Kayak Fishing in Stuart, Florida Tips and Techniques 


The key to kayak fishing in Stuart, Florida is finding clean water without too many boaters around and bait schools. This can be a challenge but there are many mangrove islands, docks, sandbars, sea walls and bridges that will always hold a lot of fish.

Stuart, Florida is still a great place to fish in spite of all of the water quality issues that have plagued the area over the last few years.

There are still quite a few snook, tarpon, flounder, pompano and other amazing game fish to be caught in and round the Stuart area.

I am a kayak fishing guide on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been fishing the grass flats, oyster bars and mangrove islands all over Florida for more than 40 years.

In the article below, I will teach you everything that I know about kayak fishing Stuart.

Let's get started.

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Watch the video for Stuart Area Snook Action.

Stuart Kayak Fishing for Snook

Snook are very prevalent in Stuart waters. You can find them in the inlets; around the sea walls; under the bridges and docks; and just about every where else too. All that you need to catch them is the right tackle, baits and lures.

Inlets- The inlets are always a great place to catch snook. They are an especially good spot in the Summer months. In the Summer is when all of the snook from the all over the state of Florida head to the inlets to spawn. They will stack up in the inlets by the hundreds. This is especially true in the St. Lucie Inlet that empties out between North Jupiter Island and South Hutchinson Island.

Inlets are very hard to fish with a kayak. The currents are very strong regardless of what moon phase it is. You will do best to anchor in an eddy caused by a point of land; or by any docks or a sand bar.

The best baits for fishing the St. Lucie Inlet are finger mullet, pin fish, croakers, ladyfish...… The key to fish live baits in the inlet for snook is getting the baits down to the bottom. The bigger female snook will hug the bottom of the inlet.

The best lures for fishing the inlets are flair hawk jigs. These simple lures have worked for decades and they still catch tons of snook. The key to fishing a flair hawk jig is to cast it up current and then bounce it on the bottom at about the same speed as the tide. You can also just cast it up current and swim it within a foot or so of the bottom too.

The best colors for the incoming (clean) water is white. The best colors for the outgoing (dirty) water is chartreuse and pink. You will need enough weight to get your lure to the bottom in the current. Usually a 1 1/2 ounce jig will do the trick. If it is a full moon or new moon, then you might have to go up to a 2 or 3 ounce jig.

These lures are especially effective at night around well lit parts of the inlet. The snook like to lurk outside the lights in the shadows to ambush unsuspecting bait that swims into the light.

Sea Walls- Snook love to pin bait against sea walls. Snook will often work in groups to pin finger mullet and other bait against a sea wall. You will want to position your kayak so that you can pitch your lure up current against the sea wall and work it with the current into the strike zone of the snook.

I wrote another article on this website that covers the best baits and lures for catching snook. You can read that article by clicking right here.

You can do this with a live bait too but it is hard to cast a free lined bait very far. I prefer to position myself up current and let the bait flow with the tide into the snook strike zones. You can use a float to help control the bait and to make it easier for the snook to hit it.

Bridges- Bridges are one of the best places to find snook (especially at night). Snook love to hang around structure. Deep water snook will congregate around the lights of all of the bridges in Stuart. It is very hard to fish bridges because of the massive current but the pay off of a personal best snook is worth the effort.

You should use the same baits and techniques that you use when you fish the inlets. You just need to get your baits and lures down deep where the big females are.

Docks- Docks are another great place to find snook during the day or night. Snook like to hang out around the bridge pilings to ambush prey items. They will be facing into the current or in the eddies created behind the dock pilings.

You will need to beef up your tackle to fish for snook in areas with lots of current and structure. Snook like to run right for any structure once they figure out that they are hooked. I like to use a braided line with at least 20 lbs. of strength and sometimes 40 or 50 lbs. You will want a medium/heavy action rod and at least a 4000 series reel.

Best live baits are pin fish, finger mullet, sardines, shrimp...… I like to pitch a free lined live bait up under the docks or use a float and use the current to float the bait under the docks.

Best lures, in my opinion, are DOA CALs. I like the to use a white 3 inch shad with a red jig head. Another great lure is a Berkeley GULP swimming mullet. All that you have to do is pitch the lure under the dock or at least within a foot of the dock pilings and bounce it or swim it within a foot of the bottom.

Watch the video below and catch more tarpon on kayak.

​Stuart Kayak Fishing for Tarpon

There are lots of tarpon around Stuart from April through November. They are a species of game fish that are not very cold water tolerant. When the water temperatures get below about 74 degrees give or take they will head south until they find warm water.

You can find tarpon, in the saltwater and brackish canals; the inlet; bridges and deeper channels between spoil islands. The great thing about tarpon is that they breathe air. You can see them as they come up and gulp air. This helps you figure out where the tarpon are.

Canals- The backwater canals and tidal creeks around Stuart are full of tarpon in the Summer and early Fall. Tarpon like backwater canals and can handle water that is fully freshwater if they need to. This is a great place to stalk them with your kayak.

I wrote another article on this website that covers in more detail the best baits and lures for catching lots of tarpon. You can read that article by clicking right here.

Baitfish love to hide up in those tidal creeks and canals and tarpon love to go in there and eat them. A great live bait is finger mullet and white baits like sardines, anchovies and pilchards. I like to fish with them under a cork. I like to use the cork to slow down the bait so that the tarpon can catch more easily. I am always amazed at how often a snook or a tarpon will miss a finger mullet that already has a hook in it.

My favorite lures for tarpon are top water walk-the-dog types of lures like a Zara Spook and a MirroLure Top Dog early in the morning or around sunset. I also like to use a DOA CAL 3 inch shad with a red jig head. Another great bait is a DOA Big Eyz. I like the glow, white, chartreuse and root beer.

Inlet- The St. Lucie Inlet is a great place to catch tarpon very early in the morning, at sunset and at night. It's usually the big ones that you can catch there too. Bring your big rod and reel for inlet tarpon.

The best baits for inlet tarpon are ladyfish and mullet. Get yourself anchored up and let the tide take your bait away from your kayak and hold on.

The big tarpon that are hard to catch during the day will be much less timid at night. There is a great chance at getting your personal best tarpon at night. Snook too. Night is a great time to catch HUGE fish.

The best lures for inlet tarpon are a DOA Bait Buster and the MirroLure Suspending Mullet. Those baits will not be ignored by hungry inlet tarpon. I like to use a slow twitchy retrieve but you should try different retrieves to see what they are in the mood for. You just never know what will work the best on any given day.

Bridges- The bridges around Stuart and Sewell's Point are another great place to catch tarpon at night. They like to ambush prey along with the snook around bridge lights. The best way to catch them is to fish the dark areas just outside the light shine. Use the same baits that you use in the inlet and you will do just fine.

A great lure for bridge tarpon is a DOA Bait Buster Mullet imitation. Tarpon love this bait at night and the day but especially at night. I like the natural looking ones with a silver body and a black back. I also like the DOA CAL 3 inch shad. The glow and the white are my favorites. This is another spot to use the MirroLure Suspending Mullet too.


WANT TO CATCH A TROPHY SNOOK, TARPON, REDFISH OR TROUT? Give us a call and BOOK YOUR KAYAK FISHING CHARTER TODAY!



Watch the video and catch more flounder and trout.

​Stuart Kayak Fishing for Flounder

There are lots of flounder around the docks and the inlets. They are around all the time but they are here in decent numbers in the Fall and Winter. Flounder are a lie and wait predator. This means that like to bury under sand, mud and gravel to hide from predators and from unwary prey.

Docks- Docks are a great spot to find flounder. They like to hide among the dock pilings to ambush shrimp and small fish that come to close to their ambush point.

I like to cover a lot of different docks when I am searching for flounder. My favorite search lure is the Berkeley GULP Swimming Mullet. My favorite color is white with a red jig head. The key to catching flounder is bouncing the jig off of the bottom very slowly.

The strike zone for a flounder is within about 2 feet of the bottom. They will not swim up very high in the water column to hit your bait or lure. You have to present it to them very near the bottom if you want to get any bites.

There is no sense in using live bait to fish for flounder around docks. The swimming mullet is a much more effective way to catch them. If you do decide to use live bait, then use shrimp, finger mullet and any sort of white bait like sardines or anchovies.

I wrote another article on this website that covers in greater detail the best baits and lures for catching flounder. You can read that article by clicking right here.

Inlets- Flounder love to hang out around the boulders that line the St. Lucie Inlet. The best live bait for catching flounder around the inlet is finger mullet. Make sure to use enough weight to get your bait to the bottom into the flounder's strike zone.

It is very hard to feel the flounder strike. If you think that you felt a hit, then set the hook. You won't usually scare the flounder away with a hook set attempt. After a failed hook set just let the lure sink back down a twitch it a little. Quite often you will get another chance at that same flounder.

A swimming mullet with a 1/4 ounce or a 1/2 ounce jig head or a jig tipped with small piece of shrimp is a good choice for St. Lucie Inlet flounder. Cast it up current and bounce it back with the tide very slowly.


Stuart Kayak Fishing for Pompano

Kayak fishing for pompano is a lot of fun. You can find them from about the middle of November through about the middle of April in the waters around Stuart.

They like to hang out around the sand bars and the sandy cuts between spoil islands in the intracoastal waterway. The incoming tide near the St. Lucie Inlet is a great place to start your search for pompano.

You will have to find a safe launch point but after that you are good to go. Just go out and wait to spook a pompano so you know where the school is or just use a search bait like a banana jig or a pompano jig. Once you catch one just drop your anchor and keep fishing there until the bite stops. Pompano schools will move around a lot so you will have to try and follow them if you can.

You are looking for any sandy spot with a water depth change. I like to fish the cuts right next to big sandy flats. There are lots of sandy flats around Stuart these days because all of the sea grass is gone.

Watch the video below to learn more about kayak fishing in Stuart for Pompano

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​Conclusion:

Stuart is a great place to fish. There are lots of great kayak launch spots all over Stuart. You just never know what you will catch during certain times of the year. The St. Lucie inlet has been the epicenter of the recent toxic algae blooms and red tides over the last few years but there are still fish around.

It is amazing that there are still so many fish available to for kayak fishermen to catch. Nature is very resilient but I hope that they fix the problem soon. The snook seem to be the least affected by the water quality issues. Their numbers have skyrocketed over the last few years.

There are lots of tarpon around too. Maybe they are not as affected because of their transient nature. They come and go and that may be why they are so a abundant. I hope that this article helps you catch more fish the next time that you go kayak fishing.

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