snook at sebastian jetty

Arden hows off the 30″ snook he caught on Sunday with live mullet

The intense snook action from a week ago has cooled down quite a bit from what it was. I spent the last three days there and didn’t see a whole lot being caught with the snook. They were there, but just didn’t want to play. I’m believing that all the rain runoff water coming from the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) in the Indian River Lagoon was the main culprit: an excess of tannic acid-stained freshwater from the ICW. Snook prefer clean, salty ocean water, unless they are from the ICW, and they can tolerate the difference. On the other hand, the fishing at the inlet remained rather good on the high tide periods — lots of baitfish still around too. So here we go with the action spots.

North jetty

Most of the action has been on the early and late evening incoming tides. After the water clarity improves, a strong NE swell continues to mess things up. There are a decent amount of mullet on this side, along with the greenies, so bait is plentiful. The hot action has been the Spanish mackerel for the last three days! Many have been caught on free-lined greenies and the smaller of the finger mullet. Some were caught on the small white crappie jigs, but the hot bait were the greenies. Most everyone was catching them on the beach side of the jetty, with many anglers reaching their limits of 15 per person! Most of the fish were in the 14 to 15-inch size, but I saw several fish pushing the 3 to 4-pound range. As I stated earlier, the snook bite on live shrimp has slowed, with most of the fish caught on live mullet at the surf area at the beginning of the jetty.

There were very few out at the rock pile where they were before. I saw several catch-and-release redfish caught though; enough to keep anglers interested. Big jack crevalle also were out there in the mix on the live mullet. The cubera snapper bite has also dropped off, I didn’t see, or hear of any all weekend. The mangrove snapper bite has abated as well, with only a handful caught that were big enough to go home. I also did see a couple of small black drum caught on the incoming tide — live shrimp. The outgoing tide has been a mess due to the aforementioned tannic freshwater. The boaters off the tip in the cleaner water weren’t even catching fish.

South jetty

Over here it is the same deal: Incoming tide, if you can find cleaner water, there may be snook and redfish around. Live mullet, pigs and croakers. The mangrove snapper are still around, but you have to hunt for them with the dirty water. Outgoing at the tip, the nasty tannic acid-stained fresh water has brought the action to standstill. Just a few catfish and puffers.

T-Dock Area

Back here, same thing: river runoff has killed the fishing. It looks as dark as the Swannee River. Even on the incoming high tide it doesn’t have a chance to clean up enough, so there hasn’t been very many folks back here fishing, there’s baitfish around, just no fish willing to play.

Surf Area, both sides

The north side surf on the rising and falling high tide periods — early morning late evening — has been fairly good. Look for mullet schools coming down the beach and fish them. There have been a lot of snook being caught, along with redfish and big tarpon. If you find mullet, cast net or fish them, or you can use 3 to 5-inch swim baits to attract a bite. Most of the snook have been too big to keep, but there have been slots mixed in with them. I also heard about blacktip and spinner sharks. It is that time of year for them to arrive with the influx of all the mullet coming down the beach. For those fishing shrimp, there have been pompano, black drum and whiting at the jetty. They should be a possibility along the beach as well. The south side surf has been a total washout with the big swell and all the fresh water coming out and flowing down the beach southward. There are mullet running southward along the beach, so big tarpon and quite possibly the sharks will be present, but not much else.

That’s all I have for this week’s installment of the inlet happenings. Like I mentioned, the fishing is good, but has dropped off a bit from what it was. It will pick up when the water cleans up. Have a great week, everyone.