By: Capt. Billy Norris
Cooler temperatures mean cooler water, and along with the change in the weather comes a change in the fishing! It is time to say goodbye to our summertime staples like snook, tarpon, and other warm water-loving fish until spring and bust out the gear for our wintertime favorites, namely cobia, grouper and kingfish!
The backwater bite has remained steady over the past month. Snook, trout, redfish and jacks have been the stars of the show. Over the past month there has been a seemingly unlimited amount of bait along the beaches and passes. Mixed schools of pilchards and threadfin herring have been plentiful, and it hasn’t been uncommon to black out two live wells with only one or two castnet throws. All of the backwater fish just mentioned will readily take either pilchards or threads, but if you can’t throw a net, you can always pick up some shrimp at your local tackle shop. As the water continues to cool, we should see some wintertime regulars show up in the backwaters as well. Sheepshead and pompano will soon make their appearance in our local waters, both of which make excellent table fare. As we continue to get cold fronts, the snook and jacks will push farther up into the backwaters, eventually making their ways into the rivers. The Cocohatchee, Imperial and Estero Rivers all will produce solid fish throughout the winter, just ensure you check the tides. Our area has seen some extremely low tides lately, so proper planning is a must.
The offshore bite has also been solid this past month. The bottom has been producing some big upper-slot and over-slot snook. For bait of choice, either cut bait or live threadfins has been my go-to. There have also been some beautiful grouper coming onboard. The gag grouper bite has been particularly hot, with some extra-large size fish being landed. There are plenty of gags around, however, the state has closed the season all year except from September 1-15, so unfortunately putting a gag on your plate is two-week a year occasion nowadays. The snapper bite has also been great, and we’ve been filling the coolers with a mix of mangroves, lanes and yellowtail. Jewfish have just finished their fall spawn, so they will be heading back to deeper waters, but we did manage to put a number of them alongside the boat while they were here. And the long-anticipated cobia arrival has begun! We have been catching some beautiful fish, and there have been schools of cobia cruising up and down out coastline.
For this upcoming month, we’ll start to switch our tactics up to target the wintertime pelagic fish. The schools of spanish mackerel and bonitos have already showed up in numbers, which means the kingfish are not far behind. When looking for pelagic schools, turn your eyes to the sky and try to spot heavy bird activity. Terns, gulls and frigates are a key indicator of pelagic species feeding. For kingfish, I prefer to use herring or blue runners, but they can also be caught trolling artificials. Once the kingfish show up, the big sharks won’t be far behind, so if you want to try your strength against bulls, tigers, sandbars and more, bust out the big gear and start slinging big baits in areas with a lot of fish activity.
The fishing this past month has been great and should only get better as the water cools and we get a good baseline established. Again, remember that the wintertime has more unpredictable weather, seas, and extreme tides, so make sure that your planning is done adequately. The weather is beautiful and the fish are biting, so give us a call if you’d like to get out on the water and knock some fish off of your bucket list!