By Capt. Patrick Smith, Contributing Writer
October is here and so are the mullet! Visually, there might not be a better time to be on the water. Sharks, snook, tarpon, and jacks will all be feasting on big schools of bait, and with some patience and a simple rig you can wind up hooked to a giant. I prefer a medium or heavy spinner loaded with 65lb braid tied to a 4ft piece of 60-100lb mono/fluoro and finished off with an 8/0 circle hook. Mullet schools will be on the beach and on the inside so finding bait should be nice and easy.
Once you have netted a few they can be bump trolled or fished on the outside of the schools.
Another good tactic is to fish one on a weight under the school to make it stand out from the rest.
If fishing to eat is your thing, tipped jigs will be producing snappers, drum, croakers, snook, and lots of other lower column feeders.
In freshwater, the peacock bass fishing is going to be amazing. Water temps are dropping, and fish will be in full feed mode. Topwater, jerkbaits, and shiners will all keep you tight. Largemouth fishing should also be good with bass being mixed in and competing for food with the peacocks.