By Capt. Nate Wheeler
Summer is over! As much as I love the heat, calm winds, and deep offshore adventures, it does feel really good right now. October was a whacky month. There were some late summer storms that produced some major rain. Under those conditions it made it quite difficult to target the “glory” fish such as bonefish and permit on the flats. Instead of forcing the issue, I took the opportunity to scoop up some live bait and fish some of the creeks and mangroves in the area with excellent results. Small tarpon were biting very well. A few little snook decided to pop out. Plenty of big mangrove snapper filled our coolers for a tasty dinner.
Offshore was quite interesting. A really good color change produced a couple nice early season sailfish. Further offshore slammer dolphin in the 15-35lb range were everywhere. Really strong currents made it impossible to fish the deep wrecks, but the reef was really good. Some very nice grouper were very cooperative.
November is here and is always one of my favorite months to fish. Colder weather creates a major push of bait down the Florida Keys and totally switches things around from typical summer methods. Fishing right on top of the reef in 20-40 ft of water will produce some very big yellowtail snappers that would normally be caught much deeper. Large schools of ballyhoo pushing down the reef has many hungry followers. Groupers and large mutton snappers will often swim off the bottom and strike ballyhoo right off the surface. Putting a flat line with a live ballyhoo out will often set yourself up to get lucky. After you get your fill of bottom fishing, either throwing a net or taking time and hair hooking a few nice baits and move off the edge. Drifting live ballyhoo off the reef line will usually produce a sailfish or nice tuna.
If you don’t care to run far from land, there is some great opportunity inshore. Mangrove snappers have moved off their spawning grounds on the reef and are now prowling around the “mangroves”. Setting up current of a nice mangrove island with deep undercuts under the trees and drifting live baits down the edge will always produce something. Redfish and snook may end up on your hook as well. Local bridges will also hold a lot of fish. Sometimes going at night will produce larger snappers and often some small tarpon.
Captain Nate Wheeler
Waypoint Fishing Charters
(305) 394-2177
www.waypointfishing.net
captnatewheeler@aol.com