Sebastian Inlet to Eau Gallie Cswy. – October 2026

The fishing in September has been great and will continue into October. Depending on the cold fronts, we can expect consistent action in the Indian River Lagoon and on the nearshore beaches from Melbourne to Sebastian Inlet as long as the seas aren’t too rough from the fronts.

With the mullet run in full swing, as long as the weather holds up and isn’t too rough, the beaches are the place to be. We’ll see consistent action on tarpon, snook, sharks, crevalle jack and kingfish that are following the schools of mullet looking for that easy meal. Fish the snook and jacks by fishing the trough running parallel to the shore along the beach. Fishing for tarpon and sharks, the best bet is to use live bait and fish the outer edges of the bait pods. The Rapala X-Rap Long Cast in size 14 will be an excellent hard bait to use when targeting the bait pods. I also like to use Rapala Crush City paddletails and D.O.A. Baitbusters during the mullet run along the beaches.

Snook, redfish and trout action will be red hot throughout October inshore around the flats and mangrove shorelines. Live baits will provide the best action, but topwater early and Rapala’s Crush City jerkbaits, Mooch Minnow  and paddletails will work well on 1/8-1/4 ounce jigheads.

Anglers looking for flounder inshore should have plenty of opportunity to catch some 2- to 6-pound fish in the Lagoon and near the inlets as long as the bait is still plentiful. I like to fish the mangrove shorelines with D.O.A. C.A.L. jigs or 4” jerkbaits rigged on VMC 1/4-ounce jigheads. Fish them slow along the shorelines, pitching them under the mangrove roots. Docks and spoil islands will also hold some good founder. Rapala’s X-Rap Twitchin’ Minnow is a good hard bait to target the flounder around docks and spoil islands as well. Live bait anglers will have the best success with live finger mullet, however live shrimp will work as well.

The mullet in the creeks from Melbourne down to Sebastian will keep the gamefish in there through the month as long as we don’t get too much rain. Fish the docks and oyster bars that are loaded with bait using topwater baits early, switching to subsurface baits later in the day. Snook will be plentiful and tarpon will be in the deeper channels of the creeks.