There’s no better place to be than the Emerald Coast in October. The weather’s perfect, the Destin Fishing Rodeo is in full swing, seafood festivals are going on, and the beaches are not too crowded. Start planning your days off right now, you’ll want to use them this month.
INSHORE FISHING: It’s all good! Redfish, trout, flounder, black drum and Spanish mackerel are all starting to move into their fall patterns this month. Big bull reds and the flounder are making their way towards the gulf to spawn and you can really capitalize on them. You can catch redfish about anywhere: flats, bridges, docks, and bayous. The water temps are cooling and you’ll start to find fish slightly schooled up together as well. Usually, if you catch one there’s more. I’ll start out in the mornings on the flats fishing top water. As the sun comes up I’ll start drifting the flats very slowly and try to spot cast some fish. The higher the sun gets the more I move towards docks and bridges. All month long, redfish typically stack up on bridges. My favorite way to fish them is pitching heavy headed grub heads with gulp shrimp around the pilings. Search the pilings, but once you get a bite or two, stick around or come back, they’ll usually hang around for a while.
If you’re fishing the flats, follow and look for the big mullet schools; reds and trout will be mixed in with them. There’s always a ton of bait on the flats in October including menhaden and greenies. These can be terrific live baits, so bring your cast net. To catch a lot of trout, I’ll normally start by catching a bunch of live bait. After that, I’ll work the flats with top water baits moving along quickly drifting or trolling. Once you catch a couple fish or get a couple blow ups than that’s probably a good spot to post up. Pitch out a couple live baits and continue to work your artificial. Trout school up, so stay there for a while and more than likely you’ll catch more.
The Flounder bite might be my favorite of the fall. The flounder start migrating from the bays to the gulf and you can really get after them this time of year. Your best bet is to fish the mouths of bayous and as the month goes along work your way toward the pass. Fish the docks and holes, and fish the shallow sides of the bridges. An outgoing tide is always the best. Nothing works better than a small finger mullet or live menhaden. You can also use small grub heads with gulp shrimp or a stingray grub; dark colors like root beer are best. Flounder are on the bottom so fish right along the bottom with your grubs and use short leaders (18” or less) when fishing live bait.
No matter what you’re going fishing for, always have a bigger spinning rod with a big top water lure or semi-sub lure that you can work fast. There’s always big schools of jack crevalles that will show up around you chasing mullet while you’re fishing, so be ready!
NEARSHORE/OFFSHORE: Gag grouper season is open along with the other groupers, amberjacks, mingo snapper, and black snapper. As it cools down you’ll have a lot of bait move back inshore. This of course brings the bigger fish back near shore. Fishing the edge and live bottom down to the southeast is where the best grouper and trigger bite is this month, but it can change quickly, especially if we get a storm. As the weather gets colder, the near shore fishing (within 8 miles) usually gets better. You don’t have to run a million miles to catch bigger fish! There’s plenty of bait, but if you’re having a tough time catching any, plan ahead and set a pinfish trap; they’re thicker than flies in all the harbors and bayous.
Our terrific for the blue water bite and should continue. Some of the best fishing was in shallower water around the Nipple and the Elbow. There weren’t a ton of blackfin tunas seen but that’ll change soon. There was a lot of bait stacked in those areas and a few whales were seen – always a great sign. October billfish always includes white marlin, but the sailfish and blue marlin bite has been just as hot with numerous boats catching multiples species. Call or come in and talk to us about increasing your billfish success with the technique called “dredging.” We have the experts here to get you rigged.
For more info on fishing, boats, and more, contact the experts at the Ships Chandler in Destin, FL, 850-837-9306, www.theshipschandler.com.
CAPT. PETER WRIGHT, JR.
The Ships Chandler
646 E. Hwy 98
Destin, FL 32541
850-837-9306
www.theshipschandler.com
