When water temperatures cool, both cobia and tripletail will begin showing up on the Port Canaveral Buoy line and on flotsam, both near-shore and offshore. When sight fishing tripletail under flotsam try fishing a jig tipped with a live shrimp hooked through the tail from underneath and if you’re dropping jigs around the buoys, use the same setup but switch out to a one-ounce jig head. For the fluorocarbon leader, try tying on the same length leader as the fish you’re targeting – this will translate to fewer breakoffs.
As water levels drop on the lagoons both redfish and sea trout will begin their transition from fin fish (mullet) to crab and shrimp, so start looking for more tailing fish to appear. In October, the predators are swimming around looking to fatten up during the fall mullet run. Now with the number of mullet waning in November, the trout and reds will be spending more time digging through the sea grass. With that said, think about matching the hatch when selecting your lures or bait.
November is also one of the best months to target snook at Sebastian Inlet. In addition, large flounder and oversized redfish have begun to show up on the Port Canaveral buoy line and in the inlets of Ponce De Leon and Sebastian, and their numbers will increase as the flounder begin their seaward migration out of the lagoon. When targeting flounder around the inlets, I use the same setup I used for tripletail, only drifted slowly bouncing the shrimp tipped jig along the bottom in sandy areas. When you’re in current use enough weight to hold the bottom and keep the leader short, maybe 10-12 inches keeping the bait near the bottom where the flounder can get their easy meal.
