Snook season has been good despite the excessive rain and dirty water we have had this summer. October is a great month for several inshore species. Snook, redfish, trout, tarpon, jacks sharks are all inshore, in the inlet and near shore along the beaches.
The mullet run is heating up and looks to be strong the beginning of October. The first north wind of the season came in mid-September and started the push of bait outside and to the south and with the mullet come tarpon, sharks, jacks, bluefish and mackerel.
Anglers fishing the inlet day and night will be able to get slot and over slot snook, big redfish, jacks and grouper on mullet as well live pinfish, pigfish, mojarra and croakers. Anglers can also use the usual bucktails, Rapala XRap 14 and Hogy eels for some really good action during the night.
If the east and northeast winds stay light, anglers can fish the beaches for tarpon, sharks, big jacks, snook, bonito and both king and Spanish mackerel will be mixed in the mullet schools and all along the beaches. Live bait, Hogy paddletails and eels on 2 ounce jigheads, XRap 14 and DOA Baitbusters will account for a lot of fish caught along the beaches from Vero Beach to Melbourne.
Key in on the bait pods and work them hard. If the fish aren’t blasting the schools, move outside and work away from the schools and try to get the fish to feed outside.
If the winds stay up and you can’t fish the beaches, key in on the creeks from Sebastian to Melbourne for tarpon, snook, jacks and sharks. The tarpon are normally bigger than average in the creeks during the month of October. Look for tarpon rolling and fish live finger mullet or greenies on a 5 to 7/0 VMC circle hook and 40lb fluorocarbon leader depending on the size of the fish. Anglers fishing artificial baits can use DOA Terror Eyz and Baitbusters on light tackle and 40lb fluoro leader. Fish the docks and shorelines in all of the creeks with Rapala Skitterwalks, live finger mullet or DOA shrimp with 30lb braid and 40lb leader to have a good shot at big snook as well as tarpon, jacks and possibly some big redfish.
October in the IRL is one of my favorite months to fish using Rapala Skitterwalks and the XRap Pop around the shorelines loaded with bait from Sebastian to Melbourne. The grass is coming back in many areas and the bait pods and predators will stay around the grass. Anglers can target snook, gator trout and slot sized reds on topwater throughout the month of October and should be able to catch some good flounder and the aforementioned species on soft plastics worked slow on the bottom!
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