Bluefish — Sebastian, Florida

Bluefish reach Sebastian Inlet in late fall as the ocean cools and stay through spring, with the heaviest action at the jetty tips from late December through March.

Bluefish reach Sebastian Inlet with the first cool water of late fall and leave as the Atlantic warms in late spring. The weekly Sebastian Inlet District fishing report, which the District posts on Mondays and lists by week and year, records blues on the jetty tips from November through May across the 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 seasons, with the heaviest action between late December and March. The inlet sits on the Brevard and Indian River County line north of Sebastian, and both jetties lie inside Sebastian Inlet State Park.

The size of the fish swings widely from year to year. On December 30, 2024, the District reported big bluefish in the 10 to 12-pound range on the outgoing tide at the tip and beachside, taken on large silver spoons, jigs and cut bait, with big blues roaming through the inlet on both tides near the T-dock. One week later, on January 6, 2025, the monster bluefish that had been biting so well were gone, and the report explained that the previous winter the blues came in and stayed around because there were big mullet in the inlet.

Most winters at Sebastian Inlet bring smaller fish. During a cold snap on January 21, 2025, the only catch seen was a couple of anglers cleaning small bluefish and whiting of 12 to 14 inches. That pattern, a few large fish in some years and many small ones in most, runs through every season in the record.

The 2026 bluefish peak at Sebastian Inlet came in January and February, when small and medium blues swarmed both jetty tips on almost any lure or bait.

The 2025 to 2026 winter produced the busiest bluefish weeks in the District's recent reports. On January 5, 2026, the outgoing tide at the north jetty tip gave up an abundance of small to medium-sized bluefish on jigs, bait and silver spoons, while the T-dock produced small Spanish mackerel and blues on swim baits and spoons. The January 20, 2026 report described a Saturday when the bluefish bite was crazy, with anglers flinging fish over the rails everywhere, and the south jetty tip was mostly all about the bluefish on jigs, spoons and any bait because the water was so cool.

The same report quoted a Sebastian Inlet jetty rule: all marine life kept for harvest must go in a container such as a cooler, bucket or bag, not be left on the jetty. That Saturday, the guide wrote, there were lots of bluefish and jacks lying everywhere, and a pelican choked on a discarded jack and was taken to a wildlife hospital. By February 17, 2026, the report's headline was slow fishing but plenty of blues and jacks at the north jetty, and the guide wrote that the small bluefish and jacks accounted for all the action, everywhere and biting everything, on both the north and south jetties.

The bite spread to the beaches in March. On March 9, 2026, bluefish and Spanish mackerel were present in the surf for those casting spoons and jigs, and the outgoing tide at the north jetty was still producing a lot of bluefish. Wind matters on those days: NOAA's National Data Buoy Center lists station SIPF1, Sebastian Inlet State Park North Jetty, a weather station owned and maintained by Florida Institute of Technology, which reports wind and air data from the jetty itself.

Bluefish thin out at Sebastian Inlet in May and June as the water warms, then return as small fall fish in October and November.

The bluefish thin out with warming water but rarely vanish entirely. On May 11, 2026, the Sebastian Inlet report listed blue runners, jacks and a few straggler bluefish. In 2025 the fade ran later: the June 2, 2025 report noted a few bluefish lingering on the south side due to the cooler water temperatures, 77 degrees at the time, and on July 1, 2025, at the newly reopened north jetty, anglers fishing silver spoons and vertical jigs caught quite a few nice bluefish in the 15 to 16-inch range.

Fall brings the first small fish back. On October 20, 2025, about the only fish caught after the morning were tons of jack crevalle, some ladyfish and small chopper bluefish on live finger mullet, spoons and jigs, with blues showing up on the outgoing tide at the tip through November 2025. Those small fall blues at Sebastian Inlet are the front edge of the winter run.

Blues also work the channel inside the inlet. On December 15, 2025, jacks and small bluefish were hitting silver spoons in the channel area, the water that runs beneath the Sebastian Inlet Bridge. The Sebastian Inlet District notes that the James H. Pruitt bridge, commonly known as the Sebastian Inlet Bridge, was completed in 1964, has catwalks built below it, and links Brevard and Indian River counties. On the beach side, the surf where blues chase bait lies within the 20.5 miles of shoreline from Melbourne Beach to Wabasso Beach that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages as Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.

Sebastian Inlet draws bluefish because the inlet and the Indian River Lagoon behind it hold the baitfish that migrating blues hunt each winter.

Bluefish come to the Indian River Lagoon to eat. In Part Three of its fish biology series, the Sebastian Inlet District calls the inlet one of the best places in Florida to fish for blues and describes them as aggressive fish that travel in loose groups. On the Atlantic side of the inlet, the District writes, bluefish chase their prey into the surf zone, causing the water to erupt like a cauldron; young fish eat crustaceans and small fish, while adults prefer menhaden, an oily baitfish.

The fish that show up at the Sebastian Inlet jetties each winter are part of a coastwide migration. The FWC species profile describes a strong migration of the northeast Atlantic stock to the Florida east coast in winter, and notes Atlantic coast bluefish run much larger than Gulf fish, up to 27 pounds. NOAA Fisheries says bluefish move north in spring and summer as water temperatures rise and south in autumn and winter to waters in the South Atlantic Bight. The Sebastian Inlet reports track the local end of that movement each winter.

Sebastian Inlet anglers may keep 3 bluefish per person per day, each at least 12 inches fork length, under FWC Atlantic rules.

Sebastian Inlet anglers fish under the Atlantic rules of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Effective October 26, 2020, FWC set the recreational daily bag limit at three fish per person along the Atlantic coast from Nassau through Miami-Dade. FWC explains the change: a 2019 federal stock assessment found Atlantic bluefish overfished, federal managers tightened their limits, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission asked states to match them. The minimum size in Atlantic state waters is 12 inches fork length, and legal gear is hook and line, spears, gigs, seine and cast net.

The stock has improved since then. As of the 2025 stock assessment, NOAA Fisheries lists Atlantic bluefish as not overfished but rebuilding, and not subject to overfishing, under a rebuilding plan with a target date of 2029. Federal waters off Sebastian carry a limit of 3 per person on private recreational vessels and 5 per person on for-hire vessels, which must hold a federal bluefish charter permit, according to FWC as of October 2026.