by Capt. Philip Watson
October is the start of one of my favorite fishing patterns, as the water is cooling, the offshore bait is moving, and the fish are getting fat for the winter. You will also start to see wrecks and springs stack up with kingfish and black fin tuna, shallow ledges fill up with grouper and snapper, and the hogfish start to really eat. In October you will typically see a beautiful weather pattern of blue skies and calm seas right before the cold fronts start to ramp up. This perfect combination will allow for perfect fishing days, targeting multiple fish species.
Our adventure for this month is with my good friends of What the Fin Apparel, Keaton Hinze and Drew Horton. The original plan was to run 60+ miles for gags and monster gags, but the weather wasn’t letting us. So, we waited for some weather to pass and pushed out about 25 miles to a couple wrecks. Unfortunately, that spot was loaded with sharks and every grouper or snapper that was hooked was immediately eaten. The tax man was out in full force! We were able to catch a couple yellowtail snapper, bonito, and bar jacks in between shark feedings; we weren’t going to let them ruin our good time. We also hooked up to a couple jumbo sized lemon sharks and a goliath grouper who put up a good fight.
Our next spot was at a few 6’-8’ ledges that typically hold some fun sized amberjacks. We started with the bottom bite, reeling in the mangos and yellowtails, and eventually the AJ’s started to rise as well. We started free-lining pinfish on jig heads with 60lb fluorocarbon leaders and they were loving it. Every bait sent back was eaten, from pinfish to squirrelfish. We ended up having one of those days where you run out of bait! At one point in the day, we had the amberjacks so thick under the boat that Keaton jumped in to film some of the underwater action. Lastly, we stopped on a piece of hard bottom to try and pull up a red grouper or two and ended up catching a couple of lanes, vermilions, and porgies. Thankfully we ended with a bang, as the weather turned again, and we had to quickly pull anchor and head home. Great friends and good fishing made an excellent day of fishing.
