Week of June 26: Water conditions expected to clear up; try the T-dock for Spanish mackerel, jacks and blue runners
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Today’s (June 26) forecast calls for sunny skies becoming partly cloudy, a high of 86, ESE winds of about 11 mph, and one to two-foot seas.
And now for another detailed fishing report from our very own fishing guide, “Snookman” Wayne Landry:
“Good morning, Sebastian Inlet fishing fanatics! I hope everyone had a great weekend. This will be a rather brief report. The slow fishing is largely due to the changing water conditions that carried over from last Wednesday through the weekend.
Monday through Wednesday, the water clarity was improving due to light offshore winds. The fish were starting to bite. But during the late afternoon on Wednesday, the winds switched ahead of the storms and blew hard out of the SSE at 15 to 25 mph, with higher gusts during the storms, messing the water through the weekend. The water temp dropped back down to 81 from 84 degrees. Turbidity increased on the incoming tide and combined with stormwater runoff from the Sebastian River, the outgoing tide looked like the coffee-colored Suwanee River. When it gets like this, nothing wants to play. But water clarity now seems to be improving and the weather is expected to be mild and storm-free. We’ll see how that plays out.
North jetty: Here, the fishing has been mostly slow due to the amount of cloudy freshwater that wrapped around the jetty and moved north in the surf, pushed by the SSE winds. Also, a massive sandbar on the north side of the jetty stretches from the beach to nearly the end of the jetty keeps the water shallow. There have been a few Spanish mackerel caught on the high tide on small jigs and live greenies, but not many. Mangrove snapper are sometimes found between the pilings and along the rocks when the water cleans up a bit on the high tide. But as before, they are mostly too small to keep. At the tip on the outgoing tide there are still some catch-and-release snook being caught on live baits, along with jack crevalle and blue runners. Catfish and stingrays pick up the slack due to the cloudy water.
South Jetty: The water has been much dirtier on both tides due to the aforementioned SSE winds and stormwater runoff from the mainland. Mostly catfish, stingrays and jack crevalle have been caught at the tip of the jetty during the outgoing tide. Some catch-and-release snook have been caught on live baits on both tides, but most are smaller fish.
Catwalks remained closed indefinitely.
Surf area, both sides: If you can find clean water, it is possible to catch whiting, pompano, black drum using live sand fleas or fresh-cut shrimp. Water will be low during the morning this week, meaning that the fish will be farther out. Look for schools of baitfish, and if you find some, there might be Spanish mackerel, tarpon, snook and redfish around them. Fish medium-sized swim baits, jigs or any live bait for a possible hookup. I fished the north beach around the inlet last week and there were small tarpon around, but I only had one hookup.
T-Dock area: Back here, fishing has been a little better as the water is somewhat cleaner and there are more small baitfish around. Spanish mackerel, blue runners and jack crevalle can be caught on small jigs and live greenies. Around the dock pilings, small mangrove snapper are still around, but most are still under the legal 10-inch minimum to be kept. A few lane and mutton snappers have been around. Like the mangrove snappers, they have been too small to keep. Muttons have to be 18 inches and the lanes, eight inches. Also, pesky puffers are biting on cut baits. The snappers have been caught on live and dead greenies.
That’s it for this week. The weather is supposed to be good all week, so grab your gear and get out to your favorite fishing spot. It's going to be really hot too, so stay hydrated. Good luck.” — Snookman.