps last night. We get a shout out from Plane Fish n as we enter 600ft that they just boxed a nice Wahoo in shallower waters but we continued out to 700ft in hopes of finding big fin gold...

With no luck and knowing the bite was on in shallow we turned southeast and ran back in off the Loran Tower. We stopped in 190ft on some nice weeds and put out a couple of Goggle Eyes.

I hooked up this shark...

We thought we should move on when all the sudden Chucks Goggle Eye gets scooped up by a sailfish... After a brief fight the Sail was gone. On the next drift my Goggle Eye gets slammed at the surface by a fin but never came tight. Next drift I put on the lone Sardine we caught this morning in hopes of catching another sailfish. He gets skinned of its scales after a brief fight but never gets hooked up. He was still alive but now red instead of the silver scales...

We moved on into shallower waters looking for the rip that everyone was talking about in 110ft but never located it. Opted to run to the AJ spot and make a few drops. One the way we say a free jumper Sail and got in front of him and dropped in a couple of Goggle Eyes... Mine immediately gets picked up but I knew he wasn't hook. The sail was just carrying it in its mouth. I kept dumping line but he never came tight again.

We continued to the AJ spot but never hooked up there either. Ran in to 90ft after talking to Dave (Old name Sunliner, didn't catch your new forum name) on a weedline.

We only hooked up a shark here and called it a day at 1:30pm... We arrived to the zoo at the ramp and finally got out of the park around 3...

Todays Tally:

6 BFT
0-2 Sailfish
0-1 Dolphin
2 Sharks

How did you all do today?

Todays Tip:

Heres a mixed bag of tips that help me out so I thought I would pass these along:

Carry this in your truck and when you park your trailer, staple the carpeting on your bunks. Make sure you use SS Staples.

That cutting board I told you about last week I wanted to point out something to you. Make sure you drill the holes close enough to the edge as shown so it doubles as as rigging helper for holding those hooks when you pull the line tight.

Those net holders also doubles as my trash can and chunk bait bucket holder. The chunk bucket fits inside the trash can. Note the
handle of the net holds them into place. I have two of these, one on each side of the boat.

I then simply remove the chunk bucket and load it up with chunk bait.

Hope these tips help someone.

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 11:47 am Post subject:

Great report as always. I had a chance to run my AF daisey chains yesterday and they were money! Unfortunately they were bonita rather than BF but we were catching them all day. The daisey chains were clearly the prefered bait over everything else we were pulling. Thanks for the tips.
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"Pamela Jane"
Sea Pro 238CC

Fin Addict Joined: May 12, 2009 Posts: 180

What speed are you trolling them at? Try keeping them around 9 knots. You also want to run them deep, 1/2 spool way back from the boat. BFT are boat shy and this increases the hook-up.

Not sure if I told you or another member on here but if you make some larger chain using the 6 or 8" size squids with an even larger chase bait, you will start catching fins and bigger BFT... If you have the gear you can toss in a cigar weight on 25ft of wind on 250lb leader ahead of the chain to get it deeper into the water... Those bigger BFT are down below the smaller ones for sure.

Just glad I could help.
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Alwaysforward, Never Straight

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:13 am Post subject:

I was running 6-8mph and the Bonita were hitting them right behind the boat. Ran one flat line about 50 ft behind the boat and they were all over it.
Rather than the cigar weight would you consider running them on a down rigger? Seems like that would be easier than dealing with the in line weight.
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"Pamela Jane"
Sea Pro 238CC

Fin Addict Joined: May 12, 2009 Posts: 180

Kick it uo ti 9 mph and run them way out from the boat. When you think it is far enough, dump more line. The farther the better. We run two lures off the flatline clips close to the boat and they tend to catch more bonitas.

I would most definitely try the down rigger. Mines on the fritz (electric) so cigar weights is all I can use besides a planner.

If you try the downrigger let me know how you make out. I think trolling it at 9 knots would be an issue but maybe not. Keep me posted.
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Alwaysforward, Never Straight


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