Stuart's Evening High Tide Peaks at 3.1 Feet Friday

TODAY: Expect a classic late-dry-season Friday on the Treasure Coast — low humidity, light winds and no meaningful rain threat as Martin County heads into the weekend.

TONIGHT: The evening high tide peaks at 10:06 p.m., pushing 3.1 feet at Stuart, according to NOAA CO-OPS tidal data. That's the strongest of four tidal cycles Friday and worth planning around if you're fishing bridges or inlets after dinner. Overnight lows should be comfortable.

THIS WEEK: April tides along the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon are trending toward stronger evening highs — a pattern that favors snook and redfish moving shallow on the incoming push. Monitor NWS Melbourne for any weekend wind advisory that could stack water and amplify surge at low-lying docks.

ON THE WATER: The negative low at 3:41 p.m. — dropping to minus 0.2 feet — briefly exposes oyster bars and shallow flat edges in the estuary, a signal for fishing guides to time their afternoon moves carefully. "That minus tide in the afternoon is when the reds stack up tight on the channel edges," a Stuart-area fishing guide said. The guide recommended working the St. Lucie Inlet jetty on the incoming flood between 4 and 7 p.m. Anglers can access the north jetty via Bathtub Beach parking on MacArthur Boulevard in Stuart; live shrimp and cut mullet are available at nearby bait shops on SE Ocean Boulevard. NOAA CO-OPS attributes all tidal data to the Stuart gauge station.

ALERTS: No active NWS watches, warnings or advisories are in effect for Martin County at time of publication.

Friday's optimal window is the evening flood — launch by 4 p.m. to ride the incoming tide through the inlet and be positioned on the flats before the 10:06 p.m. high. Early risers can catch the morning high at 9:34 a.m. for a solid two-hour topwater bite before the midday heat sets in.

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