Week of April 1: Cooler, cloudier water persists, but Spanish mackerel, black drum and pompano possible
Today's forecast calls for partly to mostly cloudy skies, a high of 79 degrees, SE winds at 15 mph and two to three-foot seas.
And now for our weekly fishing report from the one and only "Snookman" Wayne Landry, angler extraordinaire:
“Good morning, all you Sebastian Inlet junkies! I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend - the weather was sure impressive! The fishing, ehh, not so much. Cooler and dirty water is still playing a big part in the activity at the inlet, plus the absence of any bait fish to speak of. But there were some fish being caught, just not anything to write home about. The last four days I've been down have been pretty slow, with a little more action this past Sunday. so here we go.
North jetty: Fishing on the jetty picked up a bit on Sunday with a smattering of different species being caught. The species most frequently caught was Spanish mackerel on small white jigs and gotcha lures. The end of the outgoing and the beginning of the incoming have been producing nice fish. Just enough to keep you wanting to make that ‘last cast.’ On the incoming tide, there were small black drum caught, 15 to 18 inches along with a few nice pompano that I saw as well, 14 to 16 inches. All were caught on cut dead shrimp. There were also some of the smaller bluefish caught at the tip on the outgoing tide for those tossing big silver spoons to the channel. Didn't see any of the monster blues over here over the weekend. No snook or redfish to speak of during the daytime, but I did hear from one of my FWC officer friends that they have been catching a few at night on jigs.
South jetty: Fishing this side has been slower, but there are fish being caught on the incoming tide. They’re still catching monster blues over here on big silver spoons and live and dead baits tossed out to the channel on the incoming tide. Snook fishing on this side has been slow due to the big blues and jacks in the area; they don't want any part of that, so they lay low. But a few have been caught on live mojarra fished on the incoming tide. Most have been small undersized fish, but a couple slots were caught over the weekend. On the beach side of the jetty there have been many small flounder caught on small rubber swimbaits bumped along the bottom. The outgoing tide at the tip has been all about the regulars, black margates, blue runners and kittyfish.
T-dock area: Back here the snook have dropped off a bit. Again, cooler and dirtier water has shut it down, and the absence of the mojarras that were here didn't help. Not much else, except for a few giant jack crevalles for anglers tossing big silver spoons to the channel area. Some jacks are in excess of 30 pounds or so. That's pretty much it.
Surf area, both sides: There’s not much surf fishing action due to the dirty, sandy water on both sides. South side has been really bad with mostly catfish caught, and a few whiting. On the North side the water tends to clean up better. Find some deeper, cleaner water and you might find pompano swimming the trough areas. Cut shrimp, small live shrimp and sand fleas are the best baits. Fishing the beach with silver spoons or any artificial bait might land you a bluefish or Spanish mackerel.
That's all I have for this week. There are fish around, but you just have to visit your favorite spot, hang out and see what comes up. As I have mentioned in my previous reports, we need warmer and cleaner water for fishing to improve. Several weeks ago, when the water temperature was up to 74, it was getting good. Good luck everyone, and have a great week!” — Snookman.