arden snook

Arden, poses with a clean 27-inch catch-and-release snook caught Sunday with live shrimp on the south jetty.

Good morning, Sebastian Inlet fanatics, I hope everyone had a great weekend! The weather was decent again, but the fishing suffered due to the big SSE winds, 15 to 25 mph, along with the three to five-foot surf making things a bit dirty and challenging. But there were some fish caught. The good thing about it is that the water has remained at 71 degrees and didn’t drop any. We have a couple of breezy and big surf days ahead, but the winds should calm down by Wednesday. To that end, here is what I saw over the weekend from Friday through Sunday.

North side under the bridge, legal side of the fence, west side

On the incoming tide, there are still some nice sheepshead being caught on live sandfleas and cut shrimp fishing behind the pilings, and close to the rock shoreline. In the back, west of the tidal pool, the incoming tide has been producing sheepshead and a few black drum on live sandfleas, and cut or live shrimp for the drum. I heard that a few guys caught smaller snook back there as well on live shrimp floating the current. Not much else back here.

South Jetty

All weekend on the south jetty the bite has been hit-or-miss, incoming tide early has been producing quite a few of the undersized snook on live shrimp along the jetty rocks, small thumper jigs have been getting a few as well. I only saw one slot fish caught over the weekend; the rest were too small. Black drum and sheepshead continue to make a showing once in a while, too: use live shrimp and sandfleas. The outgoing tide at the tip always gets crowded, but they have been catching black margates, sheepshead, blue runners, small jack crevalle and a drum or two. Since the water has gotten so dirty, the pesky catfish are around as well. Another species I saw make a showing Friday and Saturday were the big bluefish again. They were a bit farther out than normal, but a big silver spoon or jig did the trick. Also, I saw several smaller, normal size bluefish caught. That is pretty much it for over here.

T-Dock area

Remember, folks, the T-Dock is closed for the duration of the dredging project, and the adjacent parking area, but the shoreline area around it is open for fishing. Back here I didn’t see anything caught. However, chatting with a couple of my friends, they caught some undersized snook and redfish on the incoming, and very beginning of the outgoing tide on live shrimp and thumper jigs. One of my friends did catch some black drum and a pompano on Friday before it got all messed up. So that’s pretty much all for back here.

Surf Area, both sides

As you may have guessed, it has been all blown out, rough and dirty.

That’s all I have for this week. We really need the weather to calm down and remain that way. As the water continues to warm up, fishing will pick up. Cheers, everyone!