By: Capt. Billy Norris
After a nearly unbearable hot summer, we are ready for cooler weather and the game fish that come with it! Most notably, we made it through a hurricane season without a storm hitting our area. This makes a big difference not only because we avoided disaster cleanup, but also because typically following a hurricane is a red tide. As we have seen the last few years, a red tide bloom can make fishing extremely challenging. Its absence this season means that the wintertime fishing should be on fire!
The backwaters have been very productive as of late. There have been plenty of snook actively taking baits, as well as big jacks and even a solid number of trout. The redfish bite has been excellent also, making days fishing the backwater a lot of fun! The last run of tarpon is going on right now as they get fired up during the fall mullet run but come the first cold front the adult tarpon will migrate out of our area until the spring.
The beaches are absolutely loaded with bait right now. On most trips, it has been ‘one and done’ when throwing the net, blacking out both live wells with large pilchards. There have also been plenty of pinfish and blue runners around if you’re targeting bigger species of gamefish. With the presence of so much bait, the nearshore bite has been on fire. There are Spanish mackerel everywhere, which means that we should see a big migration of kingfish in our area after the first cold front. With the kings will come cobia and XL sharks like sandbars, tigers and hammers.
The offshore bite has been great as well. The warmer temperatures through the first few weeks of November have kept the wreck snook chewing, but they will very shortly make their way up the rivers. The predators on the nearshore wrecks and reefs have been the stars of the show lately, with barracudas, jewfish and sharks keeping everyone’s drags screaming. In addition, we have been loading up on mangrove snapper and even some nice permit. As the temperatures cool down, we should see the arrival of our wintertime staples like kings, cobia, tripletail, and the big offshore sheepshead.
The fishing has been great, and we are all pumped for the winter season! Get your gear ready for what looks like is going to be an awesome winter of fishing!