By: Capt. Bart Marx
The hot summer season has winded down and it is a great time to get some serious fishing in. Close to shore and inshore we need to be on the lookout for those convicts, the sheepshead. They should be on the move going into the Gulf to spawn. They will be piled up on any structure that has food like pilings with barnacles and small oysters. As they migrate into the Gulf, they will gather around the close to shore reefs and small ledged up and down the coast. Flounder that are doing a similar thing, as they tend to hang out on the sand holes and the edges of the sandbars where there is moving water that brings bait like shrimp or small fish. While searching for these species we should have no trouble finding a redfish to tug on your line and test your drag for you, and if you are drifting the grass flats you should encounter some speckled trout. The natural bait this time of year is shrimp. Years ago, we would start in November to get shrimp nets out and make sure that they were in good shape, and this will go on till March. On all of my trips, I always bring shrimp for bait, even in the summer I’ll bring live shrimp. I buy the middle grades of shrimp as the big ones get eaten by the small fish before the bigger ones find it, and the small shrimp get ripped off to quick. This time of year, the greenies may head offshore as they don’t like the cold water inshore. Sliding offshore when there is good weather, there may be some of those smokers around that are lots of fun to catch. Look for the big schools of bait offshore. Most of the time I catch them while you are bottom fishing. You put the bonus rod out with some wire on it those guys have a mouth full of razor blades. This month look for the tripletail hanging on the stone crab trap buoys. Shrimp works well casting to them with no weight, and you may use artificials too like DOA shrimp. Speaking of bottom fishing, if you would like to target some hogfish, you will need to have shrimp or small crabs as they eat crustations. The target area would start in 40 ft. around natural ledges and artificial reefs. While in search for those guys you should find some lane snapper and mangrove snapper. There should be some white grunts and porgies there too. If you may be interested in coming along with Capt. Bart Marx, give me a call 941-979-6517 or e-mail me at captbart@alphaomegacharters.com