CRYSTAL RIVER

New Arrivals
The past few years, many local anglers have begun to key-in on the latest addition to our inshore target list, the snook. Over the past few years, the snook have began to show up in droves, sometimes even seemingly crowding out the other species, such as redfish, that have called certain areas their home for decades, but snook are also known to love warm water; so November can be a great time to target them as they gather to try to find a warm piece of real estate to spend the winter months. Areas such as the rock piles in the Crystal River, and the discharge canal at the power plant, are known snook hot-spots, with a live finger mullet, often being the go-to live bait for a trophy line-sider. Other anglers who tend to take a more sporting approach, will often be seen throwing jigs, or lipped diving in the lowlight hours, trying to hook into a monster. However you choose to target these apex predators, make sure that your tackle is up to par and that you have a stiff piece of 40 pound bite tippet, to help from getting frayed by their rough mouths and sharp gills.

Shallow Water Gags
The cooling temperatures will have gags on the move, and headed east from their deep-water summer-time habitats. As the water temp approaches the magical 68-degree number, expect to see solid grouper showing up in anywhere from 20 to 30 feet of water, on the many rock piles offshore of Crystal river and Homosassa. Trolling deep diving plugs is always a great way to locate fish before dropping frozen baits to them.