By: Capt Roan zumFelde
The year is flying by! Happy Thanksgiving to all and wow, Christmas is around the corner. Don’t wait too long to get that Christmas shopping done; we have some wonderful stocking stuffers at the shop. This is usually a great month for most species, fresh and salt. I Love Lake Fishing this month! All the lakes in Florida should be on fire with the transition to cooler water temps. Canals should be getting better as long as the water is dropping and the fish start transitioning into the main canals and not still out on the marshes.
We are going to start out on Lake Trafford this month. Ski Oleski, at Trafford Marine, believes this is one of the best months of the year to fish on Trafford. Bass fishing should be in full swing and the bite will happen on the top. Flipping and pitching creature baits will be good in midday, but the mornings and the evenings belong to top waters. I especially like the oldies, like Devils Horse and Bangolures, something with a prop. Smaller Zara Spooks in the evening work well also. Fly fishing the lake this month will also be excellent. Small foam popping bugs and muddlers in white and yellow should wreck them. I also like to throw my HJB around heavy cover and swim it out into the open water for the larger bass. Make sure you are using a minimum of a 20# class leader and a 7 or 8 weight fly rod when fly fishing, you never know when the lunker of a lifetime will be lurking close by.
Okeechobee Water levels should be prime for this month for just about all types of fishing from top waters to flipping and pitching and of course the always fall back pattern live shiners. If there was one of the better months to fish a fly on the lake this would be one of them. Big patterns on larger rods like eight or even nine weights with big poppers or HJB’s or Stealth Bombers should be in your Arsenal. MUST HAVE WEEDGUARD!
The Everglades Canals will also be a tough one to forecast ahead. They are heavily dependent on how much water each has outside of the canals. What that means is; if the water is still deep in the marshes adjacent to the canals then the fish will not be as concentrated in the canals as they should be. There will still be fish in the main canal, but they will be much harder to get a lure in front of because they will be much further back into heavy cover. All the canals along I-75 should be getting very good as long as the water is receding into the canal system. Flipping and pitching worms are always the best baits, but you can catch them on just about anything in these canals. I mostly fly fish and small poppers are the ticket for bass, but if you want to target more cichlids then I like small Wooley Buggers especially those with weight in the head. My Fly of the Month for October was the Sparkle Crab which is one of my favorites for the canals for everything that swims.
Come visit Mike and me at Mike’s Bait house and Indian Pass Outfitters on Danford Street, next to Bayview Park in Naples and we can talk fishing. We carry a full line of tackle including: fly fishing needs and both saltwater and freshwater gear, food, drink, and bait. Thanks, and good fishing. Roan z