By: Capt. Roanz and Capt. Rich A.
Welcome to the world of Reel Nautical Jigs. This month, we are highlighting one of our favorite jigs, the tried-and-true Bucktail. Of course, ours is kicked up about 5 notches over other bucktails, we call it the Buck and Bunny. They are available in three sizes from 1/8 to 3/8 and 5 great colors, using only the best of all-natural materials, and they all have oversized hologram eyes. They are all durable and we encapsulate all the heads, so they are chip resistant.
The list of species we catch on Buck and Bunnies is long, everything that swims in salt and freshwater eats bucktails. Two dear to my heart species, snook and redfish, and November is a great month for both species in most of Florida, however, we will be mainly focusing on the Southwest Florida area from Naples, Marco, Ten Thousand Islands, Everglades up to Charlotte Harbor. You will find snook inhabiting the passes to the backcountry creeks this month as they will be following bait concentrations and filtering in from the outside and heading up the back-country creeks for winter habitats. Mangrove shorelines with deeper edges will be holding numbers especially if close to shallow mud flats where they can sun themselves after a cool night if need be. Snook will be in any heavily concentrated bait areas like passes and river mouths. Night fishing can be excellent at this time of the year around lighted dock seawalls and riprap edges. Favorite buck and bunny is always white, but black in the deeper creeks works well. Redfish will be inhabiting some of the same places as the snook, especially on the deeper mangrove edges. Additionally, throw in large sand flats grass flats and oyster bars. Most of the reds will be in bays not too far from the open gulf, especially where there is good tidal flow and change from hard bottom to muddy bottoms. This is also a good month to find reds in some of the snook lights around docks, do not be surprised! I Love this time of the year to go skinny and sight fish reds on the low falling and low rising tides when they will be pushing up back out of the water crawling on the mud flats. Our 1/8-ounce Buck & Bunny really works well, and we have a blue crab brown that is the perfect color. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, see you in December.!
We hope this little article gets you motivated to get out and get fishing and if you are so inclined please check out Reel Nautical Jigs either on line or at your local tackle shop, Marco Bait and Tackle, Mikes Bait House in Naples. Rio Villa in Punta Gorda, or visit us online at www.reelnautical.net or email: reelnautical239@gmail.com