Sebastian Inlet Report

10-01-14 WEDNESDAY: REDS, MANGROVE SNAPPER, SPANISH MACKEREL, BLUE RUNNERS, JACKS, LADYFISH AND TARPON 

There's quite a crowd at the inlet this morning. The jetty is lined up with anglers taking advantage of the massive amounts of mullet that are blanketed around the jetties. Winds are blowing out of the West at 2 mph, gusting to 5 and the water is calm. We will probably see rain showers again this afternoon. 

Fishing is great when the mullet are running and the Reds really come on strong during this time of year. Snook, Mangrove Snapper, quite a few nice Spanish Mackerel, lots of Tarpon, Blue Runners, lots of Ladyfish are hitting as well and this is the time we will start to see some Flounder begin to arrive. We've seen a couple of medium sized Flounder, but the big doormats will come when the water cools down.

We received a "heads up" from Ron Gerson who fished the north jetty on Monday and there were loads of juvenile King Mackerel in the water. Those fish are easily confused with Spanish Mackerel but have a different slot size. King Mackerel must be 24" to the fork; Spanish must be 12" to the fork. Ron reported that he and a friend must have landed 50 juvenile Kings and only 9 Spanish. See our first photo to see the difference. The lateral line slopes gently on the Spanish and the lateral line drops sharply on the King. The dorsal fins are much different. Please educate yourself help save our King Mackerel population and it will also keep you from being ticketed by FWC. 
Mike Ricciardi was on the north jetty yesterday morning from 6:30 - 11:30. There were lots of Reds that were landed early and about 20% were slot fish. Chuck Fischer of Satellite Beach landed several oversized Reds before he landed a slot fish at 25", he also landed a nice 14" Snapper. The outgoing tide was murky from all the rain and there were a lot of Blue Runners and big Jacks taking finger mullet. When the tide changed to incoming, the water cleaned up and Mike landed his limit of five Mangrove Snapper between 9:30 - 10:00. One was particularly nice at 14" and the others were in the 11" - 12" range. Mojarra, greenies and small finger mullet were working well for the Snapper. 
 Our first photo is the comparison of Spanish Mackerel and King Mackerel.
Photo two features David Rosario who was fishing with his nephew, John Maldonado. The duo hooked up with three Reds, two oversized and one in the slot using cut mullet. John reported lots of mullet in the water and many anglers hooking up with Redfish. David's oversized Red in our photo was returned to the water unharmed. 
Our third photo features John Maldanado with a huge Redfish he landed and released. Very nice!
Photo four features David Rosario with his slot Red.