The North Jetty is BACK!

Fernando with a very nice 31-inch catch-and-release redfish caught on the incoming tide on live shrimp, on the FIRST day of the opening of the north jetty!

Good morning all my AWESOME Sebastian Inlet fishing friends, and jetty visitors! It was a grand day yesterday, Monday, June 30th for the reopening of the north jetty! Was a fantastic turnout to say the least! The weather was great, water was clean and clear, and the fish were there in abundance! I think there probably were about 150 people, or maybe more that showed up to fish, and just “sight see”, was fantastic! With all the people on the jetty it looked like opening day of the fall snook season when the fish were biting good, and they stayed all day too! I have to say though, it is really nice to have the jetty back open as that area is where we do get the most of the fishing action due to the deeper water, and access farther out into the ocean, not to mention the abundance of more and better structure for the fish to hangout. Thank you to EVERYONE involved in the rebuilding of the jetty walkway area, and surrounding dunes and foliage. Job well done by all! So, without further delay, here is your HOT fishing report!

North Jetty

As I mentioned, the jetty was PACKED on Monday, and the fish were everywhere! On the walk out to the jetty with everyone, there were some small schools of very large jack crevalle, 15-20 pounders chasing mullet and majorra along the seawall and making quite the commotion. A couple of the “young guns” I call them were tossing large swim baits at them and hooking up, but none were landed as the hooks pulled out. So that got everyone excited right off to bat! Once everyone got out there and got their spots the tide was starting to come nicely, and the fish started being hooked up, and come over the rails. Most of the fish were caught on live shrimp, black drum, redfish, black margates, sheepshead, and spadefish. For those fishing with live greenies and small crappie jigs and tiny swimbaits, the lookdowns were on fire! There were quite a lot of them caught! Not much to them, but they are VERY tasty to eat, and there is no limits or restrictions on them. For those fishing silver spoons out far, and vertical jigs, there were also quite a few nice bluefish in the 15-16 inch range being caught. The snook was none existent due to the abundance of all the huge goliath groupers harassing the schools and chasing them around. Only two were hooked and the groupers ate both of them, and one redfish. The groupers were trying to eat EVERYTHING being netted. My suggestion since it is so bad with them, please DON’T target the snook during the summer so the groupers don’t eat them all! Let them do their spawning thing, there are other species to catch that you CAN keep. That’s pretty much all for this side, was a great fishing day non the less!

South Side

Over here the water was pretty dirty, but not as dirty as it had been, it cleaned up some. At the tip they were catching black margates, spot tails, some sand perch, and a couple small whiting, and of course the pesky puffers and ever present catfish. Once the tide started coming in all the people that were on the south jetty vacated, and came over to the north jetty! The water over there got pretty dirty, so they left.

T-Dock Area

Back here the fishing has picked up some, especially during the high tide phases. Small mangrove snapper are starting to show more as the water keeps warming up. I had some reports of a few keepers being caught on live greenies, and cut majorra, and shrimp around the dock pilings. And as always, when the water gets a tad dirty, the puffers are abundant for the bait fishermen. On the outgoing tide when the greenies show up, there have some nice spanish mackerel being caught on the live greenies, and very small swim baits. Other than that, it is still a bit slow.

Surf Area, both sides

The north side the water had gotten pretty silted up and there weren’t any anglers fishing, just swimmers having fun. The south side the water remained a bit silted as well, but there were a few pockets of clean water around. For those fishing cut shrimp and live sandfleas, there were a couple nice pompano caught that I know of, along with some whiting. And again, the pesky catfish and once in a while bonnet head sharks to keep it interesting, along with a few bluefish.

Alright all my Sebastian Inlet fishing fanatics, that’s it in a nutshell! Was awesome to have the north jetty back open and to have the fishing there be as good as it was, is a blessing! This week is supposed to be riddled with afternoon thunderstorms, so if you go out, get there early and catch some dinner. The high tides will be in the afternoons, but the fish are there to be caught! I wish everyone a safe and wonderful week!