Hello all my Sebastian Inlet fishing report followers, I hope you all enjoyed the extremely hot weather we have been having all weekend! Thing is, it’s not going to go away anytime soon! The weather was hot, but again, not the fishing, it was mediocre at best at the inlet. I spent 3 days down there, Saturday through Monday both working and fishing, and Sunday was the banner day! There was plenty of baitfish all around the jetty, greenies, scaled sardines and mullet. The water was clean on the north side, and it has warmed up to 85 degrees by Sunday, 86 on Monday when I was fishing. So here we go with your action spots.

North Jetty

Out here, like I said the water was pretty clean and has warmed up, lots of bait around, and fish are starting to show up more. Over the weekend I saw a lot of catch and release snook being caught on live baits, majorra were the bait of choice Saturday and Sunday, Monday they didn’t want to play at all, only saw a couple caught, along with a couple nice redfish. The incoming tide was the time to fish. The goliath groupers were patrolling the area all along the jetty looking for a “snack”, but nothing got eaten all weekend by them! Other fish I saw caught were a few nice bluefish on cut baits and spoons in the channel area, around the pilings you could see a lot of spadefish and lookdowns swimming all around in large numbers. Small live shrimp and tiny jigs were catching some of those species. There were some mangrove showing up as well, saw a couple of nice fish caught in the 11 inch range. Another species I saw caught on Sunday were a couple of really nice spanish mackerel in the 16-18 inch range! Very nice fish, but they never showed up in numbers yet. There’s plenty of bait around, so it’s just a matter of time. Outgoing tide at the tip was pretty slow, tons of snook schooled up out there, but they didn’t want to bite, too many goliaths herding them around. Most if not all the action was on the incoming tide. Along the rock shoreline between the jetty and bridge I did see one angler catching some pretty nice mangroves, finally, on small majorra and shrimp. West of the bridge on this side has been pretty slow, with only some small mangroves and black margates being caught, live shrimp and cut shrimp.

South Jetty

Over here the water is off and on dirty, but for the most part all weekend it was clean enough that the fish wanted to play some. Incoming tide inside along the jetty was catch and release snook and redfish, live majorra and small croakers. The outgoing at the tip for those fishing live or cut shrimp, the black margates and a few nice whiting were being caught, along with a few sand perch still around. For the guys tossing jigs and spoons to the channel, there have been a few nice bluefish still around, along with some big jack crevalle. Mangrove snappers are around as well on small live and cut baits, but most are still on the small side, with a few keepers being taken.

T-Dock Area

Back here the action has been the mangrove snapper around the dock pilings. Most have still been small, but some nice ones in the 11-12 inch range are starting to be caught. Live or cut majorra, and greenies are the baits of choice for them. Plenty of small baitfish are around the dock on the outgoing tide, so that would be when you want to fish for them. For those fishing small jigs and spoons there have been some spanish mackerel showing up, and on live greenies being freelined under a cork bobber.

Surf Area, both sides

The north side surf has been really clean and nice and calm, but nobody has been fishing the area because it has been full of beach goers and swimmers since it has warmed up. If you can get out early, or late evening you might have some action, as I’ve been seeing quite a lot of mullet coming down the beach, and FINALLY this year, on Sunday I did see a huge school of glass minnows, or “red minnows” as they call them in northeast Florida, coming down the beach! They stayed around for about 3 or so hours before finally heading out to the tip and going around. When these minnows DO show up in mass numbers, like they used to, all kinds of predator fish come in to feed on them! Another thing I saw over here were quite a few snook and tarpon swimming up and down the beach, along with several eagle rays and small manta rays, which both of these sometimes attract cobia, which follow them around this time of year.

South Side surf

Over here the water was a lot cleaner than I has been for a while, and pretty calm as well. Quite a few anglers surf fishing on this side and they report some nice whiting, margates, sand perch and a couple of nice pompano, and a few mangrove snapper for those fishing a little farther south along the coquina rock ledge that runs along the shoreline south. Live sand fleas, shrimp are the baits of choice.

Well my fishing friends, that’s it for this weekend’s report, it got better as I knew it would, and it should stay good, and get better as the warm water sticks around and brings in more of the snapper and mackerel. It’s going to be another “scorcher” week, so if you go out to fish, or beach it, take plenty of water and some shade if possible. Have a great week everyone. Snookman.