armando

Armando with a 27-inch black drum he caught last week on the north jetty using live shrimp on an early incoming tide

What’s happening all you Sebastian Inlet fishing fanatics, I hope everyone had a great weekend!

It’s the first week of March and we are headed into our “spring time” weather, finally. The water has been warming up quite a bit the last few days, up to 67 degrees from the low 60’s we have had over the last several weeks. The fishing hasn’t picked up very much from last week, but they are catching some pretty nice fish around the inlet. You just have to be there when they decide to play.

The massive amounts of threadfin’s that were there have thinned out a lot, but they are still around. My outlook is that when the water warms up this quickly, same as in the fall when it goes from being so warm, to cooling down quite a bit, the snook go into what I call a “transition mode”, and makes them a little tough to catch. You have to be there when they decide to play. So, this report is going to be another brief one, as no single place is in the inlet is the “place to be”. There has been some nice slot sized snook being caught on both the north side and south side on live baits, no bait has been the special one to use. Also being caught on both sides that I saw over the weekend, and this action has been mostly on the incoming high tides, were a few nice black drum on live and dead shrimp, nice bluefish of about 4-5 pounds on cut baits and silver spoons, on either tide for those, some small spanish mackerel have been caught on small white of chartreuse jigs. Another species I did see were some pretty nice sheepshead along the rock shorelines, both sides, not a lot, but a few, and I did see one nice cubera snapper about 16 inches caught Sunday afternoon on the north rocks by the catwalk. The surf fishing on both sides has been pretty slow due to the dirty water, not a lot going on when I chatted with my surf anglers Sunday.

Like I mentioned earlier, we are in that winter to spring transition period that happens, and things will only get better from here on out as the water continues to warm back up. We really need it to get to 70 and above for the snook, snapper and redfish to want to get active, and trust me, if that happens, they will, always does. Also, the water still needs to clean up a bit more as well. The only thing you can do is be there when the fish decide to turn on, and lately it has been a quick, short bite, and it’s all over!

Well guys and gals, that’s it in a nutshell for this week. As I mentioned, it all should get better from here on, so grab your gear, get some bait and go to the inlet and see what you can muster up, you never know! Oh, and don’t forget, Sunday night to “spring forward” your clocks one hour. Have a great week everyone! Snookman