by Capt. Rachel Cato
Nothing ever stays the same. This month change may happen every day depend upon cold fronts and air temperature. Early in the month you will continue to catch white bait and fish the flats, open water grass flats and mangrove shorelines until cold fronts start moving south through our area. With each cold front water temperature will start to drop steadily and the closer you get to 70 you are more likely to need live shrimp instead of whitebait. Due to lower temperatures, the fish’s metabolism will start to slow and they will not exert the energy it takes to chase down a whitebait as opposed to picking up a live shrimp. I tend to move with temperature change so as it starts to drop I move into the rivers or residential canals. As long as the water temperature is still warm and the cold fronts haven’t blown down fish will be still hanging out in the shallower water and open bay, but as soon as cold front start coming through and dropping water temperature the fish start automatically move up rivers and into warmer residential canals.
Sheepshead is a common fish to be caught in the winter simply due to fishing with shrimp not to say they aren’t around throughout the year but the schools are much larger and thicker in the winter. Most common areas to fish for Sheepshead are hard structure, bridges, Reeves, docs and see walls.
Black drum population has increased over the years. Many people consider black drum to be inedible because of worms found in the meat. I have cleaned numbers of black drum and yet to find any worms in their meat so perhaps it’s in the larger fish and not in the 15 to 26-inch range.
As the water temperature drops and I start fishing more docks, rivers and canals I prefer two cast large live shrimp on a weighted #1 Owner mutu light circle hook and will catch red fish, black drum, sheepshead, and snook.
I’ll be giving two seminars at the Sarasota boat show on Saturday, November 4th, please be sure to stop by and say hello!
Captain Rachel Cato has been a fishing guide out of Palmetto since 2005. She is on the pro staff with Evinrude through Gulf Coast Marine in Port Charlotte and specializes in catching many species year-round with live bait for up to 6 anglers. To book your next fishing adventure call (941) 524-9664, go to captainrachel.com, or find her on Facebook at CaptainRachelCharters.