Just a heads up to those planning to shark fish Stuart/Jensen beach area or north ---DON'T DO IT!! Cubaneddy(Eddy) ,Midnight Dreaming(Trevor) and myself fished Stuart beach yesterday and it was a futile attempt at tangling with a toothy.We had a flat surf all day,overcast sky mostly,but ugly cold water.We traveled north to try and tangle with some big summertime bulls and we soaked fresh bloody baits from 3pm( after the rain stopped) until 12 midnight and had a nurse curse bite in the entire time.What impressed me most was not the lack of a bite but the ugly and unsummerlike conditions we encountered.Green murky water in the lower to mid 70's. The water was unusually cold 72 to 75 degrees and the water was the color of the Panhandle's emerald water but not transparent by any means. Conditions were very different in contrast to last year when I caught an 11 ft 2 inch hammer during the same time when we had warm crystal clear water. I have seen darker brown beach water at Ft pierce north of where we fished yesterday; water that looked like we were fishing in the Intracoastal or in the river but never had i seen this green dark water in the summer.Hopefully this cold water will move out within a few weeks as the rains subside and the gulf stream moves a bit closer to shore to sweep out the nasty "GREEN SOUP"
These conditions might be due to the amount of rain we've had in the last two weeks ,or maybe the record breaking flood waters that flowed down the Mississippi river into the Gulf of mexico had something to do with it,,,,,I'm not sure what the cause is but the bite is completely off so if you are planning a trip to that area do your research before you go -you may opt to fish further south where cleaner warmer water will almost guarantee a better shark bite.
The beaches in this area do not receive the same strong near shore sweep of the warm clear Gulfstream current.The gulf stream runs much further out from shore from about just north of Hobe sound .The Palm Beaches are blessed with the warmest cleanest waters of the Gulf stream year round.Do your your research and plan well before you travel south for your next shark fishing vacation to the Gold Coast.Good luck.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
Good to know that Will!
Will is 100% correct everybody. Last time I was there about 5 days ago we caught a nurse and soaked bait all day/night in freezing cold waters. That place definately needs to warm up a lot before productive sharking will exist.