It's right at the end of December 2022 and the fishing has been amazing. We had another great snook and redfish bite at Sebastian Inlet the last couple weeks. Snook sizes ranged anywhere from 25" to 35" fish. Most of the redfish were smaller sized fish around 25" to 30". Not sure where those big bull reds are hiding because they've been a little late to the party. Fortunately for us boat fishermen the north jetty is still closed so it is way more relaxing to fish out there. We can get up close to the jetty with live shrimp and pull fish one after another without any chaos. We've also had some good luck with sheepshead, black drum, and pompano out around the mouth out of the inlet. When you can find where they're schooling up, the snook bite has been pretty good as well on the inside of the inlet along the rocks along with an occasional flounder. Hopefully with this cold front we're having right now will kick those flounder into gear and we can start landing some nice Flatties. A really amazing trip we had the other day was when we ran up on a giant school of huge black drum in the rain. The school looked to have close to 200 fish all ranging from 40 to 60 lbs. My guys had some amazing fights boating 4 giant drum and losing 3 at the boat. We are now doing night and day time bowfishing on the airboat and that has been a whole new fun experience. We've been getting some giant tilapia out at Three Forks Marsh and some decent small Florida gar. The bowfishing is definitely not as easy as it looks but if you to take your time and aim you'll eventually get the hang of it. Bowfishing is probably the most exciting fishing I've ever done. Gift cards are still on sale until the end of January. Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy New Year

December has started out as usual, windy, breezy, and blowing, with rough seas. Yeah it's been blowing but it doesn't stop us from getting out on the water. The winter season is pretty much strictly inshore / nearshore fishing. We usually only get a couple days out of the month that are calm enough to get offshore this time of year. The bite seemed to simmer down quite a bit after hurricane Nicole. The couple weeks after the storm the snook bite definitely slowed down since that hot October bite. November was good but not on fire like October. Hurricane Nicole caused the state park at Sebastian Inlet to shut down the north jetty for awhile so that has been very nice for us boat fishermen. December has started off pretty good for us so far. Haven't done to many trips but the ones we have done have went pretty good. Lots of fish caught from snook, reds, black drum, flounder, jack crevalle, and sheepshead. The outgoing tide at Sebastian Inlet has been loaded up with sharks on the rip. Decent sized bullsharks, black tips, and spinners have been cruising out in the current. Then there's also the goliath grouper. We usually don't have a problem with goliaths during the winter season but not this year. There are those resident mammoths that are now hanging out year round at the north jetty. When you hook up there's no playing around with your fish, get the net ready, reel fast, and get that baby in cause it will get gulped. Last month we were able to do our first bowfishing charter off the airboat and it went extremely well. The guys were able to shoot some large tilapia and had a blast doing it. I can't stress this enough how much fun bowfishing is, even if you're missing your shots it's still so much fun. We will also be adding in night bowfishing trips within the next week or so as well.

Let me just start by saying Blowvember (November) is living up to it's name for sure. It's pretty much the second week of the month and winds are going to be ridiculous. From Sunday the 6th until Friday the 11th, the wind apps are saying 20 mph up to 60 mph with waves from 7 ft to 10 ft. We just went ahead and closed out the week due to the weather. This past October had to be the best month I've ever had as far as the snook bite goes. The snook were absolutely on fire at the inlet. Like I said in previous posts, 20 minutes and we were limited out on snook. Slot fish, after slot fish, after slot were being caught one after another. Between the boaters and the jetty we all definitely put a hurting on the snook population out there. It also had a lot to do with bait selection too. Those snook can be so picky but if you're throwing what they want it's game on. We've been using 8 to 10 inch mullet for the past 4 months and smoking the snook, then they switched to wanting pigfish, and in the last couple weeks it's been croakers. When that croaker would hit the water, just count to 5 and set the hook, it's been that quick. Got word on some pompano being caught in the river and lots of Spanish mackerel as well. The bull reds are showing up here and there at the inlet finally. We were able to land a couple 35" reds last week. Hopefully this tropical system doesn't bother us to bad and we can get back to slaying here shortly.

We've been out doing a little bowfishing here and there. Since hurricane Ian the water level on the St John's River has been extremely high. The higher water helps for a great airboat ride but a little tougher for the bowfishing. It's been quite challenging trying to find tilapia with the water being this high in the dark water. We did some searching and found some nice holes with clean clear water and plenty of big tilapia and bowfin. If you've never bow fished before you gotta come give this a shot, it's so much fun and not to mention a nice airboat ride along with it.

As usual though October and November bring the winds and rougher seas so that's something we gotta work around. If you easily get seasick, offshore and inlet fishing is probably not your cup of tea. If you can tough out the rough conditions then you'll most likely come home with the prize. The mullet run has pretty much moved on south but let me just start off by saying "FIRE!!!!!!!". The snook fishing at Sebastian Inlet has been absolutely on fire the last couple weeks. The bait hits the water, count to 10 and boom fish on. I have never seen the snook bite this hot in all my time fishing. Not to mention most of the fish are slot keeper snook as well. The lagoon fishing has been pretty good too. We're catching slot reds and trout along the mangroves and finding some flounder and tripletail around the crab pots. Unfortunately the FWC has closed redfish as well as flounder. Flounder will be closed from Oct 15th until Nov 30th. Redfish on the other hand is closed until further notice. Snook will be open from Sept 1st until Dec 15th.

Post storm trips and the start of October has been fantastic. Hurricane Ian didn't seem to bother the mullet run much at all other than the water levels being a little high. Millions of mullet are still swarming down the lagoon and all through Sebastian Inlet and the predators are chewing. We've been catching a bunch of slot redfish, 25" to 32" snook, tarpon, jack crevalle, and Spanish mackerel this past weekend. Next week looks like it might be a little choppy at the inlet and offshore but the lagoon should be popping. Looking forward towards the end of the month the big bull reds should start to show up as well.