By Capt. Bart Marx
Hello fellow anglers! October in SWFL once again. This month, if you like to eat stone crab claws, it opens the 15th at midnight. Yes, if you scuba dive you can go in at midnight to harvest these delicacies. It is fun and spooky at the same time, depending on how good a dive light you have. LOL, they like to hang around rocks and docks where they feel safe. Until out of the dark comes something like the sun shining and they try to hide in any little crack, to get away from the light. Warning- if you try this wear gloves, they are not fast but they seem to grab you with one claw when you are measuring the other. The claw needs to be at least 2 ¾” to harvest; check the FWC regulations.
This should be the time of year that you can find gags and red grouper in the fifty’-eighty’ range where there are ledges or good hard bottom. Start out with frozen baits and if you bring live bait, then as the bite slows send live ones down. It’s a good practice to check at forty’-fifty’ of water on your way out to catch some squirrel fish/sand perch to bring out with you. Keep the live ones in your well and if a few swallow the hook keep them on ice, they make great cut bait too. Some anglers like to drift for the red grouper. This is a good method, it takes a little extra weight to keep down on the bottom. I personally like to anchor up on a spot, get things going by chumming, and just getting the fish to bite. This attracts other species that may make the ride to the dock because they are good eating. Snappers like lanes and mangroves like these kinds of areas too. You may find some porgies and maybe a trigger fish. While you are traveling out, keep your eyes out for birds searching for food; they tend to fly high in the sky as they search for food. This could indicate some Spanish or king mackerel, maybe a tuna or bonito. If you see flying fish there may be a sailfish around the area, if you have some small blue runners or jacks alive, hook one and send it out to draw one to it. If you have enough grouper or snapper you could set up some rods and troll back in the direction you are returning. This is productive and you are fishing as you travel back toward land, to add to your bounty. Also, this is the time of year you may encounter the school reds/red drum close to the shore, searching for food to fatten up to return to the Gulf to breed. These are the ones that are usually over the twenty-seven-inch limit, but are fun to catch. Back in the day we called it RED October, we will see after the red tide last year.
