By: Capt. Dave Stephens
This time of the year in Southwest Florida normally brings cooler weather, and a lot less rain. With the slowing of the rain and less freshwater running into the harbor, the saltwater will begin to push further up into the harbor, and also into the river mouths. As the water cools, a lot of the top game fish such as snook, red fish, and even some tarpon will start migrating to the north. Snook are going to have the biggest effect of this migration. During the cooler months of late fall and winter these fish seek deeper water. Charlotte Harbor has countless miles of man-made canals on the northern end of the harbor, and there are also many deep natural creeks that will hold fish. As the water cools, I recommend slowing down you’re fishing technique. Spend a little more time working the area that you’re fishing. Live bait will work well, but so will large live shrimp, also small paddle tails fished slow along the bottom do very well.
Going back to the local creeks, a migration of reds will begin to move into these areas. For the most part these are what we call rat reds. This is due to fact that mostly all of the fish are under 19-20”, however the action can be very good. The best bite seems to be on shrimp fished on a jig-head. The color of the jig seems to me to be a personal preference, however, I do recommend using one with a nice hook and enough weight to make contact with the bottom. I highly recommend you contact your local tackle shop, let them know what species you plan to target, and they will get you set up correctly to have a successful outing.
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