Sebastian Area Fishing Forecast: September, 2013
September always brings a welcome change to the fishing of the Sebastian Inlet Area. Because of this summer’s unrelenting cold ocean temperatures and just enough east wind to make the ocean off-limits to small boaters on all but a handful of days, I am looking forward to any change from this new unwelcomed status quo.
The mullet run will help all aspects of fishing both inside and outside Sebastian Inlet. The brightest spot I see in the fishing future is snook. Although the snook population took a hard hit during the freezes of 2010, numbers of snook showed a marked increase in the Sebastian area this summer. Whereas most of the lagoon’s fish species are directly dependent on the now almost nonexistent grass beds for food and cover, snook are happy living around man-made structures, such as docks, bridges and inlets. It is around these types of areas as well as mangrove shorelines that anglers should focus their attention over the next couple of months.
Sebastian Inlet will be the focus of Sebastian area anglers with the start of snook season September 1st. Cold water upwelling along the Treasure and Space Coasts has made catch and release snook fishing lackluster this summer, but that will change in September. The biggest hurdle facing snook anglers right now is obtaining croakers and pigfish for bait. Because these species rely on a healthy lagoon and its grass beds more so than the snook that they are used to catch, they have been in short supply. I have been cast netting bunches of good sized mojaras in the lagoon; they can be a good substitute snook bait. A lack of bait will favor night time snook anglers at Sebastian inlet, where buck-tails and bombers have always taken their share of snook. It will also be interesting to see if the lack of bait will force die hard daytime inlet anglers to use some of the lures that have proven themselves in other East Coast inlets. I myself am guilty of not giving artificial lures a fair shake while pursuing snook at Sebastian Inlet over the years. I have had excellent success snook fishing St. Lucie inlet using a number of the D.O.A. products. The D.O.A. shrimp is applicable anywhere you would fish a free-lined shrimp. C.A.L. jerkbaits and shads on jigheads are big producers of snook laid up along inlet shoreline drop-offs. Terror-eyz and bait busters can be used in deeper areas of the inlet or where you have to get down through a current.
I am hopeful that bunches of big redfish will follow the mullet down the beaches and take up residence in the inlet through the fall. Spanish mackerel, jacks, bluefish and tarpon also give inlet fishermen a passing shot as they follow the bait down the beach in the early Fall. The Sebastian River will spark back to life as the finger mullet enter the estuary. Snook and tarpon are both available throughout the river in September and finger mullet or something resembling them is sure to draw strikes.
I have always enjoyed fishing the late summer season in Sebastian. A tropical storm in September or a cold front in early October and viola you’re fishing what seems to be a whole new place. The Indian River Lagoon is one of the most delicate ecosystems in the U.S. and the pleasures gained by living near its shores will be short lived if we take it for granted.
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