G et yourselves ready for some of the finest fishing of the year, it’s OCTOBER! The days are becoming shorter and the evenings are certainly cooling off earlier. These conditions alone will improve the disposition of our local game fish. To be clear, the fishing this summer was very good most of the time. However, October typically offers better and more consistent feeding activity from our stocks of redfish, spotted seatrout and even black drum.
I fully expect the late summer algae bloom that turned the extreme south end of the lagoon into a pool of chocolate milk to have run its course and become reasonably clear. Once this happens expect the fishing south of the Haulover Canal to boom again!
If water levels rise as is normal expect many redfish and black drum to scatter across flats previously too shallow to fish while others begin marauding along mainland and island shorelines. In either scenario the predators are searching for food items which have been off limits to them during summer’s low water levels. Typically the shoreline fish are searching for fiddler crabs, small blue crabs or mangrove crabs against the island banks or mud minnows which school along the same areas.
Using a Z Man three inch Minnowz in a dark color easily imitates a mud minnow and their two inch Crusteaz is a good enough representation of a crab to do the job. I use Mission Fishin’ weedless jig heads for both of these soft plastics.
Don’t forget the fall silver mullet run is in full swing and the predators will be devouring them. Top-water plugs are my favorite way to imitate these critters though sub-surface hard baits often work better if you’re in deep enough water to make them effective.
Don’t leave home without a spoon or two. While the basic gold color is a favorite the mullet and pinfish patterns from Aqua Dream are very good options and all of our game fish will readily eat them!