By Capt. Jamie Thrappas, Yellow Dawg Fishing
November brings some much needed relief to the heat we experienced all year but the fishing doesn’t cool off. The bull redfish bite will continue at the inlet and if you mix up the bait you’re presenting this will continue through Thanksgiving.
I typically switch from live mullet and croakers to cut bait (ladyfish, bluefish, jacks) and then my go to in November is halved blue crab. I feel as if the fish start to snub the mullet and other bait fish as they have been eating on them all fall. The snook bite in early November is usually on fire as well. I catch them all year on live baitfish but in the fall drifting select shrimp with a long leader and a pinch weight or a small jig head seems to produce the most hookups. I also like throwing larger paddle tails like a 5″ when I am marking fish but can’t get them to eat live bait, there’s something about snook if you rip an artificial past them enough they will just finally give into that reaction bite! I also like using 20-25# fluorocarbon for snook vs 30-40# I use it for the redfish. The biggest thing to remember in snook fishing is to change your leader after each fish as they will tear it up and you don’t want to lose the next bite!
November also means the start of winter fishing for sheepshead and black drum for us around the inlet. I like using blue crab for these big uglies the same way I target bull reds. Most people don’t realize that black drum is much better table fare in my opinion than red drum so if it’s dinner you’re after give them a shot. As always if you see us on the water say yellow and if you’d like to see what our fishery is all about here in central east coast Florida give us a call to set up your trip!
