Photo credit: Pompano Bill

Finally, a few days to get out and fish—it’s been forever! The weeds have started to dissipate, but they can still be heavy in some areas of the beach. This week is forecasted to be MUCH better for surf fishing, with the beach swells calming down and the winds finally shifting to make for a more enjoyable time on the beach. Hopefully, the water settles and clears up. The weeds, of course, remain unpredictable, but those who have powered through the greenery have managed to catch some nice fish!

It’s been a mixed bag of fish in the Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral area, with lots of good-sized whiting, eater-sized black drum, margates, lingering pompano, and palometas. The bait of choice has been sand fleas and frozen shrimp pieces. Speaking of fleas, it won’t be long until we start carrying live ones daily—the season is quickly approaching!

There hasn’t really been a defined area to cast into over the past few days to get bites. The fish seem to be stuck in a maze due to the weeds and dirty water, so simply getting your bait in the water is all you can do. However, the northeastern winds have carved out some beautiful troughs for us to fish. Once the water clears and the weeds dissipate, the fishing should be fantastic for a while.

Credit for the picture this week goes to the legend, Pompano Bill. As always, take care, tight lines, and we hope to see everyone soon in the shop!

Fishing on the jetty last week was not for the meek of heart

Good morning, Sebastian Inlet friends. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. The weather sure was great! And there is more to come after we get drenched on Wednesday, compliments of tropical storm Sara. After that, cool-down city! I’m hoping the winds and waves calm down, too, so that water can clear up and prompt the fish to play better.

But anyway, there are fish to be had, but they are all on the south side; some are being caught on the north side, west of the cove back at the steel. Most of the fish being caught that I saw, and heard about were black drum, sheepshead and black margates, all on live or dead shrimp. The incoming tide on the north side is better, with less current flow. Some snook also have been reported back here, but they have been caught in the boats fishing the shoreline mangroves. Live pins, pigs and croakers are the baits.

The south side is producing fair numbers of black drum, sheepshead and black margates, all on either live shrimp, or dead shrimp. Again, the incoming tide is the best time to fish. The south jetty is still kind of unfishable due to the large waves and the wind making it very wet and dangerous to be out there. Most of the fish on this side are being caught west of the bridge, where you can escape the big waves and most of the wind. The snook have been playing decently back here on live baits such as shrimp, pins, pigs and croakers, mostly on the early and late incoming tides. I chatted Friday with an angler at the park. He was fishing with his wife by the cleaning table and they caught a couple nice flounder! It’s getting to be that time of the year for them to arrive if the water cools down and cleans up. The surf on both sides has been a mess due to the big waves and blustery winds, so no report on that.

That’s all I have for this week’s report. With the north side being shut down, the reports will be shorter because most of the action happens on the north side. With that, I wish you all a great week! Stay well, and get out and enjoy the outdoors!

Another week of decent inshore fishing with plenty of trout and some smaller snook. Bite is still hot on soft plastics and some topwater action early. The snook have been around the mangroves with some slot size and smaller fish with some bigger fish around the spoil islands.

The inlet bite around the shorelines on the north and south sides have been good the last week as well. Plenty of snook on pigfish and spots with a few fish on soft plastics. I am sure that night bite on bucktails is pretty hot. Pompano bite has been good around the spoil islands and drop-offs on some of the flats around the inlet.

The big cold front coming later this week should push the flounder into the inlet, but keep in mind the season isn’t open yet and will open on the 1st of December. Typically the week of Thanksgiving is the time most Flounder fishermen start hitting up the inlet looking for the doormats. Let’s hope this season is a good one.

The water temp is 75 degrees when we started this morning. The S canal is wide open until you get down to the East West Canal there is a blockage just to the north of the East/West.

Top baits this week for me were the Bass Assassin Tapout worms, Jackhammers and the Mike Bucca 6” Trick Shad in Gizzard Shad color.

I’m fishing the Bass Assassin Tapout worms with an 1/4oz weight (because we have had so much wind) and fishing it along Bullrush edges. The only colors I used this week were Black and Watermelon Magic. I’m using a 5/0 VMC Redline EWG hook. I like letting these sink to the bottom and pull it along the bottom fairly slow.

I’m fishing the Golden Shiner and Green Pumpkin Jackhammers anywhere there is scattered hydrilla in water 5′ or less. I only use a 1/2oz with a Zako trailer to match or a Bass Assassin Whoopa Craw to match.

The 6” Mike Bucca Trick Shad in Gizzard Shad color is my go to swimbait this week. I’m fishing these along thick grass edges near deep sharp drops or cuts near main canals. It is a fish catcher and it will work all over Headwaters. Swim these just under the surface for best results. Get on the Bullshad email mailing list so you can get the bait drop info.

If you want to catch a bunch of fish pick up some shiners and free line them in deep water areas.

I only have a few dates available in December (4,5,15,16,21,22). Call or text me at 304-610-6066. I have some outstanding guides that work for me that have availability as well.

Tight lines!

The bite has been on fire throwing soft plastics and topwater lures. We are catching large numbers of trout and redfish working in the shallows and bait pods. The cold front coming this week should trigger a feeding frenzy as the water drops rapidly. I have days available. Give me a call at 386-295-5991 or my visit my website to book a trip.

Last week’s fishing was best on the freshwater bite compared to the two days on the lagoon. Sunday we had 15-20 mph south winds and we took a beating running from spot to spot but the bite was good. Lots of smaller jacks mixed in with some rather big ladyfish kept it fun. Monday was slick calm but couldn’t put hardly a fish to the boat. With no wind at all it was tough to fish around mangroves due to the large population of no see-ums swarming around us, sharpening their teeth on us.

Thursday was back on Headwaters. To my surprise the road was still dusty and there was no heavy equipment in sight for the paving process. We struggled for the first hour of fishing trying to figure out what the fish wanted to eat. With calm waters the topwater bite was non-existent and so was anything sub surface too. Once we had a little wind we put a pattern together that started catching fish. The bass were holding tight to the topped out hydrilla with open water holes and cuts. My best lure of choice was a Gambler EZ swimmer in the Copperfield color. Rigging it with a 5/0 twist lock belly weighted hook and 50 pound test YO ZURI Super Braid I was able to bring these fish to the boat. Even when the winds did blow the bite never happened for us in the open water areas.

This week we have lots of rain coming on Wednesday so after it passes some areas should have pump stations open and current flow. Our first major cold front might have a slowing effect on the bass due to a drop in water temperature but once that stabilizes the bite will resume.

Went out Saturday morning, put 10 in the boat, lost 4 on the way to the boat, including what would have been the biggest of the day and missed a handful. Started off in the first cove and got the first one as I threw back in the narrow entrance towards the main lake close to the tree. Then started along the reeds to the right and got 2 2lbers off the point. Worked my way around and got another 3, couple of pounders and the biggest one at 5.09lbs. pictured. Got the big one on a Berkley powerbait maxscent General in babybass color right next to the dock beside where the grass ramp ends. The others came on a Yum Swim n Dinger in watermelon pearl and a Strike King Ocho also in Babybass. Moved over to the other cove and got a couple more , pound and a half and another 2lber. Moved across the lake and fished the shore line back up towards the boat ramp and caught the other 2.

Slow bite and lots of seaweed off Cape Canaveral. Looking forward to better waters off the beach.

Get the latest word on the bite with Damon from Spacefish on the Mark Moses Show. We talk local fishing every Friday on the air at 4pm.

Here we are into mid November and still with highs near 90 and the possibility of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. But with all the craziness of weather the bite continues to be strong throughout the New Smyrna Beach and Mosquito Lagoon waters. We continue to have plenty of bait on the flats making for an abundance of life. Artificials and live bait have both been working well making for an enjoyable time catching fishing on the water. The weather looks to be stable moving into the weekend and then possible storms mid week depending on approaching storm.

Water remp mid to upper 70
Water levels up and clarity varies lake to lake
Headwaters has been a shiners dunkers dream
Alot of bait pods in deep water and fish are grouping up
High pressure is dictating close to cover and live bait and artificial have produced
Spinner baits fair top wateriffy
Worms good
Grass that hasn’t been nuked is holding groups of fish
3 forks has produced the biggest at 8.7 many fish from 3 to 5 lbs
New front with more wind looks to keep this pattern for another week
Still have a few days in November call for an adventure

Good morning all my Sebastian Inlet fishing junkies! I hope everyone had a great 3 day weekend! And thank you to ALL you veterans who served, and are currently serving, and your families! God bless you all!! Now off we go with another installment of what’s going on at the inlet!

This report is going to be another short one due to the fact that the north side fishing areas are NOW shutdown until July, so this side is going to be tough to catch any fish, unless you know where to go find them. On Monday while I was down, and last Saturday it was pretty slow, with only a few sheepshead caught along the rocks west of the bridge on sandfleas. Back toward the back along the mangroves shoreline west of the tide pool, I did see a couple boats net a few snook. Otherwise not a lot going on as the tide was an outgoing one most all day. On the beach in the surf area, I chatted with a father and his 2 boys and they were catching some small but fun snook on swim baits. It could have been better, but there were zero mullet around at all, but the water was cleaning up nicely, not very muddy anymore. That’s pretty much for this side.

South side was still a washout pretty much with the big swells washing over the low jetty and making it pretty wet to fish. And with it being an outgoing tide most all day, the water from the ICW and Sebastian River was not very clean! It had a lot of rain runoff and tannic acid in it from C-54 canal draining into the Sebastian River, making it like black coffee! Yuk. A couple guys were fishing the tip, getting soaked, but catching jack crevalle and catfish. The only good fish I did see caught on this side was back towards the campground, and T-Dock area. The boaters who were fishing west of the T-Dock close to the shoreline were catching a few snook on pinfish and pigfish. Most were small around the 24-27 inch range, but did see a couple slot fish caught. On the dock itself there were lots of the small minnows around attracting some spanish mackerel for those fishing live greenies and small white jigs. Jack crevalle were also around eating whatever you tossed out to the channel area. Other fish being caught I saw around the cleaning table back here were some very small mutton snappers, and a couple small black drum, all on dead shrimp. That’s it for this side!

The surf, both sides for the most part is still roughed up quite a bit with the seas on Monday were 5-7 foot, great for surfing, but not fishing. Well that’s all I have for this week, we really need the water to clean up some more to get the fish happy again. When it does, expect the fishing to pick back up for the black drum and sheepshead, they were here before the blow started, and the water is the right temperature, and it is the right time of the year for them! Oh, and the pompano too, they should show up. Have a great week everyone, stay safe and have fun! Snookman.