Palm Beach Fishing Report — April 2025
Mahi arriving on spring weedlines; tarpon building in Lake Worth Lagoon. Updated every Thursday with current conditions, what’s biting, and where to focus your fishing effort.
What’s Biting in Palm Beach — April 2025
Check back every Thursday for updated fishing conditions and current bite reports for Palm Beach. See our Palm Beach fishing guide for full seasonal information.
Where the Fish Are: April Hotspots
April in Palm Beach is a transition month — the late sailfish push winds down and the offshore game shifts to dolphin (mahi) and the first wahoo of the warm season. The reliable pattern: run east to the color change in 600–1,000 feet, work the weedlines, and trust the frigate birds. Most days the bait is small ballyhoo and minnows under the patches, and schoolie mahi will pile up on any floating structure — a single board, a piece of bamboo, even a coconut. Tarpon start staging in the Jupiter Inlet and along the Loxahatchee around mid-April with the first 78°F water; by the end of the month live mullet and threadfin are the go-to bait. Inshore, snook are coming out of cold-water tucked-up mode and feeding aggressively on the outgoing tides at Boynton Inlet and the South Lake Worth Inlet.
Tackle & Technique
For the offshore mahi run, a medium-heavy spinning setup with 30 lb braid and a 40 lb fluoro leader handles the schoolies and gaffers without overkill. Pitch a small skirted ballyhoo or a butterflied pilchard to fish you spot under weeds — the bite is often immediate. Keep a stout casting outfit rigged with a 7-inch swimbait or a topwater popper for the bigger bulls that follow the schoolies in. Tarpon anglers should run 40 lb braid to 60–80 lb fluoro and a 6/0–8/0 circle hook; pin a live mullet through the nose and free-line it in the inlet on the moving tide. The early-season fish are big — 80 to 130 pounds is the average — so don’t under-gun yourself.
Conditions to Watch
Water temps climb from the low 70s into the high 70s through April, and that shift is what triggers the tarpon and mahi pushes. Watch the Gulf Stream eddy patterns on the satellite imagery — the days when the warm water pushes closest inshore are the days the offshore bite explodes. Onshore winds 10–15 knots make for sloppy seas but excellent surf fishing for pompano along the public beaches. The full and new moon tides bring stronger inlet currents and better tarpon staging, so plan inlet runs around those lunar windows.
Captain’s Tip
If you’re running offshore looking for mahi, don’t just drive to a number — drive to the birds. Frigate birds working low and circling over a patch of weeds in 700+ feet is the single highest-percentage sign in the spring dolphin fishery. If you see them and the water’s blue, slow down and start pitching baits before you even mark fish on the sounder.