Unfortunately due to the strong winds, surf fishing will be tough. My advice is hit the jettys or certain portions of the rivers.

We only fished a few days this week till the winds blew up on us and it looks like they are here for a while. It’s normal for this time of year I guess though. Anyway, Capt Joe and Capt Ricky were both able to get offshore and have a little fun with the mahi and some bottom fish. Due to Milton the waters were muddy out to about 200 feet and that did not make the most ideal conditions. But they powered through with it and did ok.

This happy angler caught a 30-inch snook using live finger mullet. He caught this beast at the seawall (in the background) near the bait and tackle shop.

Good morning all you Sebastian Inlet fishing fans, I hope everyone had a great weekend! It sure was nice out, except for the winds and the seas being up and wildly rough at the inlet! Going to start off our report with a little heads up on the construction project slated to start on the north side wall, jetty and rock shoreline on November the 4th, which is when they are going to start mobilizing heavy equipment, supplies, and fence off the area as a construction site. Access to the north jetty when the project starts will at times be OFF LIMITS for the duration of the project. So, if you are planning to come over to fish the north side, I would suggest you call the north ranger station at 321-984-4852 to check on the area status. More info can be found on this link to the Sebastian Inlet District website, and their Facebook page. Also if you noticed, the webcam is down due to storm damage, and will remain down for the duration of the construction project. The cameras have been removed so as to not sustain any damage by the heavy equipment in the area.

https://www.sitd.us/sebastian-inlet-s-north-jetty-slated-for-repairs-improvements

Also on the Sebastian Inlets State Park website:
https://www.floridastateparks.org/Sebastian-Inlet

Updates to how the project is going will be provided by the Inlet District on their Facebook page, and on their website. SebastianInletDistrict.com, under the “news and events” section. Now on to the fishing.

As you all know the winds have been absolutely brutal over the past week, and also the weekend, and with seas running 6-7 foot, and morning high king tides along the coast, it was pretty much a war zone down at the jetty’s! The waves were busting OVER the north jetty, and also the south jetty and rocks, making it very dangerous to be out there, BUT, there were some quite a few folks out risking their safety to catch a fish. About the only fish I saw being caught were lots of jack crevalle and ladyfish on the north jetty. The seaweed was very bad also making it tough to fish. Not ideal conditions at all.

Back inside the inlet along the north seawall between the jetty and bridge, I did see some spanish mackerel caught, along with some really nice black margates, sand perch, and various snappers, mangrove and schoolmaster snappers. They were all keepers! One young man I saw did catch a nice slot snook in that area on live mullet, as pictured in the AOTW photo! South side in the back around the cleaning table and t-dock was kind of active, the water had cleaned up some. The incoming tide was producing some snook on live pigfish and shrimp. Also a few nice catch and release redfish. Spanish mackerel, jacks picked up the slack for those tossing small jigs and spoons to the channel area. Not much else back here. So, there you have it for this week’s report. The winds and seas are supposed to start calming back down by Thursday. So, we’ll see how that goes.

Hope everyone has a great week!

I’ve had enough Honey Doing around my house lately. I gave up the heat for my fishing habit for the month of September and spent this past week cleaning up after the hurricane. Our weather has finally given us some feelings of fall. Water temperatures are now in the mid 70’s and the fish are happy and willing to chase some lures. Lures of choice to be on the end of your rod tip consists of Lipless Crankbaits, Squarebills, Jerkbaits and your favorite top water plug, especially if it has a prop.

Our weather patterns will consist of cold fronts every 5 to 10 days apart. Winds will be most likely before and after all these frontal systems. As long as we don’t have a large drop in air and water temperatures the bass will be putting on their feeding bags. The Fellsmere Grade is being worked on to get it ready for a paving procedure so finally us anglers will finally get a much needed break from years of dust on your towing vehicle and boats. I never would have thought this day would ever come. I’ve been waiting 30 years for this.

Early in the week with the low winds fishing was pretty darn good in the lagoon. Plenty of trout, jacks and snook on the menu. Artificial baits worked very well as I didn’t get into the routine of getting live bait since hurricane Milton. Water is still dirty but the fish are chewing well. Once the winds picked up out of the north Wednesday the bite got tough. We still managed some trout and a few pompano along with jacks and a bunch of ladyfish. Flounder bite should get better with the cold fronts even though the season is closed till the end of November.

Looks like the winds will be up most of this week and the forecast is also calling for strong winds most of next week as well so the plan will be to get into the lagoon and fish the mangroves with DOA paddle tails and jerk baits and some Rapala twitchin mullets to see if we can keep up the trout and snook bite. If the forecasts change we will be getting into the inlet and off the beach to get back on some redfish, tarpon and sharks.

The site fishing has been very good for redfish this past week with a few trout and some snook mixed in. We still have some really nice tarpon in the channels. With the large schools of mullet moving through the next couple weeks this should be some of the best tarpon fishing of the season. I have days available between now and Thanksgiving so if you want to give me a call at 386-295-5991 or go to my website fatfishguide.com

With the way the winds have been howling this last week you’d think Halloween had already come. This week will bring some calmer conditions to the Space Coast so we can get back out on the water to continue catching fish. The mullet run had kicked back into high gear early last week and the near-coastal fishing was incredible.

Snook catches routinely hit double digits each day. Redfish, jack, ladyfish and trout catches added another 20 to 30-fish to our totals on top of the snook numbers. You couldn’t have asked for much better fishing than we saw after hurricane Milton and before the cold front and full moon affected the fish’s mood. This week the fishing will be more challenging due to the way the solunar tables (major and minor periods of fish activity) will fall in relation to the rise and set of the sun. We expect the best action toward the end of this week and through the weekend. If you’re done with your hurricane yard cleaning and ready to go catch some fish, give us a call at 321-505-8217 to get out there and catch your next memory!!

The water temp is 72 degrees when we started this morning and 74 when we finished this morning. Water level is up 13.6″. Top baits this week for me were the Bass Assassin RSB worms, Rat L Traps and the Mike Bucca 6″ Bull Gill in Bone color.

I’m fishing the Bass Assassin RSB worms with an 3/8oz weight and fishing it along hydrilla edges in deeper water (10′-14′). The only colors I used this week were Gooseberry and JB Blue. 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. After Hurricane Milton went through, it pushed these fish out to the first deep drop off and some fish in really tight to cover. I picked up a few fish punching these areas as well.

My Rat L Trap fish are coming off grass edges in 5′ of water and openings into deep water areas (cut throughs) that have current moving through them. Gold and Black back 3/4oz was my most productive color and size.

The 6″ Mike Bucca Bull Gill in Bone 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 October (Oct 23,26)

Tight lines!

We have definitely had some strange weather this first part of October. Central Florida gets hammered by Hurricane Milton causing a major inconvenience with flooding, trees down and power outages across the state. Then immediately after Milton the first cold front of the season dipped into Central Florida as well. Fortunately we were only down for a couple of days here at Spot N Tail Charters.

We hit the water where we left off before the storm with fish in a little different pattern but did not take long to get back on them. The bait is plentiful through out New Smyrna Beach and Mosquito Lagoon. look for the pods of bait holding on the grass and bars and the fish will not be far. Live bait and artificials have both been working well these past few days. The weather looks to be stable for the upcoming week making for a good time on the water.

Went back out again to Fish Lake, only had a couple hours to fish and it’s not that big of a lake. Started out in the back cove and got 3, one dink and the others over 2lbs including the biggest at 2.54lbs, pictured. Got the first 2 as I came into the cove before I passed the second dock on the left. I got them on a Gambler burner worm in Gold Rush color and both were caught near wood, the key for today. All bites and fish caught were either up under docks or right next to trees and docks. Lost the burner worm and switched over to a Strike king ocho in watermelon with red flake. Got no other bites until I got all the way to the back of the cove and threw up under the wooden docks along the back of the cove. Had plenty of bites but only put one more in the boat before moving over to the other cove where I caught 2 more on the Strike king ocho and again wood was the key. 5 fish caught, 3 of 2lbs or better and 2 dinks.

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.