It’s been a chilly, windy start to the holiday season but the fish are chewing! Despite crazy cold fronts and heavy winds the fishing has been nothing short of incredible, with all the wicked weather offshore fishing has been pretty much out of the question but the inshore bite remains strong!

Most anglers can find a variety of species from snook, redfish, tripletail, black drum, pompano and more in and around the surf and inlets. These cool fronts really bunch the fish up and tend to slow down their metabolism. This typically makes fishing really good with smaller profile baits such as shrimp, fiddler crabs, sand fleas and a variety of small jigs such as the gulp shrimp. Those in search of larger species like snook and redfish, a free lined shrimp with a small pinch weight can be extremely effective especially fishing near any sort of structure with good water depth.

Many anglers get really excited about the pompano and sheepshead fishing that is found along the entire surf from new smryna and as far south as Sebastian. On the calmer days, try fishing a double hook rig with a 2-3 oz pyramid sinker. Most of the troughs are very close shore. The best approach is to set several rods varying different distances and or depths. The “go to” bait in these situations is a fresh sand flea tipped with a small chunk of fish bites soft plastic. Apply the chunk of artificial bait over your fresh sand flea or even peeled shrimp. This setup can produce some quality fish!

The most important factor this time of year when fishing along the beach is looking for clean water. It’s as easy as find clean water and find the fish! I wish everyone the best and hope you can all get out and enjoy some of this wonderful winter fishing!

We have had some back to back cold fronts dipping down into Central Florida the past couple of weeks bringing cooler air temps along with water temps. The fish have really started to move into their winter time patterns looking for warmer water conditions. Look for your trout, redfish and black drum to move off the grass and more onto the sand or mud bottoms. The snook who are way more sensitive to the temperature drop will be moving to deeper water looking for there.

We are moving into the time of year where down sizing and settle retrieves work best. This is a great time of year for sight fishing and artificials as the cooler water temps will make these fish active. The weather looks to be stable through the weekend with another possible cool down next week.

Went to Soque river in North Georgia near Clarksville. Spent 4 days fly fishing for giant rainbow and brown trout. It was cold but the fishing was outstanding and we had 8 over 10 lbs and each of us 3 anglers had over 20 each per day

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas. I am back and have days open in December

December has started off with a bang! The fish are big and hungry. Snook, bull redfish, tripletail and black drum are the main species captain Justin and I have had come over the gunnel this past week. Live baits like croakers, finger mullet and shrimp seem to be working best. We continue to rig these live baits on a 3/4 to 1-once knocker rig or 1/4 ounce Assassin jig head. As long as the water temps continue to stay in the lower 70 degree range along the near-coastal waters you can expect this incredible bite to continue.

If you missed our Black Friday special of $75 off any trip booked with captain Justin or myself for the 2025 season, we are extending it for our Spacefish readers through the end of the week. That’s right. You can get our once a year Black Friday special toward any trip booked with us in the coming year and save. Call 321-505-8217 and captain Justin will provide you with the discount code so you can book your trip with us online at your convenience.

Let’s go catch your next memory before the fishing slows!

The Ocean Obsession out of Sunrise Marina at Port Canaveral have had their customers on the fish. It’s been a nice mix of lane snapper, mangrove snapper, triggerfish and some other species mixed in too. If you want to get out and catch some of these tasty critters, give them a call to book your spot on the next trip.

Good morning all my Sebastian Inlet friends and family! I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with friends and family! So here’s this weeks update on the fishing at the inlet. Last week the fishing was pretty dang good with the cooler water temperatures, 72, and the fact that it had cleaned up quite a bit and the fish were on a roll so to speak.

The hotspot was the NE tip of the north jetty, but only the lucky boaters could fish that area, luck dogs. But it’s all good because the south side was producing fish as well. The boats, some of them who were fishing with live shrimp and not just live pins, pigs, and croakers were catching quite a few really nice black drum, sheepshead, pompano, redfish and a lot of small snook, mostly undersized because when the water cools down the juveniles love to come out to play! That all ended on Friday afternoon when the seas and the NNE winds decided to pick up and make it too rough to fish there anymore. The south jetty was pretty good all week as well, up until Friday afternoon when it all went away with the winds and seas picking up. Both tides they were catching some black drum, sheepshead, pompano, and even some small bluefish. Sand fleas and either live or dead shrimp worked for everything. A couple of the guys were using the small goofy jigs to catch the pompano, beachside. The incoming tide along the rock shoreline was producing black drum, sheepshead and black margates on cut shrimp. Some snook were around, but they were mostly the smaller fun ones. Any live bait will entice them, and smaller swimbaits. The water temperature of the water along our coast has now dropped down to 69 degrees with the north winds we have been seeing. This in turn will make our cool water species want to bite, if the water cleans back up.

Flounder season just opened up December the first, so they should be showing, there have been a small number of them caught last month, but they were small, and closed. The limit for them is 14 inch minimum with a bag limit of 5 per person per day. Live shrimp, small finger mullet and mud minnows are the preferred baits, but they can be caught on small artificials too. Anywhere along the shoreline you can find them, incoming tide is the best, and at the tide change periods either tide. Another species that usually show up this time of year when the water gets this cold and cleans up is the spotted seatrout, but they are still closed until January the first. The stats for these fish in our area are, 2 per person per day, 15 inch minimum, 19 inch maximum, and one of those two fish can be over the 19 inch maximum, but you can only keep two fish. The south side is usually where a lot of them hang out. Live shrimp is the best bait for them, but they do gat caught by the anglers fishing with mud minnows and small finger mullet. Also, the smaller artificials work well with them. I did hear that there are a lot of them in the intercoastal, back side of the inlet, along with some pompano.

The T-Dock area has been a hit or miss deal with the fish, some days there are some spanish mackerel back there on small white jigs, and also there have been reports of some of the black drum and sheepshead being caught on live and dead shrimp. Not much action on the snook back here, except for the nigh timers tossing flair jigs, they are catching a few, but most are too big to keep. The surf is a blown out mess again!!

So that’s all I have for now my friends. This week is going to be a little brutal with the stiff winds all week, and the kicked up waves , and the cold weather. It should start laying back down and warming up some by Thursday, so we shall see how that goes. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

The fishing has been good overall offershore when we can get out.

It looks like Thursday and Friday are going to cooperate this week for getting offshore. On the reefs the kingfish are here which is a great sign. Other species we are catching are cobia and don’t be surprised if Mr. Sailfish makes an appearance, as well. Nearshore, the shark fishing has remained strong. We are seeing some really nice bull redfish, too. The snook bite has been fantastic around the jetties at Port Canaveral. If you can cast net some mullet, you’ll be in great shape. I have to mention that some really nice size tripletail are showing up, too.

We had great fishing for Thanksgiving week and hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. The massive cold front really turned the fish on with multiple species being caught every day. Black drum are starting to school up on deep edges and will eat a shrimp tipped jig head. Snook, redfish and trout are moving into the flats near deeper water as the sun comes up and starts to warm the shallows. Even got to fish with an actor from an HBO series. I have days open throughout the month you can come catching by calling 386-295-5991 or get a gift certificate at fatfishguide.com.

The Lagoon is giving up lots of trout. Water temperatures were in the mid 60’s which have made the fish lay lower in deeper water close to the bottom. Jigging a small plastic off the bottom will get strikes. Also fishing along deeper mangroves using the same techniques as before. Fishing like this also has a bonus to it as well. Pompano will run in the same waters, too.

Headwaters fishing is still challenging for the artificial bite. Moving around covering water until you get a bite then slowing down to pick the spot apart before moving on. The fish were staging close to heavier hydrilla areas with sparse open water with scattered grass surrounding these areas. My best bite came on a Gambler Slim EZ in the Copperfield color with a 3/16 oz. weight. Swimming this lure slowly through the grass got my fish. As I’m writing this report it’s cold outside and tomorrow even colder. This change will have a slower catch ratio but when we come into a warm up from the cold fronts will be a better bite.

This is the first cold week of fishing in a while. The bite changed but we still caught a lot of fish, mostly school trout along with a bunch of jacks, bluefish, mackerel and pompano. Soft plastics have been the key in the lagoon and fish areas with moving water.

The inlet bite was pretty good with some redfish and snook on live bait around the tide changes. Beach bite is pretty good as well with some pompano, jacks and a few mackerel. If you’re willing to make runs when it’s calm, you should be able to find plenty of mackerel and some kingfish south towards Vero. We are having another cold week which will cool the water temps some more and keep that bit slower in the lagoon. However, if you get out and work the deeper water you will find plenty of action with smaller fish and even be able to bring some good dinner size fish.

My boat is in the shop, so I’ve been going to a pond across the street and doing OK. Got 13 on Thanksgiving ranging from half pound up to 2lbs and a BIG girl weighing between 6 and 7lbs, guess no scales. All were caught on a 1/4 ounce Z Man Willowvibe with a white minnow.