sebastian inlet fishing jetty

Good morning, Sebastian Inlet fishing junkies! I hope everyone enjoyed the nice and hot weekend. The fishing wasn’t too shabby; a little slow, but some nice fish were caught throughout the inlet. All weekend, the water was pretty clean, and warmed up to 78-79 degrees, which is close to where it needs to be. The bait fish were mostly absent, but that didn’t stop the fish from biting. So here we go with the meat and potatoes…

North jetty

On this side, most of the action has been on the early morning end of the high tide, and very first two hours or so of the outgoing tide. Over the weekend, the guys I chatted with were hooking snook on live shrimp, croakers and thumper jigs. Few were landed due to breakoffs and the hungry goliaths eating them. Most that were landed were over slot-sized and had to be returned to the water, but there were a couple of keepers caught. Also at the tip, first of the outgoing tide on Sunday morning, an angler I chatted with had four black drum he caught on live shrimp. One was 24 inches and the others were 18 to 20 inches. On the incoming at the tip, also, a couple of guys using the small jigs were catching a nice number of lookdowns, which are exceptionally good to eat. Not much to them, but if you get a small mess of them, they make for a fine meal. Also, I saw caught a few pompano on Saturday; the water was cleaner than on Sunday. Looking in the water around the rocks at the tip you could see sheepshead swimming around, but I didn’t see any caught. Blue runners and small jack crevalle rounded out the other species caught.

South jetty

Here, the fishing has been a bit slower due to the water silting more quickly, but there were fish caught. Outgoing at the tip, they are catching blues, blue runners and black margates and catfish on cut shrimp. Incoming tide when the water cleaned up there were a few pompano caught on the beachside of the jetty, along with a few whiting. Early morning and late evening incoming tide has been producing snook along the shoreline, but as always, they are mostly undersized. If you fish them long enough, you just might end up with a slot fish to take home. Not much else is going on over here.

T-dock area

It has been slow here. Incoming tide, when the water cleans up, there have been a few snook caught on live croakers, but most have been too big to keep. Fishing around the pilings with cut bait the mangrove snapper are starting to show, but they are just too small to keep yet. Incoming tide and outgoing for those tossing large silver spoons and jigs to the channel area are catching some of the big jack crevalle that are around chasing the mullet schools. Boaters drifting the channel area are catching quite a few of them. Fun to catch, but not so much to eat.

Surf Area

For the most part the surf has been slow due to the silted water. I haven’t seen very many people fishing the beach areas around the inlet, north or south. If you find clean water, pompano are still possible with live sand fleas or fresh cut shrimp. If you run across schools of mullet in the surf, snook, big jacks and tarpon are a possibility.

That’s it for this week. There’s fish, but you have to work a bit to get them to play. It’s been a weird year for sure, but I hope it gets better. Everyone enjoy your week!