[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he beginning of the month will still be as hot as August, but as the days get shorter, and the air temps fall thru the month, the gags will start the inshore (spawning) migration and throw on the feed bag. The inshore gag bite can be as good as fishing gets with bait and fish stacked up on any kind of structure within 25 miles of the hill. The bad news is…. the limit for gag grouper is one per person/day. This means when you drop the hook on a nice mark, you can be “limited out” within a few short minutes. The good news is… keep someone on the light line, because the kings are chewing as well.
DO NOT be surprised to see a wahoo on the light line!!! This is the time of year that the wahoo (and yellowfin) will come inshore following the massive schools of cigs and sardines. If possible, jig some live minnows to put out on the light line. the biggest, fattest cigar minnow in the live well is the ticket to an (inshore) wahoo in the box. Dolphing will still be on the inshore ledges around the bait. This is one of the best times of the year to take your kids fishing, as they can catch kings and dolphins on the light line, and constant action on the bottom with grunts, pinkies and sea bass. Teach them how to be deadly with the sabiki, and how to properly dehook the minnows with a small wire dehooker. The minnows fare much better in the live well if you don’t handle them at all. Simply dehook the baits off the sabiki into a 5 gallon bucket of water. When you have a good number of baits in the bucket, pour them into the main live well together. Repeat this as often as needed to turn the live well dark in color. haha. “If you have the pretty baits, you get the pretty bites”. That’s a quote, from a very wise fisherman I know.
And of course, if you plug a pretty bait on a (Decoy) jig, chances are, you’ve got the winning ticket for the larger grouper and snapper. Speaking of the big snapper….The big american red snapper are a possibility on any given stop now also. This is where you need to have your tackle (knots, crimps and snells) right, because these fish are some of the most serious tackle testers of all time.
Just be patient, November and December are on the way …with gag grouper fishing at it’s finest
All the best fishing
Capt. Tim Barefoot
www.barefootfishing.net
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