Unsettled Water @ Inlet

Erica with a very nice catch-and-release redfish caught on the south jetty on live shrimp.

Good morning all you Sebastian Inlet fishing lovers, I hope everyone had a great weekend despite the weather! Here we go with our report for the week. For the most part this report is going to be a “rinse and repeat” of last week’s. There are fish being caught all throughout the inlet, incoming tide being the best tide to fish still, due to the cleaner water on that tide. So here are your breakdowns as to what’s going on.

North Jetty

Over here it has been the “hot spot” for the fishing! Over the weekend the black drum have “lit the fire” so to speak with a lot of nice fish being caught. Live and dead shrimp and sand fleas are the best baits to use. Most of the fish were caught towards the end of the jetty on the ocean side, both tides. Fish on the bottom with a dropper rig or with a Carolina rig with 1-2 oz weight to keep it stationary. Most of the fish I have seen were again in the 20-28 inch range, with a few even bigger, and some just at the minimum 14 inch range. Also there have been some nice catch and release redfish mixed in with the drum. On the beach side there are still a few pompano and whiting being caught on cut shrimp and sand fleas. Mostly on the high tide. Incoming tide for you folks that only like to catch and release snook, the bite was really good on Sunday, with a lot of nice slot fish being caught and released. Kind of unusual for them to be biting this good in the 67 degree water we have now, but they are. The sheepshead bite is picking back up again with some nice fish being caught between the pilings with sand fleas or fiddler crabs, cut shrimp will work also. I did see one nice flounder caught out there last Friday on live shrimp. Not too much going on over here in that catagory.

South Jetty

Over here it has been about the same as the north side, incoming tide with the clean water is the key. Live shrimp are accounting for catch and release snook and redfish all along the seawall. Also there have been a few nice spotted seatrout caught too, live shrimp freelined, or a small splitshot. At the tip, outgoing they are catching black margates, spot tail pins, black drum and some sheepshead on sand fleas and cut shrimp. In the surf “pocket” area, they are starting to pick up some nice keeper flounder on mud minnows and live shrimp, and small jigs. Most of the fish I saw and heard about were in the 14-16 inch range.

T-Dock area

Back here it has been pretty slow, not much going on. On the first of the outgoing tide the boaters are getting a few flounder on finger mullet and mud minnows. Most of those fish also in the 14-18 inch range.

Surf Area, both sides

The south side before the winds switched last Thursday to the SSE and dirtied it up was producing a lot of nice pompano!! It was calm enough for the boaters to get in on the action, and the beach anglers were getting a bunch of them. Several anglers caught their limits of five each.. Sand fleas and cut shrimp were the key baits. Also in the mix were some whiting and black drum, same baits.

North surf

Over here it was the same thing, pompano, black drum and whiting on the high tides on sand fleas and cut shrimp. Then the winds changed like I mentioned and dirtied up the water.

Well there we have it folks. This week is again going to bring us some “unsettled” weather with the winds picking up NNE 20-30, then SSE 20-30 and the seas kicking back up to 4-6 foot. So if you’re going out, do it before Wednesday, because that’s when it is supposed to change. Good luck fishing everyone, they are there, just gotta go gettem.

Stay safe, stay well and enjoy your week!