Fishing tournaments in Sebastian, Florida

Sebastian's fishing tournaments are mainly offshore events weighed on Indian River Drive, including the Swordfish Shootout of August 2026, the Indian River firefighters' offshore tournament and the Exchange Club's Blue Water Open at Capt Hiram's.

The list below gives the most recent date found for each event in published sources as of October 11, 2026. Dates move from year to year, so each row shows the edition its source describes. Fishing a tournament from Sebastian means running Sebastian Inlet, which the Sebastian Inlet District calls the only charted inlet between Cape Canaveral and Fort Pierce, with easy offshore access (Sebastian Inlet District).

The sixth annual Swordfish Shootout ran August 6 to 9, 2026, with a 24-hour fishing window and the weigh-in at Sebastian Saltwater Marina on Indian River Drive, according to Sebastian Daily (Sebastian Daily, July 15, 2026).

Lines went in at 9 p.m. on Friday, August 7, and came out at 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 8, with the weigh-in on Sunday, August 9, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The public captain's party was set for Thursday, August 6, at the same Sebastian marina, where each team picked up its tournament token. Boats could leave from any inlet on the coast but could not touch land again until the window closed.

Entry in the Sebastian event's main largest swordfish category was $500 for boats 28 feet or less. Payouts on a 30-boat field at Sebastian totaled $15,000: $10,000 for first, $3,500 for second and $1,500 for third. Optional buy-ins covered the biggest dolphin ($250), biggest pomfret ($100), a two-fish aggregate ($500) and a $1,000 high roller Calcutta. Shootout rules for the Sebastian weigh-in required a time-stamped video with the token visible right after boating a fish, an empty cockpit and GPS check before lines went in, and a valid Florida fishing license for every angler aboard; officials monitored VHF Channel 80, with 72 as backup.

Sebastian's charity offshore tournaments weigh reef and pelagic fish: the 2025 firefighters' event at Sebastian Saltwater Marina scored grouper, dolphin, kingfish and snapper, with amberjack as the bonus fish (Sebastian Daily, May 28, 2025).

The Indian River Firefighters Benevolent Association held its fourth annual offshore tournament on Saturday, June 21, 2025, with lines in at 6 a.m. and a public weigh-in from 2 to 5 p.m. at 1732 Indian River Drive. Entry was $250 per boat for a $20,000 open purse, with $2,200 for top boat, $1,200 for the biggest amberjack, $1,000 for the junior angler and $500 for the lady angler. Proceeds went to Captains For Clean Water, a nonprofit working on Indian River County waterways.

The Blue Water Open, run by the Sebastian Exchange Club, marked its 29th year on June 3, 2023, at Capt Hiram's, with fishing from 6 a.m. and weighing from 2 to 5 p.m. (Sebastian Daily, April 16, 2023). The $250 entry bought a shot at a $21,000 purse: an $11,000 main board, a $4,500 bonus board, and category prizes for amberjack, wahoo, swordfish, dolphin, kingfish, tilefish and grouper. No 2025 or 2026 date for the Blue Water Open was found in published sources.

Both charity events share a format common to Sebastian offshore tournaments: a captains' meeting the evening before at the host marina, a 6 a.m. start through Sebastian Inlet, and a weigh-in from 2 to 5 p.m.; the firefighters invited the public to theirs. The 2025 firefighters' captains' meeting was set for Friday, June 20, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. at Sebastian Saltwater Marina, and the 2023 Blue Water Open captains met at Capt Hiram's from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 2, 2023. The firefighters' association, a 501(c)(3) founded in 2012, says it supports more than 300 members and their families.

The Central Florida Shootout, a multi-species tournament covering much of the Atlantic coast, named Captain Hiram's in Sebastian as one of its two official weigh stations in 2024, alongside Sunrise Marina at Port Canaveral (Central Florida Shootout).

The Shootout's 2024 rules, which listed the Sebastian weigh station, started fishing at 9 p.m. on Friday, April 26, 2024, opened the scales at noon on Saturday, April 27, and used VHF Channel 72 as the official tournament channel for boats coming to the dock (Central Florida Shootout rules). Fish could reach the Sebastian scale by boat or by vehicle, as long as the angler who caught the fish came with it. The awards party and boat drawing were held at Captain Hirams on May 5, 2024. For scale, FDOT puts the nearest ocean connections to Sebastian Inlet at Fort Pierce Inlet, 28 miles south, and Port Canaveral Inlet, 29 miles north (FDOT).

Tournament anglers out of Sebastian Inlet fish under the same FWC and NOAA rules as everyone else: swordfish must measure at least 47 inches lower-jaw fork length, with one per person and up to four per vessel under an HMS Angling permit (NOAA Fisheries).

Tournament boats returning to Sebastian Inlet face the same reporting rule as any angler: FWC requires every landed billfish or swordfish to be reported to NOAA within 24 hours, and official HMS tournament operators in the Atlantic, including those weighing fish in Sebastian, must register with NOAA Fisheries and follow its reporting requirements (FWC). For the species on the Sebastian leaderboards above, Atlantic state-water rules set dolphin at a 20-inch fork length minimum with 5 per person or 30 per vessel (FWC), and king mackerel at 24 inches fork length with 2 per harvester (FWC). Last verified: October 11, 2026, on the FWC and NOAA Fisheries websites.

Inshore events on the Indian River Lagoon at Sebastian run under FWC's Indian River Lagoon region rules, where redfish are catch and release only and snook close from December 15 to January 31 and from June 1 to August 31 (FWC red drum rules).

Both rules bind any inshore event based in Sebastian. Redfish caught in the lagoon, the inlet or the Pelican Island refuge waters cannot be kept for a scale, and the snook slot in open months is 28 to 32 inches with one fish per person per day (FWC snook rules). The June 21, 2025 and August 6 to 9, 2026 offshore events listed above both fell inside the summer snook closure on the lagoon.