For the most part, the past week has shown little to no weeds and has been fishable in the Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach areas. The water is still pretty dirty, but the best part is that the dredging has stopped! We’re also going to see our beloved Blue Magic shrimp again next week—the wait is finally over!

The beach has been producing a lot of whiting, palometas, and sharks. Oh, and of course, the pesky catfish love the dirty water. The best bait has been frozen shrimp rigged on a white-float pompano rig. Depending on the wave height, a 3–5 oz pyramid sinker has been working just fine.

We always try to let people know that not all shrimp brands are the same—not because they’re different species, but due to the quality of processing from catch to packaging. The Triple Crown bait shrimp we just started carrying seem to be the best in terms of longevity once thawed and staying on the hook.

We’re also excited to announce that we’re nearly finished with our new bait tanks! In the very near future, we’ll be stocking live croakers, mud minnows, fiddlers, and, as always, shrimp. Stay tuned and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on our progress!

Hope everyone has an awesome week—and as always, tight lines!

There has been a decent whiting bite this week. Fishbytes are outfishing fleas, with most fish caught in the first trough. Sand fleas are abundant this year. Wait until you get a little wind in the afternoon but well before the storms.

Joshua Bedolla shows off a beautiful 39-inch snook he caught last week at Sebastian Inlet.

Hello there, Sebastian inlet enthusiasts; I hope everyone had a great weekend! Off we go with ANOTHER boring report. I dislike writing reports like this, but as I always say, I tell it like it is so you don’t waste your time and money to travel to the inlet for fishing when nothing is biting.

Water conditions continue to be the biggest issue, and the SSE winds have been churning up and clouding the water. Sargassum weed remains a big problem, especially on the south side, and water temperatures have dropped back down to 75 as of this writing. All of this equates to poor fishing at the inlet. The lack of bait fish again doesn’t help either: The mullet I saw a week ago have vanished, and the mojarra that were thick last week have taken another vacation. To that end, here is the gist of things:

South jetty

The water is just awful on either tide. Last weekend, all I saw caught were sail cats and small bluefish eating everything you tossed out! They were everywhere. No snook anywhere due to the presence of bluefish. Back around the T Dock and cleaning table, water conditions were slightly better, but there were no fish around. I didn’t see or hear of any snook over the weekend, and like I said earlier, the mojarra usually found here were on vacation. Even the commercial guys that net them to sell to the bait shops were not getting any! And back here the snook bite usually coincides with the bait being here.

North side

The water was much cleaner, but again, the fish were absent. The only fish I saw being caught were bigger jack crevalle in the back at the end of cove road on live and dead baits. Under the bridge were a couple of undersized snook caught on live mojarra along the rocks — and that is the only snook activity I heard of in the entire inlet.

Surf area, both sides

The south side was a washed-up mess, nobody was fishing it due to the waves, dirty water, and massive seaweed problem. The north side was cleaner, but nobody was fishing the surf. It looked good to me, the absence of anglers was largely due to low tides in the morning and the big sandbar around the jetty, making it tough to reach deeper water. You would have to go north on the beach where everyone swims, which makes it tough to fish.

Well, that’s all I have for this week. Expect good fishing weather until the storms arrive on Friday, so get out beforehand and hopefully catch dinner. Have a great week, have fun and be safe!

Man, the past few weeks have been wild with all the spring breakers crowding the beaches, but it’s finally about to calm down for us locals for a month or so… at least until the summer crowd rolls in. Fishing’s been hit or miss depending on what tides you fished and where the southeast winds pushed all that dirty water and junk. If you got lucky and found some clear water, you probably pulled in some nice whiting, black drum, margates, and a few pompano. Unless you’re Tung Pham — that guy’s got some kind of pompano cheat code or something, haha.

Best baits have been fresh dead shrimp pieces or just regular frozen shrimp. Just make sure you’re peeling them — if you don’t peel ’em and cut ’em about the size of your thumbnail, they’re either gonna get picked clean or go flying off your hook when you cast. Good bait really does make a difference. Speaking of that, we heard Blue Magic shrimp should be shipping out their fresh frozen stuff in about two weeks. No more brown shrimp or wild-caught junk!

Standard pompano rigs with orange, yellow or pink floats have been getting the most action. Weight-wise, it just depends on the waves, but this week you shouldn’t need more than a 4–5 oz lead. Pyramid weights have been the go-to lately with all the weed in the water.

And hey, don’t forget to bring some snook lures! They’ve been cruising the surf pretty good. Even though snook season’s about to close, it’s still a blast to hook into one.

Hope everyone has an awesome week — and as always, tight lines!

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We don’t have tons to report on since the days that we had opportunities to fish were less than desirable. We were met on two occasions with harsh north winds, swell and dirty surf. Great for catching catfish and managing drifty conditions but not ideal for catching fish like whiting, pompano, etc.

As the season begins to turn into the summertime pattern, fishing will slowly begin to shift from targeting pompano and whiting into targeting whiting, croakers, jacks and palometas which are typically more available during the warmer months. We have been testing out the tail lift sinkers from Redfin fishing and they hold extremely well, we have found that their standard 4oz Sputnik holds better than any other 4oz Sputnik on the market. Now with this being said, as we all know during summer the surf is pretty calm, so don’t shoot yourself in the foot by using the wrong type of lead! I prefer banks and pyramids or at the least Sputniks with the legs turned up.

Hope this helps out a little this season and happy fishing everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well and had a good week of fishing. The beachside has been dirty due to the southeast winds, but this week, the winds are expected to shift to north-west most days. Fishing has been pretty slow, with not much consistent action. There have been lots of whiting, a few black drum, palometas and the occasional pompano around. The water has been warming up quickly—now up to 74 degrees.

Pompano rigs with chartreuse, orange and pink floats have been producing the best bites, especially when rigged with a small piece of peeled shrimp or sand flea. If you’ve been fishing this past week, you know how strong that undercurrent has been—using a 4 oz sputnik has been the only thing holding bottom most days. Fishbites have also been working well when paired with shrimp to help keep the bait on the hook.

Have a great week, and I’ll talk to y’all next time. Tight lines!

Hey there, East Side Family!

We’ve been seeing some steady fishing through the last week or two. The whiting bite has been really picking up but it seems like those banner days of pompano fishing are slowly coming to a close. As we near the spring bloom we’ve been seeing more of the usual suspects like croakers, bluefish and occasionally a mackerel. I have high hopes that this season will finish off strong as the south school of pompano begins moving back into the area, but we’ll see how this week goes after this swell event.

I hope everyone has a good chance to get out there and do some fishing because it’s been good. Most of the fish we’ve been catching have been caught on live sand fleas and frozen shrimp tipped with FishGum. This is a proven combination that’s sure to get the fish nice and hungry.

Tight lines everyone!

This week looks to be a choppy, sloppy week for surf fishing, but it’s still a fishable condition for everyone with the right tackle. Swells will be rolling in between 2-5 feet all week, accompanied by the dreaded south and southeast winds meeting waves moving in from the northeast. It will be a week to find the calmer washouts on the beach and the cleaner water. Some beaches in Cape Canaveral had crazy clear water on certain days -— a nice change since they’ve been adding sand to widen the shoreline.

The rigs of choice have been chartreuse, pink and orange pompano rigs, paired with a 4 oz pyramid or a 2-3 oz sputnik weight. The choice of weight often comes down to personal preference depending on the conditions. If you know us at the shop, you know which weights work best for our area!

Fresh dead shrimp has been by far the most effective bait, along with live sand fleas. The fresh dead shrimp has been catching significantly more fish than any other bait. Be sure to ask us—or your nearest bait shop—for some fresh deads!

That’s all for this week. I hope everyone catches a bunch, and as always—tight lines!

Good fishing along the space coast. I’ll keep this one short and simple. Get your bait and hit the beach. Find that clean water and some good lead to hold bottom. Fish sunrise and sunset bites and try to hit your tide windows at the start and ends of the tide. Good luck and happy fishing to all!