by Capt. Patt McGriff
Wow, just doesn’t quite cover it. We are killing the speckled trout, sand trout, spanish, blues and BSB at Keaton as of today October 19. This week, I fished with Mike O’Field of Homosassa using Assassin Violet Moon and Stinky Pink 5” Shads to catch a limit of 10 trout and 14 sand trout. The next day, Mike used Assassin’s 5” Violet Moon to catch five keeper trout in ve casts. He caught and released 14 more slot-sized specks as well as numerous shorts. Friday, he caught a 24” trout and four casts later he landed a 27” trout on Assassin’s new Electric Shad 5”.
On another trip, I had Jack and Dot Stewart of Valdosta, Ga. out and we had 14 trout and five Spanish on live pins under Back Bays and Cajun Thunders and Dot caught four sand trout on live pin fish (a boat record)! We soon switched over to Assassin’s new Elite Shiner in the New Wakasagi pattern rigged 4.5 ft. under a Back Bay and a Cajun under and caught 22 more sand trout. It really didn’t matter what you threw out there.
OCTOBERFEST struck Keaton Beach Thursday with a vengeance! A fter millions of skipjack (lady fish) hatched, it was ON! The sky opened up and thousands of seagulls swarmed over thousands of feeding fish. Bluefish, mackerel, ladyfish, trout, sand trout, black sea bass and sharks were gorging themselves on almost anything you threw out there. We lost several fish and rigs to Bull Sharks up to 8 ft. long which were swimming inside the larger balls of bait eating anything that wasn’t paying attention! I haven’t seen that kind of Octoberfest since 1997 at Keaton when Assassin’s Green Back Shiner split-tail shad were the rage!
Well, November just looks to be fantastic as the water is starting to clear up considerably and lose the reddish-brown color down here at the beach. Folks are now catching fish all the way to Eagle’s Nest again so by November, the entire Taylor County coast should be back fishable. There will be some fat sow trout and even fatter red fish waiting for anglers who decide to go a fter ‘em.
I will be throwing Precision Tackle’s Cajun Flash and under-Spin jig spinners with copper and gold blades to catch my reds in November. Our water temps are running 74-80 degrees most days now so expect to have the perfect water temperatures of 65-75 degrees in November to fish plugs for trout and reds if the floating grass will clear out. Bite-A-Bait fighters and MirrOlip #29 lipped plugs will take a slew of trout for us in November.
I saw two anglers with two cobia a piece this week but I would expect the ling to be lingering south of us by November.
Heck give me call or e-mail and Let’s Go Fishing!
FORECAST BY: Pat McGriff
Pat McGriff dba
One More Cast guide service for 21 years!
onemorecast@gtcom.net
www.onemorecast.net
cell 850.838.7541
ph.850-584-9145