Spillways in South Florida

[centerpinner]

I am new to Spillway Fishing. Have fished the Fort Pierce, FL and Hutchinson Island area for about 17 years now. I plan to vacation for 3 weeks in the area during late July early August 2009 and have wanted to give the Taylor Creek Spillway a try. Can aynone tell me what I might expect to catch there? Baits to try? I mainly plan to try live bait or cut bait on a centerpin reel with a noodle or float rod. Any recommendations? I also have a 7 and 9 wt flyrod and have thought about giving flies a try as well at this location.

I see many links above to various SFWMD websites but most of those links are now dead. Can anyone point me to new links specific to the Taylor Creek Spillway that might tell me water conditions, etc?

[fishnfool73]

Taylor Creek is in west PSL right ?

[centerpinner]

Negative, it is on the north side of Fort Pierce and flows into Indian River not far from the FP Inlet. It is in St Lucie County but a good 20+ miles north of PSL. The spillway itself appears from the map to be less than a mile west of US1.

[fishnfool73]

OK got it then fished it by boat . It is by the Marine research center off the river with the railroad tressle at least that is where it empties. Lots of big snook in there along with some jacks and tarponI would venture, never fished there but has to be the same as the one in PSL . Live mullet or large lures will land some huge snook in there. The spillway in PSL out by the Pike is incredible for snook as well.

[centerpinner]

OK, I have fished the bridge by the railroad trestle years ago with some success. There are actually 3 bridges including the trestle. US1, then a few hundred yards east is another bridge (old dixie hwy I think) that you can fish from then 50 yards east of that is the trestle which blocks your view.

[centerpinner]

The Marine Research Center or HBOI "Harbor Branch Oceanography Institute" if that's what you mean is probably 5-7 miles north of Taylor Creek. It's up past Indrio Road for sure and Indrio is about 4-5 miles north of the South Bridge which I frequently take. There's a marina at the mouth of Taylor Creek with a nice restaurant that has been called among other things "The Harbortown Fish House." To get to that marina one must get on the north causeway road as if you were going to the southern tip of North Hutchinson Island. Just past the RR tracks you make a right into the marina. So Taylor Creek is definitely in between the 2 causeways to N & S Hutchinson Islands.

[jamielaws]

Lake Talquin has an abundance of natural bait fish that keep the predator fish population very active. You can find Golden shiner, seminole killfish, sunfish, crayfish, threadfin shad and gizzard shad are the most common forage.

[Chimp Dancer]

@ bobwired

I actually saw one of these Prawns out my way and it was huge. At first I thought it was a small Lobster ( it was about as long as a beer can.) I haven't seen any others since but I guess they're making there way deep south.

[Chimp Dancer]

Here's the south Florida water management site: http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal ... ol%20gates

or Copy and paste. It also has a section map that shows you all the gates, a section that teaches how to read the info and a lot more. Been using this info for years now.