Sebastian Inlet to Eau Gallie Cswy. – September 2025

September is one of my favorite months to fish on the Space Coast from Melbourne to Sebastian. The bait is plentiful and the snook, trout and redfish are as well. Although redfish are closed to harvest, if you want to target them for catch and release, this is one of the best months of the year to do so.

With snook season starting up again on September 1st, anglers will be out in droves trying to get their keeper fish. Most southern Brevard County anglers will gravitate to the inlet, however, our entire area— from Melbourne to Palm Bay and Sebastian—is a great place to catch snook as well as redfish, tarpon and big jack crevalle in the lagoon in September.

And September isn’t only the start to snook season; it’s also the start of the mullet run a little later in the month. There will be schools of mullet along the beach as well as schools of threadfins and sardines. Tarpon, snook, sharks, jack crevalle and kingfish will be following the schools of bait looking for that easy meal. Best bet is to use some of that 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’s Crush City Jerk baits as well as D.O.A. Baitbusters during the mullet run along the beaches. All of the above lures use single hooks instead of trebles which are better for the fish that you have to release and safer for the angler.

The mullet should also pour in the creeks from Melbourne down to Sebastian and the gamefish are sure to follow. No need to go way back in the creeks; anglers can fish the mouth of the creeks and around the many oyster bars and docks closer to the Indian River Lagoon. I use the same baits in the creeks as I use in the lagoon during the bait run.

If the beach is too rough, focus on the flats, spoil islands or mangrove shorelines loaded with bait in the Indian River Lagoon from Melbourne to Sebastian in late September. My favorite bait to use is the Rapala Skitter Walk topwater, and their Twitchin’ Minnow and Twitchin’ Mullet are great subsurface baits for fishing the mullet run. If soft baits are your preference, try Rapala’s Crush City Mooch Minnow or D.O.A. C.A.L. 4” jerkbaits in the mullet or rainbow trout patterns. The 3” CAL Shad Tail should do the trick as well.