Tarpon at Sebastian Inlet

No tarpon may be kept at Sebastian Inlet or anywhere in Florida: FWC runs tarpon as a catch-and-release only fishery, and a tarpon over 40 inches must stay in the water.

The only exception at Sebastian Inlet, as elsewhere, is a record attempt. One tarpon tag per person per year may be bought when pursuing a Florida state or world record, and the tag must be bought before fishing begins (FWC tarpon regulations). Gear is hook and line only; snagging, snatch hooking, spearing and a multiple hook used with natural bait are all prohibited. There is no minimum size, and vessel, transport and shipment are limited to one fish.

FWC prices the tag at $51.50 a year, requires it in addition to a saltwater fishing license whenever a tarpon is landed, allows no exemptions, and sells it only at tax collector offices (FWC licenses and permits). In Indian River County, the Tax Collector's Main Office at the County Administration Complex, 1800 27th Street, Building B, Vero Beach, lists hunting and fishing among its services, and the office also runs a Sebastian Office at Sebastian Corners, 1921 U.S. Highway 1 (Indian River County Tax Collector). The collector's phone is (772) 226-1338. Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the FWC website.

Sebastian Inlet District reports track tarpon from late April, when the first springtime finger mullet reach the beaches, through the fall mullet run in September.

The Sebastian Inlet District posts its fishing report each Monday, and its archive covers weeks from December 30, 2024 to October 12, 2026. The individual report pages give the week without the year, so they are cited by week.

Spring arrivals follow the bait. In the week of April 20, the guide wrote that nice finger mullet were starting to show on the beaches and that, with the water warming, snook, reds and tarpon would follow (Sebastian Inlet District). A week later the water had warmed back to a seasonal 77 degrees, with quite a few schools of springtime finger mullet on the beachside (Sebastian Inlet District). The week of May 19 report advised watching the mullet coming down the beaches because snook and tarpon might be around the schools (Sebastian Inlet District).

By late summer the fish move into the inlet itself. The week of August 25 report, written after big waves from Erin, said the fall mullet run was getting closer and listed snook, tarpon, redfish and sharks as possibilities (Sebastian Inlet District). In the week of September 8, the north side surf, with mullet streaming down the beaches, had drawn snook, tarpon, big jacks, redfish and sharks, all of it visible up the beach just north of the jetty (Sebastian Inlet District).

At Sebastian Inlet, tarpon are hooked in the surf on both sides, on the tide rip off the end of the south jetty, and inside the inlet when mullet schools ride the incoming tide.

The week of July 14 report described schools of mullet entering Sebastian Inlet on the incoming tide and attracting big jack crevalle and tarpon, with large swimbaits, spoons, jigs and live baits tossed toward the channel drawing strikes (Sebastian Inlet District). In the week of August 4, snook and tarpon were reported in the surf following the schools of mullet and croakers (Sebastian Inlet District).

The jetty tip is the other hot spot. The week of August 31 report said snook and tarpon had been hooked on the tide rip at the end of the south jetty on live mullet, croakers and pinfish (Sebastian Inlet District). In the week of September 1, one angler at the north jetty hooked a big tarpon that got away, and the report named schools of mullet north of the inlet, fished with large swim baits or live mullet, as the place where snook, redfish, tarpon, big jacks and sharks arrive (Sebastian Inlet District).

Both jetties lie inside Sebastian Inlet State Park, where Florida State Parks describes visitors trying their luck from the jetties that slice into the Atlantic; the park charges $8 per vehicle (Florida State Parks). Late summer tarpon trips in 2026 run into two park notices: work on the Sebastian Inlet bridge along Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway was set to start in May 2026, cutting off beach access from the south side, and the north side can fill to capacity on weekends and close to arriving cars for a while. The North Ranger Station still admits visitors 24 hours a day, while the South Ranger Station has kept 8 a.m. to sunset hours since November 12, 2025.

Inside the lagoon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists tarpon with blue crab, red drum and snook as among the most popular catches on Bird's Impoundment Trail at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, where bank fishing is allowed on the lagoon side (USFWS Pelican Island trails).

A tarpon over 40 inches hooked from the Sebastian Inlet jetties or the inlet bridge cannot legally be hauled up, and FWC advises against fishing for tarpon from bridges or piers for that reason.

FWC explains that only tarpon under 40 inches may be removed from the water, so a large fish hooked from a bridge or pier has to be cut off, leaving a long line trailing behind it that leads to entanglement and lowers survival (FWC tarpon best practices). The same guidance says to avoid dragging tarpon over the gunnel of a boat or over rocks or railings, and the 40-inch rule applies on the Sebastian Inlet jetties exactly as it does on any Florida bridge or pier.

For a smaller tarpon, FWC asks for wet hands, horizontal support under the belly, gills kept in the water and fingers away from gills and eyes. The preferred release is no-touch, using a long-handled dehooking tool or cutting the line as close to the hook as possible, and a tired fish is revived by holding it horizontally in the water so it pumps water over its gills. Sharks arrive with the September mullet run at Sebastian Inlet in the District reports, and FWC says that when a shark shows up the tarpon should be brought in quickly and the line cut close to the hook, then the angler should move to another spot.

Tarpon spawn offshore but use the Indian River Lagoon behind Sebastian Inlet as a nursery, which sets them apart from the bluefish, pompano and jacks that also come into the lagoon to feed.

The Sebastian Inlet District fish series quotes its marine biologist source saying tarpon migrate through mostly along the beaches, hitting the schooling mullet, but also use the lagoon as a nursery, unlike the other estuarine feeders in that group. The same series describes the Indian River Lagoon as 156 miles long.

The FWC tarpon profile fills in the life history behind the Sebastian Inlet pattern. Tarpon grow to about 8 feet and 300 pounds, are found along Florida's coast in summer, and concentrate in South Florida in winter when coastal water cools, which fits the late April arrivals in the District reports. They mature at 7 to 13 years, spawn from May to September, and a female may lay more than 12 million eggs that develop into ribbon-like larvae. Juveniles are commonly found in fresh water, tolerate a wide range of salinity, and gulp air at the surface, while the District series places young tarpon in the lagoon off Sebastian as their nursery.