St. Sebastian River – Easter Weekend

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! When I set out to fish/write the Easter weekend report I felt it was only right to fish the St. Sebastian River. Interesting fact on nomenclature, the inlet on the other side of the Indian River Lagoon is called Sebastian Inlet. In the 1870’s a small fishing village on the western shore of the IRL was settled and was officially named St. Sebastian in 1882 (after the actual Saint, Sebastian), the early pioneers of the area tried to make an inlet to the Atlantic in 1886, but storms kept filling their small man made cut with sand, and it wasn’t until the 1920’s that the modern Sebastian Inlet was built. Eventually the town was incorporated officially in 1923 with the “saint” being dropped, and the town was officially called Sebastian, but the river itself still pays homage to the Saint. Being that this is my Easter weekend report, and that my “real job” is being a World History teacher in the employment of the Diocese of Orlando, I will provide a history of Saint Sebastian, the Martyr at the end of this report for those interested. But assuming that you drop in to Spacefish each week to read fishing content, and not Florida and/or Church History, I’ll go ahead and get into the fishing report. Also, if you are wondering why I am wearing a restaurant style cooking glove in the picture above, all will be explained in due time, it’s kind of a funny story actually. Let’s jump on in.

Launch Spot

So if there is a negative to this trip and report, it is probably the launch spot, and the degree to which it is not super accessible. There are other ways to access the St. Sebastian River, such as Dale Wimbrow Park, which is further back, but I wanted to fish the mouth of the river, where it intermingles with the IRL, so I used Google maps to find a spot to launch. I will not have a traditional address, but here is a link to a spot I marked for you all on Google Maps – https://maps.app.goo.gl/kq3J5Qcp25MXJxaBA – and here is a link to where I parked as well – https://maps.app.goo.gl/MZWtkdvtXreBWXtU9 – the area I parked is technically a park, but it is not traditionally labeled as such on Google Maps. I have included a picture below of the launch spot, the picture itself does not do justice to how steep this hill is. I was able to get down and back up again with my kayak on a cart, but it was not easy sledding, this is a great spot to launch to access the mouth of the river, but it is not convenient as far as loading, unloading or transporting your rig up and down the steep hill.

Where I Fished

I launched and was on the water while it was still dark, I spent the first 20 minutes fishing outside of the bridge, on the flats there along the shoreline. I did not catch any fish in the darkness, though I was literally blind casting my topwater in every direction. Once the first bit of sunlight cracked the horizon, I went under the bridge. I caught my first fish, and Ladyfish, just west of the bridge, I caught my second, a Jack Crevalle, just under the bridge. I pushed out and headed south along a long mangrove shoreline, this was the main area I had pre-planned to fish with topwater because even as the sun would rise, this shoreline that runs north and south would provide a blockage of the suns light, and would elongate the topwater bite. I would catch my first Snook several casts in, and then have a bit of a mishap, which I will explain later. Once that situation was under control, I was back in the same area, where I caught 2 more Snook, and 3 Trout on Topwater. The Snook were tucked in between the oyster bars and the mangroves, and the Trout were out in the middle of this cove ambushing bait around oyster bars. Once the sun climbed higher in the sky, I put the topwater away in favor of a paddletail worked further west, but I never left this big cove, I just fished the west side between the dock and the west side of the cove, again the same patterns held up as I would drift in between oyster bars and hte mangroves, I continued to catch Snook under th mangroves, and catch Trout, and Jacks out in the open. It seemed like the Jacks and Trout out in the open of the cove were chasing schools on finger Mullet, and the Snook were keyed in on smaller minnows that were in thick schools along the mangroves. I had one shot at a Red, which I actually sight casted to later in the day (around noon), just before I knocked off for the day. I casted in front of him, and he took my paddle tail, but he took off on a run, and my braid rubbed against the oysters and I was broken off. That really sucked for two reasons, #1 I hate leaving a hook in a fish’s mouth, I always feel terrible about that, #2 most of the times in which I have been broken off it’s been by Snook and Tarpon at the leader close to the bait, this was the first time I have been snapped off via braid, and not the leader, but I am not used to fishing around so many oysters. I also by not landing the fish, lost out on a slam, but it just be that way sometimes. I did make a run further down the river a bit, but all of the bait, all of the action was in this cove, so after an hour out of the cove, I returned to fish another hour or so here before calling it a day.

Topwater – The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Ok, so first off, it was a fantastic morning for topwater. In the first hour or so of daylight I caught 4 different species of fish, and one human finger, and ended up catching 9 total fish, in the world of artificials, that’s about as good as it gets as far as action goes. So as far as the “good”, this is my good. None of the fish were of trophy size, but man, it is fun when the fish are hitting topwater and you can go out and have a numbers day on top. The picture at the beginning of this section was my last topwatwer fish of the morning, a fun sized Sea Trout, and here below is my first Snook, and the one that also led to the bad and ugly.

So the bad, and ugly – totally my fault! So if you notice on the picture of the Trout, I was using a topwater plug with single inline hooks, to replace the Trebles, I made the switch to this plug after taking a treble hook through the finger after catching my first Snook around 7:15 am. I felt like a total idiot, because I have always been a component of replacing trebles for single inlines, but I got this new plug in and I was too lazy to change it. Now I will say, these trebles are probably the best trebles I have ever experienced on a topwater, YakTribe uses strong BKK Size #4 Trebles which have held up without any bending – much better than the el cheapo factory trebles that come on Rapalas and Mirrolures per my experience. So as far as making the change due to hook quality, I have no complaints there, but I have always believed that single inline hooks are safer for the angler, and for the fish.

Now for what it’s worth, I was very fortunate! Cut the plug off the leader, and cradled in the my pinky so gravity would not cause any pulling of the skin. I took a picture of the Snook and released it. So if this ever happens to you, don’t panic, the best thing to do is to cut the barb off the hook, and slide it back out. I of course do not carry wire cutters on my kayak, so my emergency plan is to smash the barb down with my pliers, the slide it out that way, but where I was fishing there was a marina across the river so I went there first. I saw a guy cleaning his boat, I asked if he had wire cutters, and he did. So we snipped the barb, and I slid the hook out. I then went in to Outriggers, there was a guy there early, and he let me use their first aid kit to clean the wound, and bandage it up. He even let me take a kitchen glove so that I could keep the bandage dry during the rest of my fishing. I can’t thank the nice people enough that allowed me to use their wire cutter and their first aid kit. Thank you Outriggers, I have also heard from a reliable source that they have a phenomenal cheeseburger, so if you’re ever in the area and want a nice meal at a cool waterfront restaurant, then stop in to Outriggers!

As far as what I was using I was throwing the YakTribe Topwater, in the “Owie” color, until my mishap then I switched over to the “Dulce” because I already had that with single inline hooks. These are fantastic topwater baits, and at $6.99 they have to be the most quality, and affordable topwater plugs on the market right now! Here is a link if you want to buy some yourself – https://www.yak-tribe.com/product/yak-tribe-topwaters/ – so far I have caught Snook, Trout, Ladyfish, Jack Crevalle, and Largemouth Bass on 4 different colors; Dulce, Owie, Old Faithful, and Frogger – these are fantastic topwater plugs!

Paddle Tails

Once the sun came up, and the topwater bite died off, I switched over to my paddle tails. I started throwing my Fish, or Die Minutemen on a 3/16 oz jighead, but because of how many oysters there were I was having trouble, so I made the switch to a weedless presentation, the Salt Strong Mulligan on a ⅛ oz, 4/0 Owner Twistlock hook. It was a similar pattern to how I fished topwater, Snook in the mangroves – Trout and Jacks in the open waters relating to oyster bars. The water level was low enough to really skip deep into shaded pockets in the mangrove which led to a good number of smaller, “fun sized” Snook being caught. This bait skips really well, it is the best skipping paddle tail I have ever used on a weightless twistlock hook. It also has the golf ball dimple design, as is fairly thick plastic, so this thing can be absolutely bombed out over an open area which led to a good number of Trout and Jacks being caught simply due to how many fish were in the area feeding on bait fish schooled up around the oyster beds, and how much water I could cover by making long casts. The color that was working is the same color I have been having success with the last few weeks – LeBronze. I even caught two Mangrove Snappers on this bait, something that doesn’t happen for me much on Paddle Tails!

If you are interested in becoming a Salt Strong Insider, which gives great tackle discounts, as well as the Smart Tides fishing app which I use to plan trips, and have on the water intel such as weather, winds, and depth – you can click on this link to become a member for free, for 30 days and decide whether joining at 10 dollars a month is worth it to you – if you don’t mind drop my name as your reference! https://www.saltstrong.com/friends/

Saint Sebastian, the Martyr

First off, let me credit the image. This is a painting from the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna, and I got it from Wikipedia – doubtful if any of my students read my online fishing content but if they do, remember kids, plagiarism is bad! Secondly, Saint Sebastian is known for his martyrdom, in dying for his faith, he was famously put to death via a close range firing squad of arrows – so the other day after taking a treble hook through the finger I couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony of of taking a piercing on the St. Sebastian River. Of course I am in no way, shape or form comparing the two events whatsoever, I just found it to be slightly ironic.

Ok so why is he a saint? Sebastian was a Roman Soldier, who through his skill and valor would rise to the rank of captain of the Praetorian Guard under the Roman Emperor Diocletian. He kept his Christian faith quiet, but soon his reputation of converting high profile Romans to Christianity, away from traditional pagan faiths, earned him a reputation that he could not hide. Eventually he was angrily confronted by an angry Diocleatian, who felt personally betrayed. Dicoleatian had overseen state sponsored persecution of Christians in Rome. Sebastian was then taken to a field, and shot to death with arrows. Despite being shot full of arrows, when a Christian woman, Irene of Rome, went to retrieve his body she realized he was still alive. She nursed him back to health, but instead of fleeing Rome, Sebastian went back to the Imperial Palace and pleaded with Diocletian to repent and change his policy towards Christianity. Diocletian did not. Again, he sentenenced Sebastian to death. Again he was shot full of arrows, but also clubbed for good measure, this time he would not escape death, and he became a martyr for the faith, and later was fully canonized as a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church. He is celebrated with a feast day on December 18th, is the patron saint of archers, athletes, and is beleived to intercede for humans against diseases (plagues/pandemics/epidemics). I like to think he was looking out for me when I took that hook through the finger, and yes I said a prayer of thanksgiving after being able to get the situation handled so quickly and conveniently.

Conclusion

What a fun and adventurous day of fishing this was! I never got that stud, trophy sized Snook or Trout to hold up for a selfie, but it was an excellent day in terms of action, with lots of fish being caught. I ended up catching 5 different species of fish on two baits, this area of the river has several different types of natural structure that bait fish, and predator fish are naturally attracted to; mangroves, sea grass (which is growing at the mouth of the river in some patches) and lot’s of oyster beds. If you can manage to get your kayak down the steep hill, I am confident you will have an action packed day of fishing in this area.

I’d like to say thank you to Kayaks By Bo – our paddle partner for our weekly kayak reports. If you are looking to purchase a kayak or paddle board, make sure to shop at Kayaks By Bo in Titusville! In addition to carrying top notch paddle craft they also carry a slew of Yak Attack accessories, and lot of cool appareal to wear while out on the water.

I’d like to extend to you all a heartfelt, Happy Easter. I hope your weekend was blessed, and you are your family were able to enjoy. May God Bless us all. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Stay safe, be happy, and tight lines everyone! Until next time!