September brought some extremely hot temperatures that kept most offshore species stuck in a summertime pattern. The AJ bite has been red hot on most all rigs/wrecks in over 175’ of water, with most of the larger fish falling to live hardtails as well as speed jigs. Good reports of King mackerel have been coming in as well when clean green water can be found. Most of the fish have been holding further
East in the cleaner water south of Dauphin Island in the 120-200’ range. The cobia will be making there presence known very soon, with numbers of the fish already starting their trip back east. The shallow field and all the main pass rigs are a good place to start looking for these tasty critters. The great thing about fall fishing for cobes is they are generally much closer in, and the weather is much more comfortable than the dog days of summer! Live bait around the rigs and wrecks anywhere from 50- 100’ gives anglers in smaller craft a great shot at multiple fish days. With our fall snapper season coming up we finally get to make some real rig trips (being able to keep AJ’s, snapper, cobia, and grouper) all in the same trip! So be sure to take advantage of this, weather permitting. The pelagic species continued to hang around throughout September, with white marlin and yellowfin tuna leading the way. The tuna were in relatively close to the shelf early in the month, but progressively moved further South as the month wore on. Most of the fish were solid summer timers (50-80 lbs.). FRESH live bait, extremely light flouro leaders, and 6/0 circles were the only way to go. One tip to try when you are marking the tuna on your sounder but they refuse to come up (usually due to numerous boats on the same rig) is to rubber band a bank sinker 50 or so feet up your line to get the bait down to them. Usually the sinker will break free during the fight and not throw the hook. Looking forward to October we have a lot to be thankful for! As stated earlier we will be able to run offshore and keep a solid mixed bag of rig/reef fish. The cobia migration back east will be in full swing to round out the offshore grand slam opportunity! As far as blue water goes, the tuna should once again move closer in towards the shelf rigs off of Mississippi. The shrimp boats out of the mouth of the river will have studs approaching 200 pounds behind them. The wahoo will gradually make their appearance throughout the month as well; anytime around the full moon in the middle of the month should produce a few smokers.
Tight Lines!
Landon Rhodes CAM Co-Publisher