Parker Russo with a nice red at the inlet

Good morning all my Sebastian Inlet fishing friends, I hope you all enjoyed the weekend, was pretty nice out, even for the fishing, finally! Some relief from the boredom of nothing. Lol.

I’d like to start off by reminding you folks that you can NOT keep any redfish in our Indian River Lagoon area, from New Smyrna Beach all the way down to West Palm, they have been closed since September first 2022, and all have to be released. Also note that the spotted seatrout are also CLOSED for November and December, and open back up January first, can’t keep them either until then, catch and release.

Over the weekend there was a fishing tournament going on at the inlet, and in chatting with several of the teams seems like the fishing was decent for many of them, and for some of our regular anglers. Many different species of fish were caught despite the water being Not so good quality wise. I chalk it up to the cleaner ocean waterr on the incoming tide mixing with the dirty outgoing and making the salinity levels more tolerant for the fish, so they decided to play. The tournament anglers were only allowed to use artificials, so that’s cool, the regular anglers I chatted with were using live and dead baits for their catches. There weren’t really any “hot spots” to focus on, just the fish were scattered around the entire inlet, with the sough side west of the bridge being the better area, both tides, especially back in the T dock area. So here goes with what I have.

North Jetty…. STILL CLOSED….

The walk way area along the wall on the early morning high tides has been producing some small snook, and catch and release redfish on artificials and live baits, along with some small mangrove snapper, sheepshead, and black drum, live and dead shrimp for those species. The outgoing tide up on the jetty walk way area around the gate has also produced some small, but keeper sheepshead, black drum, and margates, all on dead and live shrimp. In the surf pocket area, some redfish and blue fish were caught by the tournament anglers on artificials, jack crevalle were caught as well.

South Jetty

Over here on the early morning high tides same thing, small snook, catch and release reds, bluefish and jacks on live baits, and artificials. The outgoing tide at the tip was the normal cast of characters, sheepshead, margate, blue runners, and some small black drum, all on dead and live shrimp.

T-Dock Area

Back here the fishing has picked back up also. Over the weekend I saw quite a few decent sheepshead, black drum, and black margate caught on dead shrimp along the rocky shoreline, and also around the dock pilings. Also I did see, and hear about quite a few snoom being caught back here, most were too small to keep, but they were being caught. Live pins and pigs, and shrimp jigs were the main baits to use. Either tide was producing fish, with the end of the incoming, and beginning of the outgoing when the water was a bit cleaner, was the better time frame to fish. Another species I heard about being caught by the tournament anglers on this side were some small flounder, yeah I said flounder! Lol. We are getting closer to them to start showing up as the water cools down, they like the cooler water. December-January are the good months for them, if the conditions get to what they like.

Well everyone, that’s it for this week, better than what is has been, thank goodness! This week is supposed to be pretty mild, and we have a cool down coming for the weekend. Everyone have a great week!