Blue Runner — Sebastian, Florida

Blue runners are at Sebastian Inlet in every season; the District's 2025 and 2026 reports list them from February through December, missing only in the coldest, slowest weeks.

The Sebastian Inlet District dates each weekly report on its fishing report index, and blue runners appear in reports from every quarter of the year. On February 17, 2025, the only fish the guide saw caught were at the south jetty: small blues, jacks, blue runners, stingrays and bonnethead sharks. Two weeks later, on March 3, 2025, the tip on the outgoing tide was all about black margates, small jack crevalle, blue runners and hand-sized sand perch. In summer, the June 2, 2025 report rounded out the Sebastian catch with jack crevalle, blue runners and some small bluefish on small jigs and spoons.

Fall and early winter keep them coming. On September 22, 2025, the north jetty gave up Spanish mackerel, lookdowns, blue runners and jacks, and the outgoing tide at the tip produced catfish, puffers, blue runners and a couple of bluefish. On December 1, 2025, after a wind-whipped weekend, the only place fish were caught was the north jetty, where anglers took small jack crevalle, bluefish and blue runners on cut dead baits. On December 22, 2025, with dirty, weedy water everywhere, the south jetty still produced small jacks, blue runners, bluefish and lookdowns.

The one blank came in cold water. On March 24, 2025, with Sebastian Inlet down to 68 degrees, the guide saw no fish caught from the south jetty to the T-dock, not even a jack or a blue runner.

Blue runners at Sebastian Inlet bite at the jetty tips on the outgoing tide and in the channel, wherever moving water carries bait past the rocks.

The tip on the outgoing tide is the most frequent spot in the 2026 Sebastian Inlet reports. On September 7, 2026, the outgoing tide at the tip was still all about spot tails, black margates, jacks and blue runners, and on October 5, 2026, black margates, blue runners and jack crevalle were biting there on the outgoing tide even with muddy water on the south side. The June 8, 2026 report moved the action into the channel, where big jacks and blue runners were hitting spoons, baits and vertical jigs.

Weather decides which jetty is fishable. On October 13, 2025, a big swell, seaweed and brisk north-northeast winds left only catfish, jacks and blue runners, all on the north jetty, because the high tide had submerged the south jetty and made it unsafe. The August 3, 2026 report listed blue runners and jack crevalle as always in the mix at the south jetty tip, where rain runoff from the Sebastian River had dirtied the water more than on the north side.

Anglers keep Sebastian Inlet blue runners mainly as live bait, because a lively runner is one of the most used baits for king mackerel and other offshore fish.

A May 30, 2025 Florida Sportsman article on live bait describes blue runners, often called hard tails, as one of the most frequently used live baits by tournament anglers, with king mackerel the chief target. The article's tournament source prefers runners over goggle-eyes, threadfin herring and pilchards, looks for runners of 1.5 to 2 pounds, and catches them on small sabiki rigs rather than cast nets, which beat baits up and strip their slime coating. Those are the same small jigs that take runners at the Sebastian Inlet jetties.

Sebastian Inlet suits that routine. Florida State Parks notes that boat launch facilities at Sebastian Inlet State Park provide access to nearby offshore fishing and diving, so runners caught on small jigs at the jetties or in the channel are a short run from the ocean. Fishing tackle is listed in the outdoor fishing collection on Digital Towns Market. Digital Towns Market is our marketplace.

A Sebastian Inlet blue runner has bony scutes in front of its tail and black tail tips; FWC notes the jack crevalle that schools beside it at the jetties lacks those scutes.

The FWC blue runner profile describes a light olive to bluish-green back, a silver-gray to golden belly and, usually, a black spot on the gill cover. It lists bluefish and crevalle jack as the similar species, and both turn up beside blue runners in nearly every Sebastian report quoted above. Most blue runners are small: FWC puts the common size under 1 pound and the maximum at 20 inches and 4 pounds, with the Florida record of 8 pounds 5 ounces caught near Pensacola. Blue runners mature at 9 to 10 inches and spawn offshore from January through August, and the young form schools near floating objects or structure, which is one reason the Sebastian Inlet jetty rock holds them. Adults feed on fish, shrimp and squid, which explains why they take cut shrimp at the tip as readily as a spoon.

A recreational angler at Sebastian Inlet may keep up to 100 blue runners per day under Florida Administrative Code rule 68B-61.004, in effect since January 3, 2014.

The rule text says a recreational harvester may not harvest or land more than 100 blue runner per day, or possess more than 100, within or without Florida waters, while commercial harvesters have no harvest or possession limit. Florida's administrative rule record shows the effective date and explains that the blue runner chapter was created to extend state regulations into adjacent federal waters of the Atlantic and Gulf, in the absence of a federal management plan. That means the same 100-fish limit applies to runners caught at the Sebastian Inlet jetties and to runners caught offshore of the inlet by boat.