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I am going to be relocating from Barnegat New Jersey to the Port St. Lucie area. Can anyone give me any info on boating and fishing out of this inlet. I run a 29 ft. cat with twin Suzukis, and usually fish 40 to 100 miles offshore. I will be bringing my boat with me. We usually fish for sharks (makos) tuna and bluefish. What spieces are available and how is this inlet to fish out of? Any and all info would be appreciated.
Lucky You. My Dad lived in Port St. Lucie for 20 years. Great place, great fishing. Better get used to a very laid back attitude. No one gets in any hurry down there. I guess they can get away with it with all the older retired folks living in the area. You should really enjoy the area.
I delivered a few sport fishs into that inlet and grew up running out of Manasquan. Picture a stiff east wind against and outgoing tide with a giant sand bar in the middle of the inlet. You will see, you make a hard turn to port when you get in St Lucie inlet and it comes up fast.
I assume you do indeed mean the St Lucie inlet...or do you mean the Fort Pierce inlet?
Port Saint Lucie does NOT have an inlet....nor does it have a bridge...the St Lucie inlet is south of PSL and the Ft Pierce inlet is north...of the 2 inlets, the FP is generally considered the better of the two...it really depends on where you are going to be fishing...anyway...good luck...
__________________ Still lookin' for a good boat...any suggestions?
I am going to be relocating from Barnegat New Jersey to the Port St. Lucie area. Can anyone give me any info on boating and fishing out of this inlet. I run a 29 ft. cat with twin Suzukis, and usually fish 40 to 100 miles offshore. I will be bringing my boat with me. We usually fish for sharks (makos) tuna and bluefish. What spieces are available and how is this inlet to fish out of? Any and all info would be appreciated.
use fort pierce inlet for kings, wahoo,dolphin,snapper,grouper,spanish mackerel,bluefish,et al.
Are there many marinas around that area? I to was looking into that area last summer and now that this cold has hit up north Im ready to start looking again. Any info of the fishing and boating industry there would be great... Thanks in advance for any info..
I live in PSL, fish out of the St Lucie inlet. The inlet can be interesting to navigate at times, mostly because of the shifting sanbars. There are a few quite a few marinas around but the good ones (read professional) have long, very long waiting list. I have kept my boat at three marinas within the immediate area: Sunrise, Pirate Cove, Riverside. Pirate Cove is one of the best. (Had to leave because I got a bigger boat) Professional and courteous staff. An A1 operation. Last I check, a 70 boat waiting list.*Riverside is so-so. They are further away from the inlet (about 40 minutes) and*there is one drawbridge to go through. They also have an idiotic policy that warranty work can't be performed by the boat dealer...talk about shortsighted. Anyway, the staff there is nice enough to compensate for the obtuse management rules. Sunrise in Jensen Beach...well,after having had my boat there, *I will not talk about them as they make my blood pressure shoot*up....Fort Pierce has a nice inlet and also has several marinas. I don't know anything about them. The inlet is* straight forward between two jetties.*
As for the fishing...it really is about the same. While there are a alot more wrecks/fads closer to St Lucie inlet, you can easily reach them from Ft pierce. One geographical advantage St Lucie has is that if you want to swordfish you are closer to the fishing ground. Same if you want to reach the "other side" of the stream for yellowfins, St Lucie is closer. Bear in mind that we are only talking about 15 miles here, so the difference is not that great...
St Lucie inlet. The inlet can be interesting to navigate at times, mostly because of the shifting sanbars.
How well marked is the inlet?
How is the width and depth of passage?
You would be shocked at the markings compared to New Jersey. I fished out of the Delaware Bay (Port Norris) and Cape May for years before retiring and bringing my boat down here.
There is an "entrance buoy" about a mile off-shore. Then inlet has rock jetties, north and south. After entering the inlet, the fun begins. Since the sand bars shift, can buoys are deployed for marking the channel. Proceeding further, you encounter the "cross roads". This is where the ICW crosses the main channel. On weekends, during the summer, you would think you were on Rt. 72 heading to LBI. Proceeding further up the St. Lucie River, you need some good charts (non-existent) for the area or a good chart plotter. You are following the shore line to port, then you have to make a turn to the starboard shore line to continue following the day markers up the river. I've always called it a "goat rodeo". I would never navigate this inlet at night...... bad enough during the day. Local knowledge is paramount for this place.
Fort Pierce Inlet, is the best. Entrance buoys clearly marked. Nice wide channel, no problems at all. The Fort Pierce City Marina, was completely wiped out during hurricane Frances. I was told three to four years before it would be rebuilt. I'm on their waiting list, since I just built a new home in Fort Pierce. I'm docked now in Tequesta, just north of Jupiter. Jupiter Inlet isn't marked..... just two lights, on the north and south jetties. Any north or east wind, along with an out going tide is bad news. The inlet is also narrow.
On the plus side...... the fishing is excellent in the area.
Marlintini..... I was docked further up the St. Lucie River, at The Deck, north of the old Roosevelt Bridge. Things aren't too bad heading into the pocket....
It is good advice to follow one of the larger vessels in and out of the inlet. I have seen plenty of sail boats, high and dry just before the new Roosevelt Bridge. The bridge tender even alerts them to the hazards in the area.
I just hated the long run to the ocean, plus, not a place to navigate at night. Last year, was my first year down here and I had to go along with what slips were available. Harbor Inn and The Deck, had dock space. I went searching for a new slip since then...... Blowing Rocks Marina, in Tequesta, is a first class operation. I might be paying more, but I'm now 1.8 miles from the Jupiter Inlet and the ocean.
Send me a PM, let's hook up and head out fishing one day, if the wind ever stops blowing.
My wife and I started looking at places from Boca to Ft. Pierce.
We have now narrowed it down to the Jupiter / Stuart area.
Heading down again in the next month to continue the search....
You need real deep pockets for the Jupiter/Stuart area. We settled on a new house (was under construction when we made an offer), north of Ft. Pierce, Holiday Pines. We searched in the Stuart area for just about a year. What we wanted, we couldn't afford. Some of my fishing buddies that have been down here for over ten years, say they couldn't afford to buy their own houses now. Real Estate has gone up in an expotential value over the past 10 years.
id trailer the boat to fort pierce if you can save the hassle through that inlet that the Army Corps of Eng. in all the infinite wisdom they have where they think they can tell mother nature where they want the inlet to be and have not had any success that for extended periods of time ft pierce is a much safer inlet if you can trailer it its only 10-15 minutes
Most of the folks who move down here from the North who buy existing homes fail to consider our storm season. In other words out of sight, out of mind. Don't make that mistake. Be careful of the home you buy, is it up to the latest codes, does it have hurricane shutters or will you have to hang plywood? Consider how you are going to manage your boat and outdoor personal property during a major storm. You will find that boat and personal property storage facilities are full and non-existent during pre storms. Lots of newbie’s are suffering today from last years storms because they failed to plan for the potential.
As far as the local inlets, St Lucie and Jupiter inlets are very dangerous inlets to navigate at times. People have lost their lives at both of these inlets. You may want to study these inlets from shore before venturing out in marginal weather. In minutes, they can turn nasty for even the biggest boats. My first year here, I watched a professional captain lose a forty foot yacht in the Jupiter Inlet. The currents and waves took him into the jetty during a windy winter day.
Ft. Pierce and Lake Worth (West Palm Beach) Inlets are relatively good inlets to navigate and boaters have been known to divert to them when caught out of Jupiter and St. Lucie in rough weather.
On weekends the boat ramps are nuts! There are many more boaters than ramp availability. Personally, I don't launch my boat on weekends and holidays. It isn't worth fighting all the idiots on the water and at the ramps. This past weekend in WPB, two teenage girls on a PWC turned in front of another boat who could not avoid them. One died and the other is seriously injured.
The fishing here is tops in the nation. Our primary species are the usual reef dwellers, Snapper, Grouper, Amberjacks, Cobia, etc. Bluewater species are Mahi, Wahoo, Sailfish, Black fin and Yellow fin Tuna, Kingfish, occasional White and Blue Marlin. Near shore and surf are Mackerel, Pompano, and Bluefish during the winter months. Inshore fishing is excellent with Redfish, Tarpon, Trout, and Snook. This by no means cover all the species and fishing available in this area. The Gulf Stream can be as close as three to four miles from the Jupiter inlet and as close as ten miles from St. Lucie. Crossing over to the Bahamas is pretty routine. The west side offers some great Yellow Fin Tuna and Blue Marlin fishing. Lake Okeechobee is less than an hour’s drive and you can even get there by boat on the St. Lucie Canal.
On other note, I assume your boat is over 8'6" wide. If you trailer it to the Keys you will need to meet some requirements such as tie down straps and wide load permit. Some folks will tell you not to worry about the requirements as they have never been caught. Others will tell you they were fined over $200 for their Certificate of Achievement (citation). The cost of the permit is around $22.
You may want to review the Southeast Section of Florida Sportsman's web page to start getting familiar with fishing the area:
Sorry for some of the negative facts about the area but I wanted you to know the good and bad. I think you will enjoy the area. This area is a boaters and sports fishing paradise.
Port St. Lucie 
Man that was fun! 
