The nighttime redfish and tarpon fishing at Sebastian Inlet continues to be strong after the cold fronts. The redfish are hitting mostly on bucktails from the north jetty at Sebastian inlet on outgoing tide and the tarpon are hitting the bucktails as well as Rapala Xrap 14 or TA Subdarter plugs drifted out from the South jetty. I prefer bucktails for the tarpon as you will normally get a few jumps out of the fish and they will get off and you don’t have to injure the fish on the rocks or by dragging the fish up on the beach.
If you can get outside Sebastian Inlet on calm days, look for pompano, bluefish and Spanish mackeral along the beaches. Use Goofy jigs or Mirrolure lil jons for the Spanish and pompano and the blues will eat anything you want to throw at them. If there is a lot of bait around, the blacktip and spinner sharks will be in the mix also so have a big rod ready to go.
The flounder bite has been average for some anglers. There have been a few good fish caught, but not that many. My catches of flounder are off from the last 2 years this time. We may get another push of flounder in the inlet with some steady cold weather over the next few weeks.
The inshore bite has been pretty good with a lot of small trout, some reds on the Rapala Twitchin Rap and Mirrolure Lil John rigged on a ¼ oz jighead. Pompano have been hit or miss around the clam leases and spoil islands. There have been some really good days and a lot of slower days. Jacks and ladyfish are in the Sebastian Rivers as well as Turkey and Crane Creek and will eat anything you throw at them. Mangrove snapper and Black drum are on the oyster bars and around the deeper docks and will hit on live shrimp rigged on a 1/4oz jighead or a 1/0 to 3/0 circle hook with a split shot to get the bait down.
As the cold fronts gain strength and the water cools off, we should get more pompano, bluefish and Spanish in the lagoon to mix it up with the trout and reds. Some of the bigger trout as well as Mangrove snapper and grouper will be more prevalent in the inlet.
[easy-social-share]