Fishing in West Palm Beach ranked among top 10 cities in the country
People flock to West Palm Beach for the warm weather, the proximity to the beaches and the arts scene, but there's another draw that should not be overlooked: the fishing.
That's right. Local anglers, and some visitors, have known about the area's fantastic fishing for decades, but now apartmentguide.com reports it has crunched the numbers and by its calculations, West Palm Beach is among the top 10 cities for fishing in the country.
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The site says a lot of research went into its scoring.
"We studied every city in the U.S. with a population over 50,000. For each of these cities, we found every public fishing lake, pier and preserve. We uncovered every wildlife conservation organization and service. And we researched every fishing gear outfitter. We then calculated how many of each city offered per capita, to make the comparison fair. We then ranked totals for each city in each category per capita, assigned each category and subcategory a weighted score and added them all up."
Four of the top 10 fishing cities are in Florida
Florida is home to four of the top 10 fishing cities on apartmentguide.com's list. Pensacola ranked No. 4, Sarasota came in second and Bradenton took the top spot.
What West Palm Beach lacked in lakes, piers, preserves and even outfitters was entirely outweighed by its wealth of wildlife, according to the number crunchers. The score in that category was high enough to rank the city No. 8.
Indeed, what the city is known for is its proximity to offshore fishing and a lot of that comes from the nearby Gulf Stream current.
A quick trip out of the Lake Worth Inlet will put most boaters within 20 minutes of the Gulf Stream. This massive current helps create the diversity of fish that are found off the coast.
Whether you're looking to head offshore to test your skills against hard-fighting, high-jumping sailfish, troll for tasty wahoo during a full or new moon, work the weedlines and current edges for dolphin, catch cobia as they shadow sharks and rays or bottom fish for mutton, yellowtail or mangrove snapper the options are pretty amazing.
Though maybe not quite as well known as the offshore action, the inshore fishing is pretty impressive as well.
There's the fall and spring runs along the beaches for pompano, Spanish mackerel and bluefish.
There are tarpon that also cruise the beaches and, at sometimes over 100 pounds, are capable of giving many anglers all they can handle.
On top of that, anglers working the bridges, docks, seawalls and spillways will find snook, hard fighting jack crevalle and much more.
Even the area's freshwater fishing deserves a shout out. Anglers in West Palm Beach are minutes from the Lake Clarke, Osborne and Ida chain of lakes where peacock and largemouth are caught as well as exotics such as clown knifefish.
Top 10 cities for fishing
1. Bradenton
2. Sarasota
3. Norwalk, Conn.
4. Pensacola
5. Wilmington, Del.
6. Knoxville, Tenn.
7. Ventura, Calif.
8. West Palm Beach
9. Pittsburgh
10. Newport Beach, Calif.
- Source: Apartmentguide.com
Eddie Ritz is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at eritz@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm Beach, Florida fishing among best in the country
