40" snook

Charity with a 40″ snook caught at the inlet!

Good morning all my Sebastian Inlet anglers, and sightseers, hope you all had a great weekend, and were able to dodge the rain showers. OK, so, again I need to start this report off with a little bit of dismay and concern as to the condition of the north jetty. For whatever reason, people seem to forget that your fishing on this jetty is a PRIVILEDGE, not a right! This privilege can be REVOKED at anytime by the park management if the rules for the well-being of the jetty, and the marine resources, not to mention the safety and consideration of your fellow anglers. It is, and has been an ongoing problem on the jetty, and now that more folks are coming out because the fishing is picking up, the littering of trash all over the jetty, junk being stuffed into the fishing line recycling tubes that doesn’t belong there, and there are stickers on them stating such, and the blatant disregard for our marine resources, the bait fish that are caught in the cast nets and just dumped out and left there to die! Take what you need and please return the rest to the water alive and unharmed! It is a jetty rule listed on the rules sign by the beach warning flags, read them! Also the amount of trash just discarded all over the jetty needs to stop as well. There are trash cans located on the jetty to dispose of your trash, if you are to lazy to do that, please take it back home with you and dispose of it properly. I know I have mentioned all this before, but again, there are gates at the beginning of the jetty, and if the park management team decides they have had enough, they will close and lock the gates and NOBODY will be able to fish! Please don’t let that happen. If everyone does their part to help keep the jetty clean and presentable, we won’t get to that point. As always, if you see someone doing anything that is not right, say something, or if you don’t want to do that, please call the north ranger station @ 321-984-4852, and they will send someone out to resolve the issue. Thanks everyone for your help and support! Now on to the good stuff!

The fishing at the inlet over the weekend has been on fire for a change! Lots of fish of all species were being caught throughout the entire inlet, and plenty of baitfish as well to keep them excited. So here we go with the action spots.

North Jetty

Over here there has been good action on both tides, with the incoming being the better tide as the water has been cleaner, and there is more room to fish the inside, whereas the outgoing everyone stacks up at the tip. Live shrimp on the incoming has been the bait of choice for the snook and reds. Several nice catch and release redfish were caught over the weekend, but the hot action was on the snook! Lots of really nice slot snook were caught over the weekend as of Friday, with Saturday being the hot day for them. In the time I was down there on the jetty I witnessed about 12-15 slot fish landed averaging in the 29-31 inch size, with quite a few overs and unders returned to the water. Sunday was a tad slower, but still there were quite a few slot fish taken home. Other species I saw caught over the weekend were black drum, lots and lots of spanish mackerel on live greenies, some nice mangrove snappers around the rocks at the tip, and around the pilings. Lookdowns on live greenies at the tip. Another species I saw caught over the weekend, and they are early, were some nice bluefish! The ones I saw were in the 2-3 pound range, on cut bait on the beachside. On the outgoing tide at the tip they were catching some big snook on live mullet, too big to keep, along with quite a few catch and release redfish too. But the focus was on the cubera snappers. Ever since the schools of mullet have been around the tip of the jetty, they decided they wanted to play! Several very nice fish were caught over the weekend on live mullet fished around the rocks at the tip, with one big one that I know of that a friend of mine caught, the fish was 30 inches long! Monster cubera! Another species hanging around to play have been the big jack crevalles, they will eat anything you throw out, from live bait, cut bait to artificials.

South Jetty

Over here the action has been pretty hot as well, with the snook action being what everyone is focused on. Incoming tide has been the best time to fish them from the tip all the way back to the bridge. Live baits of any kind will bring a bite, but the croakers have been the bait of choice. Lot of small fish under the limit, quite a few over slot, but there were quite a few slot fish taken home. Redfish have been mixed in with them for that added fun factor, along with the big jack crevalle. For those fishing the incoming along the shoreline for mangrove snapper, the bite is still going on with dead or live greenies, and shrimp. Most fish I saw were 10.5 to 11 inches, with some pushing the 12 inch size. On the outgoing tide at the tip the action is all about the jacks, blue runners, black margates, some mangrove snapper, and I even saw a couple of nice pompano in one anglers bucket!

T-Dock Area

Back here the action is a bit slower, not too much going on as there aren’t very many people fishing back here. But those that are here are catching small mangroves around the dock pilings on greenies, either live or dead. Also there are lots of the pesky puffers around too to keep the kids entertained. The snook action has been slow, again not very many guys fishing back here due to the action being so good out on the jetties.

Surf area, both sides

The north side has been all about the mullet running down the shoreline in the surf. Big snook, redfish, tarpon have been the dominate action, along with maybe some of those big jack crevalle, not to mention it’s time for the blacktip and spinner sharks to show up with the bigger schools of mullet. The south side surf has been pretty muddied up from the SSE winds, and the leftover NE swell we had last week making things ugly. About the only thing I saw and heard about were the kitty fish, puffers and bonnet head sharks. If the water does clean up, and we are getting into the fall season, and the water cools down a bit, the pompano just might show up, as I saw two nice ones caught on the south jetty over the weekend.

So there you go folks, another great report for you all, and it will only get better from here as the water cools down a bit, and cleans back up some, was showing 86 along our coast this morning. So get your gear some bait, water and snacks and get out and catch some dinner, or a Memorie! And remember, take a big bag of patience along with you because it will get crowded at times! Have fun and be safe. Snookman