Sebastian Inlet Fishing Report: Week of 5 October 2026

Updated every Monday. This is the week-to-week read; the October report has the month's pattern and the seasons guide has the year.

The Short Version

Last week was blown out. Twenty-plus knots from Thursday through the weekend put six to seven feet of swell on the inlet, dirtied the water and pushed most of the mullet back offshore. This week starts calm — light east-southeast wind and two to three feet through Wednesday — before it gets breezy again from the south-southeast late in the week. Calm plus clearing water plus a new moon on Friday is the recipe for the mullet to come back through, and everything that eats them to follow. If you can fish Tuesday to Thursday, do.

From the Boat

Before the blow, our trips were finding trout, redfish and snook stacked on the deeper mangrove edges, on points where the current funnels between two pieces of land, eating live greenies and pogies. That pattern does not go away in a week of wind; the fish just sit deeper and wait. As the water cleans up over the first half of this week, expect them back on the same edges, and expect the first clean outgoing tides to be the best ones. Water temperature is still in the low 80s, so the fish are using depth and shade rather than the open flats in the middle of the day.

At the Inlet

Even in the wind the jetties produced. The north side gave up oversized snook on live pigfish and mullet, redfish on finger mullet (released — redfish are catch-and-release here), a run of Spanish mackerel in the 12 to 14 inch range on live greenies and small jigs, and black margates on cut shrimp. The south jetty had a mix of undersized and slot snook, a couple of black drum, margates and the usual jacks and blue runners. The T-dock had small snook and mostly short snapper with a few keepers mixed in. The surf was unfishable. That is the Sebastian Inlet District’s read from the rocks, and it matches what we see from the water: the snook are there and the big ones are eating mullet.

Three Dates This Week

What to Book

• Half Day Inshore — the mangrove-edge bite, mornings on the first clean tides.
• Full Day Inshore / Nearshore — lagoon in the morning, reefs outside once the swell lies down.
• Offshore — from Friday, red snapper.
• Night Fishing — snook under the lights while the mullet are running.

Jetty detail from the Sebastian Inlet District’s weekly report (week of 28 September); forecast and sea state from the same; regulations checked against the FWC saltwater site. Updated 5 October 2026. Captain Richard Ladrew fishes to current regulations and will tell you on the day what you can keep.